our grants

background

small grants program

Highways and Byways continues the work of the Missionary Sisters of Service (MSS) reaching out in hope and love to people socially and geographically isolated, strengthening community relationships and networks, developing leadership and empowering people to meet the challenges that confront them.

Since 1944 the MSS have travelled vast distances to reach people in all kinds of places and situations, and support those on the margins: geographically, culturally, spiritually, socially and economically.

Each year we provide small grants to community-led organisations for projects that address disadvantage and exclusion within towns and communities, especially in rural and regional Australia.

OUR theme and focus for OUR 2024 grants

Valuing Community Connections in an Ancient Land

Our 2024 Small Grants Program has now closed. Applications are currently being assessed and successful applicants will be notified in May 2024.

ELIGIBILITY & HOW TO APPLY

Please check back later in the year for information on our 2025 Small Grants Program.

Featured Grant Recipients

success stories

WADEYE ON THE MEND

Wadeye, Northern Territory There’s a patch of Wadeye, a remote outback town south-west of Darwin, that’s starting to look pretty good. Two years of weeds, abandoned car parts and town rubbish is disappearing. Slowly, the Thamarrurr Men’s Shed is re-emerging thanks to...

PRO HART WAY SHOWS NEW LIFE

Broken Hill, NSW Years of drought have taken a toll on the main roads into Broken Hill in NSW. A census found that more than 1,000 trees have died from 3,000 planted. But Pro Hart Way, the road from town to the airport is bucking the trend thanks to a handful of...

HELPING THE MAGIC HAPPEN

Ballarat, Victoria ‘Just put your hands in the dirt and let the magic happen’, is the advice Lou Ridsdale gives the young people at her workshop before they embark on making a mini-garden terrarium. She urges them to have fun, be creative and make something they love,...

A FOREST OF FOOD

Byron Bay, NSW Young people and community folk around Byron Bay are planting hundreds of trees and creating a fruit food forest. Importantly, they are also learning to improve their environment by nurturing the health of their garden through the use of worm farm...

CREATING GOOD WASTE

Kardinya, Western Australia Every home composter and backyard worm farmer has, at some stage, battled smells, bugs and heat. It can break the spirit of the keenest waste warriors and derail their efforts. And it’s the very reason the Kulungah Myah Community Centre in...

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

Drake, NSW (Bundjalung Country) Clare Urquhart knows only too well that small animals and birds, as well as human beings, need a place to call home. With support from Highways and Byways and the local community, dozens of wildlife nesting boxes have been built and...