20 August 2008

Youth InterACT Grants

| johnboy
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[First filed: August 20, 2008 @ 08:32]

Katy Gallagher has announced the happy recipients of some very small grants for worthy youth projects.

Each getting around $1,500 the winners are:

    Eden Daniels – Family Day

    Aron Walsh – Stromlo High Café

    Stephanie Levy – Save a Mate Chill Out Tent

    Elena Sione – Samoa Youth Culture and Traditions Awareness

    Melissa Aveyard – Young Stroke Survivors ACT

    Michael Bailey – The Hunting Season Launch Week

    Elysha McKay – Weston Creek Youth Festival

    Katie Cox – The Breakout Book

    Matthew Turnbull – Canberra Cup Water Polo Championships

    Michael Galluzzo – National Youth Reconciliation Conference

    Kacey Lam – Think Tank

Personally I’d be intrigued to know what the grant process cost compared to the disbursement of $16,200.

UPDATED: The ever charming Megan Purcell has been in touch to let us know that despite being initially left off the media release her application as President of the Tuggeranong Taipans Floorball club was successful.

As to the complexity of the grant process she had this to say:

    “On the topic of applications… To be honest I think it was probably more comprehensive than some others I have seen for amounts twenty times as much.”

RiotACT will, however, be following floorball and the Taipans as they progress.

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I have a lot of hope for yeboii.

: )

I think that, rather than just list the winners, it would be nice to have a paragraph or two about why they were awarded the grant. It is quite an achievement to do be successful in this kind of application, and it would better honour the work they have done.

I agree it is great to provide incentives for people to step outside their comfort zones, especially the youth (who are often so much better at it)! Hopefully the administration costs would be reasonable also.

i’d be thinking the cost of this would probably be in the vicinity of 5-10 grand (say 1000 for the staffers time thinking up the idea and designing selection criteria etc, 2-5 grand for publicity, eg flyers, info packs, posters to stick up at uni, newspaper ads etc, 1-2 grand for time spent working out a shortlist and investigating who should win and 2 grand for putting on a song an dance when giving out the awards, wine and cheese etc)

while that money’s still disappearing off into the ether; some of these projects would be well worth the investment. Besides isn’t it nice to read a good news story about local youth? compare and contrast these kids with yeboii for instance.

Mr Evil said :

I must admit to being a little cynical as to the possible worth of some of these programs, but as long as none of it is spent on interpretive dance, then I’m happy for the Govt to dish a few thousand out.

I thought the 2020 Summit was supposed to solve all these youth issues anyway???? 🙂

Actually in the right circumstances, people doing interpretive dance has been one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

I must admit to being a little cynical as to the possible worth of some of these programs, but as long as none of it is spent on interpretive dance, then I’m happy for the Govt to dish a few thousand out.

I thought the 2020 Summit was supposed to solve all these youth issues anyway???? 🙂

johnboy said :

A little more respect from both sides would make this discussion much more worthwhile for the rest of us.

Take that as a warning jakez. (and justbands could do with a deep breath and a count to 10 as well).

Fair enough.

justbands said :

I’m not arguing with you any further jakez. I’ve spoken to JB now about your personal insults & patronising tone. I’ll leave it at that.

I’m not going to shy away from pointing out the flaws in anyones argument and I expect nothing less from anyone else to me.

I look forward to this topic returning to a rational and interesting discussion of the issues raised.

Michael Galluzo (National Youth Reconciliation Conference) and Kacey Lam (think tank) are both involved in ANU Student politics. I wonder if these programs are for ANU or are personal projects. They both sound quite interesting.

I’m not sure about the Stromlo High Cafe though. Perhaps it’s a tool to teach business skills to the students?

A little more respect from both sides would make this discussion much more worthwhile for the rest of us.

Take that as a warning jakez. (and justbands could do with a deep breath and a count to 10 as well).

I’m not arguing with you any further jakez. I’ve spoken to JB now about your personal insults & patronising tone. I’ll leave it at that.

justbands said :

Don’t patronise me jakez. I’d suggest that for someone to form such a strong opinion on someone else based on one comment on an internet forum would have to be an idiot.

I love you too honey buns.

If you can ever come up with a justification for your reprehensively illogical statements, feel free to give me a call.

Don’t patronise me jakez. I’d suggest that for someone to form such a strong opinion on someone else based on one comment on an internet forum would have to be an idiot.

Overheard said :

jakez said :

Quite true. I was just using the arbitrary figure to extend the hypothetical hypothesis. (That’s either a tautlogical phrase or something to do with a triangle…)

I think you just ripped a hole in the space-time continuum.

justbands said :

> I believe it was a reasonable assumption about you and I haven’t had any evidence to the contrary yet.

True, true. I should have realised that one comment on RioTACT in regards to the admin costs to administer grants is now considered evidence of a blatent disregard for accounting for cost. My mistake.

& I still stand by my statement. What a wonderful world it would be when such schemes could be run without cost! When you find such a world, let me know.

You are right, I shouldn’t attack you personally. So instead I’ll simply say that your continual inability to comprehend both the meaning and lunacy of your own statement, is the height of idiocy, although I’m not calling you personally an idiot.

jakez said :

This goes out to everyone. I think some people are starting to think that the $50k is an actual figure. It’s an arbitrary hypothetical I picked out of the air to illustrate a point. As of yet, we don’t know how much this program costs.

Quite true. I was just using the arbitrary figure to extend the hypothetical hypothesis. (That’s either a tautlogical phrase or something to do with a triangle…)

> I believe it was a reasonable assumption about you and I haven’t had any evidence to the contrary yet.

True, true. I should have realised that one comment on RioTACT in regards to the admin costs to administer grants is now considered evidence of a blatent disregard for accounting for cost. My mistake.

& I still stand by my statement. What a wonderful world it would be when such schemes could be run without cost! When you find such a world, let me know.

justbands said :

Hey jakez…get fcuked you fcuking moron. How’s that feel? Keep your personal insults to yourself hey? Mods?

Anyway…you’re making some pretty big assumptions there, I have no “blatent disregard for accounting for cost”. I only pointed out that things cost money & that doesn’t mean it’s a waste.

Perhaps we could try arguing about facts & not assumptions.

Firstly, you swearing at me felt really great. Secondly, I believe it was a reasonable assumption about you and I haven’t had any evidence to the contrary yet. You included in black and white language, the costs as part of the rewards. I assure you I nearly fell off my chair when I read it.

This goes out to everyone. I think some people are starting to think that the $50k is an actual figure. It’s an arbitrary hypothetical I picked out of the air to illustrate a point. As of yet, we don’t know how much this program costs.

(sorry, you did point out it was only hypothetical)

> i think that the fact that the grants are outweighed by the admin cost is a bigger problem.

Sorry to be a pain on this point…but we don’t actually know that to be fact. For all we know the grants cost nothing to administer (unlikely, but as far as we know true!).

i think that the fact that the grants are outweighed by the admin cost is a bigger problem. the numbers should be the other way around. Even if this is hypothetical, $1500 per grant seems a bit light on, considering that these grants are for some pretty worthy causes and programs to do with ACT youth.

many grants for less worthy causes have been given out over the years by private enterprise, and not for small sums such as these.

Hey jakez…get fcuked you fcuking moron. How’s that feel? Keep your personal insults to yourself hey? Mods?

Anyway…you’re making some pretty big assumptions there, I have no “blatent disregard for accounting for cost”. I only pointed out that things cost money & that doesn’t mean it’s a waste.

Perhaps we could try arguing about facts & not assumptions.

Maybe could have been more efficiently administered, maybe not. I doubt that the recipients are that fussed about the administration cost.

I would venture (though couldn’t guarantee) that there would be more than $50k worth of intagible benefit that is generated from the conferring of the grants. Not that you could put a bucket at the end of it and objectively measure it, nor simply count up all the widgets and say, ‘There you go: $xxxx worth of benefit justifies the overheads’.

As a taxpayer, I think it’s a worthwhile investment in da youf.

Katie said :

I would be intersted in what the projects actually involve (specifically Stephanie Levy’s save a mate chill out tent), is this information available anywhere?

Yeah that would be some interesting information. I wonder if the proposals are (or will be) publically available. I’m interested in finding out more about Kacey Lam’s ‘think tank’.

justbands said :

> But because it’s not just your money being wasted you don’t give a shit.

Huh? Where did I say that? Things cost money, although I’d suspect that the staff member that runs this scheme also has many other duties & that costs are shared. I stick by my “it’s all an investment” statement though. Are you saying that we should only give grants to our youth if we can somehow magically do it without costing any money beyond the grants themselves? Can’t happen, won’t happen….ever.

Your blatant disregard for accounting for cost suggests that you care not for the money of others. If you spent $66k of your own money for something worth $16k I can only assume your attitude would be a lot different. Also I said from the beginning that it was a hypothetical number to illustrate a point, so don’t play that ‘oh you silly billy it’s shared costs’ line.

If you stick by your ‘it’s all an investment’ statement then you are a bloody fool. The youth get the $16k not the operation costs (COSTS!!!). I also never said that we should only do it if we can magically do it without ancilliary costs, I said (and this is a direct quote):

“When you do anything in your life you have to weigh the costs against the rewards and make a choice.”

I would be intersted in what the projects actually involve (specifically Stephanie Levy’s save a mate chill out tent), is this information available anywhere?

> But because it’s not just your money being wasted you don’t give a shit.

Huh? Where did I say that? Things cost money, although I’d suspect that the staff member that runs this scheme also has many other duties & that costs are shared. I stick by my “it’s all an investment” statement though. Are you saying that we should only give grants to our youth if we can somehow magically do it without costing any money beyond the grants themselves? Can’t happen, won’t happen….ever.

I’d be shocked if it really was that much, that would be outrageous.

A (hypothetical, admittedly) 75% overhead cost would be kind of ridiculous.
And would need some serious reporting and an independent audit.

justbands said :

> Also, I’m not sure you really understand johnboy’s question. He’s talking about the operating costs of the program. If they spend $16k on grants and $50k on administration, that’s not a good program, that’s a waste of money.

That’s a $66K investment in out youth (our future). If the program costs money to run, then it costs money to run.

No it’s not, it’s a $16k investment in our youth and a $50k investment in make work programs. When you do anything in your life you have to weigh the costs against the rewards and make a choice. I’m not saying it does cost $50k to run the program, I’m not saying the program is inefficient (I’m also not saying it isn’t inefficient), I’m merely putting forward a hypothetical to explain johnboys point, and a valid point it is.

If you spend $66k to give $16k to youth, you need to have a serious look at your costs. That’s the point. But because it’s not just your money being wasted you don’t give a shit.

I’m saying I’d have liked to have seen bigger grants given the pain and effort involved in any grants program.

For this kind of money they might have been better served with cake bakes.

> Also, I’m not sure you really understand johnboy’s question. He’s talking about the operating costs of the program. If they spend $16k on grants and $50k on administration, that’s not a good program, that’s a waste of money.

That’s a $66K investment in out youth (our future). If the program costs money to run, then it costs money to run.

It really would be a good thing if there was some kind of Program Performance Reporting against criteria made available for public inspection whenever there’s an announcement like this, especially around an election.

nik73 said :

Is the cost really an issue though? I don’t think so. It’s supporting and encouraging innovation and community spirit in our youth, which can only be a good thing, IMHO.

If I go out and buy a Kingswood for $50,000 that’s not a good thing. Of course cost matters.

Also, I’m not sure you really understand johnboy’s question. He’s talking about the operating costs of the program. If they spend $16k on grants and $50k on administration, that’s not a good program, that’s a waste of money.

Is the cost really an issue though? I don’t think so. It’s supporting and encouraging innovation and community spirit in our youth, which can only be a good thing, IMHO.

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