At least seven of the grants target the LGBTIQ community.

Minus18, Australia’s largest youth driven organisation for LGBTIQ young people, received $7,500 to hold a Queer Formal at Petersham Town Hall. Minus18 has been providing young LGBTIQ people with social events and gatherings for the last 20 years. In the Inner West, more than 300 young people attended the last Formal.

Teneille Clerke, Minus18’s Event Coordinator, said the Queer Formal is a positive response to media attention surrounding secondary students not being allowed to take their same sex or gender diverse partner to their school formal.

The Formal “provides a safe, inclusive and celebratory space for young LGBTIQ people to feel comfortable expressing themselves in their identities,” Teneille said.

The Queer Formal will be held in February 2020.

Other successful grant applications included:

• $6,603 for Pollys March 2020 Dance, one of five dances to held in 2020. The March dance is part of the 2020 Mardi Gras festival
• $7,500 for Queer Screen to expand the Mardi Gras Film Festival in 2020 into the Inner West
• $7,500 for ‘Queer Skate Research Lab (QSRL)’, an experimental art project exploring radical ways skateboarding can be used to empower queer and gender non-conforming people
• $7,040 for ‘Irregular Fit DJ Workshops’, a free two-month capacity building program aimed at women and non-binary beginner and aspiring DJs from First Nations, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse, lower socioeconomic backgrounds and people with disabilities
• $6,500 for a Queer Lunar New Year Festival 2020
• $7,500 for The Heartland Project, a grass-roots, community-led pilot project addressing high levels of homelessness among LGBTIQA+ people seeking asylum

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said the projects funded under the Grants program aim to address local issues, promote social justice, enhance wellbeing and foster inclusion and social connection.

The grants are divided into Individual Artists, Living Arts, Heritage and History, Community Wellbeing, Environment and Recreation. Mayor Byrne said the grants enable the community to develop projects and programs that address local needs. “I congratulate all the recipients of the grants.

“I’ve seen for myself the amazing work that has been achieved by previous year’s grant winners. I can’t wait to see results from this year’s funded projects,” he said.