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Facebook Groups Love the Bay BB, administered by Long Beach resident Marieke Janssenhas, and Let's talk mental health, administered by Moruya Heads resident Stacy Shepherd, have each been awarded a $10,000 grant, through Facebook Australia's Groups Fund.
Love the Bay BB will use its $10,000 to showcase the local business community.
Let's talk mental health was established to enhance mental health and assist those in fire or drought-affected communities to improve their health and wellbeing. The Group will use the $10,000 to organise an online group program, teaching participants different coping strategies to manage stress and anxiety, following the bushfires.
Facebook established the Fund to support the wellbeing of communities affected by drought, bushfires and COVID-19. The $500,000 Fund makes available grants up to the value of $10,000 to help grassroots initiatives that contribute directly to the relief and recovery of their local community.
Stacy Shepherd, Group Admin for Let's talk mental health said demand was high.
"We will be using the Facebook grant to run an online group focusing on helping individuals in our local community and beyond who have been impacted by the recent bushfires and now COVID-19 to learn coping strategies for managing their mental health and mood," she said.
"Our organisation has been inundated with referrals for individual psychological support post-bushfires and COVID-19 - having access to this grant means that we will be able to offer a free online group so that we can support more of our community, particularly those that have been financially disadvantaged who would otherwise have difficulty affording individual therapeutic supports."
Love the Bay BB Group stated: "Love the Bay has really made a difference to the morale of our community during and after both the bushfire crisis (and now the COVID-19 situation as well). On top of that, the newly introduced Love the Bay Gift Card has already injected over $52,000 in our small local business community!"