If your small business or not-for-profit organisation has experienced a decline in turnover as a result of COVID-19, you may be eligible for a small business recovery grant of between $500 and $3000.

This grant helps small businesses meet the costs of safely reopening or up-scaling operations. These expenses include, but are not limited to:

fit-out changes and temporary physical changes (for example, plastic barriers at checkouts)
staff training and counselling
business advice and continuity planning
cleaning products and additional cleaning services
additional equipment necessary to comply with social distancing or other public health measures
marketing, communications and advertising
digital solutions (for example, e-commerce or business websites).

Applications close 11:59pm Sunday 16 August 2020, to apply online visit Here

There are several Red Cross grants for our community members whose circumstances have been affected by the bushfires. The closing date for Red Cross grants has been extended to Tuesday, 30 June 2020.

Immediate assistance is available for our bushfire-affected community members who are in financial hardship. These cash grants are available:
👉Emergency grant for people who have lost their homes.
👉Injury grant for people who were hospitalised due to the fires.
👉Primary residence repair grant for home owners whose homes have been structurally damaged. Eligibility has also been extended to include destruction or damage to critical private water, septic and/or power infrastructure.
👉The former Rebuild grant for owner-occupiers to assist with early stages of rebuilding is now called the Reestablishment grant, and it has extended eligibility criteria. This grant offers $30,000 per household for home owner occupiers and $10,000 per household for people who were renting a home or whose primary place of residence was a caravan or mobile home.
ℹ️For more information and grant applications visit www.redcross.org.au/grants

☎️If you need help in applying for these grants, please contact Step by Step - Disaster Recovery Support Service. To access the Step by Step Recovery Support Service, please call 0417 298 832 or email stepbystep@gatewayfamilyservices.org.au

If COVID-19 restrictions are impacting your ability to provide the required information for a grant, you can also contact Red Cross on 1800 RED CROSS (1800 733 276) for assistance.

The program provides tailored mental health support to schools and early learning services affected by bushfires across Australia. Informed by placed-based and community-led principles, the Program empowers bushfire affected communities to lead their own recovery.

The Bushfire Response Program is offering Hawkesbury schools and early learning services a package of support comprising four primary elements:
• Contact Liaison Officers
• trauma training
• recovery planning
• support service mapping.

Contact Liaison Officers work with schools and early learning services to support the development of a recovery plan. An individually tailored recovery plan maps out and identifies short, medium and long-term activities to support recovery and promote resilience in each learning community. This Program allows for up to 18 months of support, but many plans will extend well beyond this period to allow for long-term recovery in communities.

The Bushfire Response Program is led by Beyond Blue in partnership with Early Childhood Australia, headspace and Emerging Minds. The Program is a part of Be You, Australia’s national mental health in education initiative funded by the Australian Government.

To find out more or register, visit https://beyou.edu.au/bushfire-response-program or email Contact Liaison Officer Paola Mercado via email PMercado@earlychildhood.org.au or call on 0497 900 087.

Landcare coordinators will:
👉 visit Bushfire affected properties to provide advice on post-fire land management and conservation
👉create and provide a support network to the community
👉 discuss what to look out for and explain how to support research such as notifying of a species you don’t recognise, logging wildlife sightings etc.
organise workshops that will cover:
➡️weed management
➡️erosion control
➡️soil management
➡️what to expect over the next six months in terms of recovery and new plants
➡️feral animal management such as fox management

Council staff will be in contact with bushfire affected residents over coming weeks about program participation.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Katherine Claire at Hawkesbury Local Landcare Network on ☎️4574 9601 or Council’s Bushfire Recovery Coordinator on ☎️4560 4444 to register for a site inspection to assess your eligibility.

The NSW Landcare Program is funded by the NSW Government and is supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

Small businesses in industries highly impacted by COVID-19 have more time to submit applications for up to $10,000 in Small Business Support Fund grants to help pay for unavoidable expenses.

The grants aim to help highly-impacted small businesses hibernate, with the criteria recently extended to provide support for eligible microbreweries, cellar doors and events and commercial vessel businesses.

The grants are also designed to allow small businesses to get access to help as quickly as possible and this extension aims to ensure that more businesses can help to cover utilities, rates and supplier costs.

The criteria for the Small Business Support Fund grants and online application form is available at www.service.nsw.gov.au/…/apply-small-business-covid-19-supp… Applications must be received by 11.59pm 30 June.

For more information about what other measures might be available, visit www.service.nsw.gov.au/covid-19 and use the assistance tool. To learn more about the NSW Government’s COVID-19 stimulus measures, visit www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19

Hawkesbury City Council understands that from time to time members of our community may experience financial difficulties and may require assistance in making payments.

Council is also committed to developing consistent, fair and effective policies and processes in regard to the management of debts owed to Council.

At its meeting on 28 April 2020, Council resolved to place a Draft Hardship, Pensioner Concession and Debt Recovery Policy on public exhibition for a period of 28 days and seek submissions from interested parties.

The policy is on public exhibition until Tuesday, 7 July 2020 and may be viewed via this link www.yourhawkesbury-yoursay.com.au/hardship-policy

The BizRebuild team are coming to the Hawkesbury with FREE business information and advice that will assist our local business who have been affected by the bushfires.

They are visiting the following locations;
St Albans - Wednesday, 10 June 2020
Bilpin - Thursday, 11 June 2020
Colo - Friday, 12 June 2020
☎️Call 1800 497 121 to make an appointment

The BizRebuild team will be able to assist you in the following ways;
👉Information on and assistance with navigating
the available COVID-19 and bushfire related
financial support for NSW businesses, such as
state and federal government administered grants,
loans and other available financial assistance
👉 One-on-one assistance with completing
application forms for COVID-19 and bushfire
related financial support applicable to NSW
businesses
👉More general business related information
and, where possible, putting businesses in touch
directly with external business specialists through
our network of business community members
after sessions
👉A dedicated mental health and trauma expert
for private and confidential counselling and support
ℹ️Visit www.bizrebuild.com.au for information

Bushfire-impacted dairy farmers, fruit growers and forestry businesses have up until Tuesday, 16 June 2020 to apply for Recovery Funding from the NSW Government.

The Recovery Funding includes ‘supply chain support’ grants that are available for activities such as:

👉clean up of damaged orchard equipment or replacing trees, trellises and netting
👉repair of vineyards directly damaged by bushfire, including site clean-up
👉beekeepers purchasing pollen, pollen substitutes or sugar to feed their hives
👉purchasing oyster spat to replace oysters killed due to ash or fireground run-off
👉re-establishing dairy pastures, herd rebuilding and buying or replacing lost fodder
👉haulage and storage of burnt forestry timber

For more details about the above grants, visit www.nsw.gov.au/bushfire-industry-recovery-package

Hawkesbury City Council are pleased to launch a tailored mentoring program to registered tourism businesses in the Hawkesbury. The program works one on one with businesses affected by recent events of bushfires, floods and COVID-19, to get them back on track with business tools to withstand crises in the future.

Ruth and Brian Schembri from Blueberry Hills on Comleroy Bed and Breakfast have recently signed up for the program. The Mayor came out to chat about the significant impact that the bushfires and COVID-19 has had on their business in the last 6 months and ways that this program will assist them.

To find out more and to join the program, please email City Design and Economic Development Manager Amanda Kearney via business@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au or call 4560 4444