Positive Memory Bank - Berry Street

5. Giving Rounds
During the planning phase of the project,
before the Positive Memory Bank had been
launched, consideration was given to the
idea of an ‘open’ application process in
which no deadlines would be imposed and
applications would be welcome at any time.
Giving Rounds would take place at regular
intervals, with short periods between each
round, which would potentially result in up
to eight rounds each year. This approach
was recommended to avoid the last minute
rush that tends to take place when there are
cut off times for applications. In practice,
this was not adequately planned out to
enable it to be established effectively.
Instead four Giving Rounds were scheduled
for the twelve-month period. No restrictions
were placed on the amount of funding that
could be distributed in each round, in part
because the first round saw such a small
proportion of the funds requested. The
Giving Group was concerned that there
would not be the demand anticipated, and
that the PMB would not, in fact, be able to
distribute the funds it had been granted.
With this concern in mind, in many cases
during the first and second rounds of giving,
several applicants were granted a larger
amount than they had requested. For
example, a nineteen-year-old young man
applied for funds to purchase a suit, a shirt
and some good shoes to be able to attend
his brother’s wedding. He requested just
over $300 and included information about
suits and shoes that he had seen at local
low-cost shops. The Giving Group
appreciated his budgeting skills, but also
wanted him to be able to purchase a better
quality suit and shoes and so they granted
him $500.
In another example a group applied to be
able to travel from a rural region to a
Melbourne skate park. The Giving Group
provided additional funds in order to ensure
that they could purchase snacks and get
lockers at the skate park.
A framework for assessing applications was
developed for use by the Giving Group
(Appendix 7). This framework required the
Giving Group to grade each application
against the selection criteria (assessing to
what extent the opportunity was: fun;
something other kids might do; enabled a
sense of achievement; connected them to
family; and/or provided the resources to do
these things).
In the early Giving Rounds the grading had
very little impact on the discussions. With so
few applications the already flexible funding
criteria easily lent themselves to a relatively
loose interpretation. However, the ability to
compare applications across common
measures became integral to the process in
the final round when the Giving Group was
faced with such a large number of
applications and comparatively little money
to distribute.
There was some discomfort among Giving
Group members at translating applications
into scales to assess them. While they were
unable to articulate an alternative approach
they felt the assessment process reduced
the otherwise heartfelt applications to a set
of numbers.
5.1 Giving Group
The Giving Group was intended to be a
representative group of up to six staff from
across Berry Street groups, programs and
service areas, and four young people from
Berry Street programs. To enable this
diversity, and to avoid having to re-educate
each new group as to the process for
assessment and the purpose of the Giving
Group, a core group of four permanent
members was recruited via nomination.
It was initially proposed that two young
people would be invited each time from the
Berry Street Youth Advisory Group (YAG),
which was in existence at the time. The
final two staff and two young people would
be invited from the pool of previous
applicants once one Giving Round had been
completed. Application forms were adapted
to include the opportunity for young people
to indicate their interest in being part of the
Giving Group.
In practice the model was not well thought
through and after the first round several
faults were noted.
The involvement of two young people in the
first Giving Round was of great benefit to
the process itself in providing a youth
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