First Frozen Funds Trust Grants Awarded

News Release 6 October 2008

First Frozen Funds Trust Grants Awarded
10 Organisations Receive Funding Of $291,125

Ten organisations running projects for people with an intellectual disability or a psychological condition have received funding totalling $291,125 from the Frozen Funds Charitable Trust’s first grants round, it was announced today.

The purpose of the Frozen Funds Charitable Trust is to provide grants for projects run by and for people who use mental health or intellectual disability services. The focus for the 2008 grants round was for projects that will raise public awareness of the legacy of institutionalisation.

Frozen Funds Charitable Trust chair Mary O’Hagan says, “The trust board is very pleased to award the trust’s first grants to these 10 organisations. We received 81 expressions of interest for funding and the board had the very difficult task of narrowing this down to ask 22 organisations to make full funding requests. The successful 10 organisations made impressive applications for a variety of projects ranging from a collaboration of memories of institutionalisation to funding help for a forthcoming conference for former patients to tell their stories publicly.

The 10 organisations receiving funding from the Frozen Funds Charitable Trust in 2008 are:
• Artsenta Creative Arts Trust (Dunedin) - $5,000
• Bo Ai She-Chinese Mental Health Consumer Self-Supporting Organisation (Auckland) - $8,000
• Otago Mental Health Support Trust (Dunedin) - $6,000
• Te Roopu Pookai Taaniwhaniwha Inc (Porirua) - $35,000
• The Lighthouse Trust (Napier) - $90,000
• Toi Ora Live Art Trust (Auckland) $12,000
• Interacting Theatres (Auckland) - $10,125
• National Residential Intellectual Disability Providers (Nelson) - $10,000
• People First NZ (Wellington) - $90,000
• Spectrum Care Trust Board (Auckland) - $25,000

‘Frozen Funds’ was the name given to the interest on patients’ welfare benefits paid into psychiatric and psychopaedic hospital trust accounts in the 1970s and 1980s.The interest money was kept by the institutions to fund such things as recreational projects. In 1987, this practice ceased and the interest money was taken from the hospitals for payment to the people who owned it. Over half the interest money was returned to its owners in the early 1990s.

The government then decided that the unclaimed balance of the funds should benefit people who used mental health and intellectual disability services, and a charitable trust was established. For a number of years, Public Trust worked with stakeholders in the mental health and intellectual disability sectors to develop the Trust Deed, which was signed off by the Government in 2006. Trustees were appointed in 2007. Public Trust provides administration and investment services to the Frozen Funds trust board, and acts as trustee of the funds. The Frozen Funds Charitable Trust was formally launched in February 2008 by Minister for Disability Issues, the Hon Ruth Dyson.

Expressions of interest for the 2009 grants round must be submitted by any eligible organisation before 31 March 2009. Expression of interest forms can be downloaded from www.frozenfunds.co.nz or obtained from Cheryl Mennie, Public Trust Special Business, Public Trust, PO Box 5067, Wellington or phone 04 978 4558 or 0800 371 471.

ENDS

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