In 2026, the Give Where You Live Foundation’s Social Innovation Lab turned its focus to one of our region’s most urgent challenges; homelessness.
Guided by insights from our Home Truths research, we brought together people with lived experience, frontline organisations, government and community leaders to explore the root causes of homelessness and identify innovative solutions that can create lasting change.
To help bring these ideas to life, the Foundation launched its Innovation Fund, investing $150,000 into two projects over the next 12 months.
The Give Where You Live Foundation is proud to have granted $50,000 for one of those projects to Meli’s The Geelong Project.
The Geelong Project (TGP) will develop a youth homelessness prevention initiative focused on the concept of “Belonging Before Crisis.” This project seeks to strengthen early intervention responses for young people at risk of homelessness by exploring belonging and connection as key protective factors within school communities.
The project builds on TGP’s existing place-based, early intervention model operating across seven Geelong secondary schools, which identifies and supports young people experiencing early signs of disengagement, family breakdown or homelessness risk before crisis escalates.
This initiative will utilise lived experience engagement, focus groups with young people and parents/carers, stakeholder consultation and evidence review processes to test how schools can strengthen belonging, trusted relationships and family connection to improve long-term outcomes.
The approach aligns strongly with the Social Innovation Lab’s systems change and learning framework, with a focus on co-design, early intervention, continuous learning and evidence-informed practice. Findings from the project are intended to inform future service innovation, strengthen prevention-focused responses and contribute to broader system improvements across youth, education and homelessness sectors.