Reaching Out: Supporting Families Questions and Answers

Reaching Out: Supporting Families
Questions and Answers
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What is Reaching Out: Supporting Families?
What geographical area does Supporting Families cover?
What is the aim of the programme?
What is a family?
What are the outcomes you expect from this programme?
What type of projects will the programme support?
Will projects be expected to complement existing Government
policies and strategies?
Who can apply to Supporting Families?
What information do you need about our partnership?
How much money can we apply for?
What costs can be included in an application?
What is the application process?
If our application is unsuccessful, how soon can we re-apply?
Are there any closing dates for applications?
Can I apply more than once to Supporting Families?
Will there be any development and support provided for grant
holders?
Will you require grant holders to monitor and evidence the impact
of their project?
Who can I contact for more information about Supporting Families?
1. What is Reaching Out: Supporting Families?
Supporting Families is a revenue focused grants programme delivered
and funded by Big Lottery Fund Northern Ireland.
2. What geographical area does Supporting Families cover?
The people who will benefit from Supporting Families must live in
Northern Ireland.
3. What is the aim of the programme?
To support families in Northern Ireland to improve their children’s lives
by building strong and nurturing relationships.
4. What is a family?
For this programme, we are defining childhood as pre-birth up to the
age of 12. By families we mean children and their parents or carers, as
well as wider family members, such as grandparents and siblings.
5. What are the outcomes you expect from this programme?
We want the projects that we fund to have a measurable impact on
families with children under the age of 12. Specifically, we want all
funded projects to make the following changes, which we refer to as
our programme outcomes:
More families will have greater skills, knowledge and
understanding to overcome adversity
More children and their families will come together and learn
More children and their families will be part of the community
that they live in
Successful applicants will demonstrate that their project will meet all
three programme outcomes.
6. What type of projects will the programme support?
We want the projects we fund to connect with and add value to
existing work helping children and their families.
We expect the projects we fund to help families facing challenges such
as separation, absence of a key family member, poverty, substance
abuse, disability, social isolation, homelessness, physical and/or
emotional abuse.
Our funding will support a wide range of activities such as getting
parents more involved in their children’s learning, reducing family
isolation from the wider community, and strengthening family
relationships and communication.
We can only fund projects that will be delivered in Northern Ireland.
7. Will projects be expected to complement existing Government
policies and strategies?
To be successful it’s important that the projects we fund understand
and complement the range of relevant strategies in Northern Ireland.
These include:
Families Matter: Supporting Families in Northern Ireland
Improving Children’s Life Chances: The Child Poverty Strategy
Care Matters in Northern Ireland – A Bridge to a Better Future
Our Children and Young People – Our Pledge 2006- 2016
NI Children and Young People’s Plan 2011-2014
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
8. Who can apply to Supporting Families?
We will only accept applications from organisations working in
partnership. By working in partnership we mean working with other
organisations to plan and carry out your project. You might work with
organisations from another sector or organisations that have specialist
knowledge.
Only voluntary or community sector organisations may apply as the
lead organisation in a partnership. The lead organisation must be one
of the following:
unincorporated association, trust or company set up and
registered as a charity
unincorporated association set up as a voluntary and community
group
community interest company
not for profit company limited by guarantee
community benefit society
organisation recognised by HM Revenue and Customs as exempt
for tax purposes
Statutory and/or private organisations can be part of a partnership and
we strongly support and encourage working between different sectors.
More guidance on who can apply can be found in the Supporting
Families programme summary.
9. What information do you need about our partnership?
At stage one, we’ll expect you to tell us who your main partners will be,
their relevant experience and what they will deliver as part of your
project.
If you are awarded funding, you must have a written agreement with the
partner organisations which clearly explains each partner’s roles,
responsibilities and how you will be working together for the whole
project. This will be added as a term and condition to any offer we might
make.
10. How much money can we apply for?
We will make grants of between £500,000 and £ 700,000 for projects
running for five years.
Projects that are awarded funding and can provide evidence that they
are making an impact may receive additional funding for up to two years.
We will review this evidence when projects have been delivering for at
least three years.
11. What costs can be included in an application?
The costs of the project you want us to fund can include revenue,
capital and overhead costs.
Supporting Families is primarily a revenue programme although up to
£70,000 (inclusive of VAT) is available for capital funding related to
the project.
More detailed guidance on eligible costs can be found in the Supporting
Families programme summary.
12. What is the application process?
You will need to complete a stage one application and send it to us.
We will review it and send you a response within 20 working days. We
will tell you if you have been invited to submit a stage two application.
If invited to apply, you will have up to six months to complete the
application and send it back to us. If we don’t invite you to apply, we
will write to you to tell you why.
Being invited to submit a stage two application does not guarantee
that your project will be funded.
13. If our application is unsuccessful, how soon can we re-apply?
If your application is unsuccessful at any stage, you will have to wait
for two months before submitting a new stage one application.
14. Are there any closing dates for applications?
This programme will be open for applications for two years from 27
June 2013. Note that, 30 January 2015 is the final opportunity to send
us a stage one application and 30 June 2015 is the date the programme
will close to stage two applications.
If we invite you to submit a stage two application, you will have up to
6 months to send this to us. The later you leave it to submit a stage
one application the less time you will have to complete your
application if we invite you to stage two.
15. Can I apply more than once to Supporting Families?
Each lead organisation can only hold one grant from this programme
but could be involved in other projects as a partner. However, we will
consider the capacity of partners involved in multiple projects during
our assessment.
If you are unsuccessful at any stage, you will have to wait for two
months before submitting a new stage one application.
16. Will there be any development and support for grant holders?
We will be providing extra help and support for projects awarded
funding at stage two that will facilitate networking, encourage
learning and support the sharing of practice between projects and with
the wider stakeholder community.
17. Will you require grant holders to monitor and evidence the
impact of their project?
If you receive funding from this programme, we will expect you to
monitor the progress towards your outcomes during the life of the
grant. We also encourage you to monitor the performance of your
project as a whole. This will let you see whether your project is
working well and whether you need to make changes that will improve
your services. It will also assist you in reporting your progress to your
stakeholders. There is more information on measuring impact on our
website.
If we award you a grant it will be based on the outcomes that you said
you would achieve with our funding. We must monitor the projects we
fund to make sure they are meeting our terms and conditions and
delivering the outcomes we agreed together. For us to do this, you will
need to provide us with information at various points in the project.
18. Who can I contact for more information about Supporting
Families?
For further information, contact our Outreach team:
T: 028 9055 1455
F: 028 9055 1445
Textphone: 028 9055 1431
e-mail: enquiries.ni@biglotteryfund.org.uk
Information is also available on our website at
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk