Care Experienced Young People Programme

Rights and Equalities

Introduction

The Life Changes Trust was established in April 2013 with a ten year £50 million endowment from the Big Lottery Fund, to create transformational change in the lives of care experienced young people (14-26 year olds) and people affected by dementia and their carers.

The Care Experienced Young People Programme has five key priority areas:

  1. Care experienced young people are loved, respected, valued and listened to (Voice)
  2. Care experienced young people are in safe and settled accommodation (Home)
  3. Care experienced young people get help and support where and when they need it (Relationships)
  4. Care experienced young people have improved opportunities to access education, training and employment (Choices and Opportunities)
  5. Care experienced young people have improved health and wellbeing (Health)

Priority one, which focuses on the voice of young people, underpins the programme and is central to all of our funding awards.

Protected characteristics

All of the Trust’s funding awards aim to benefit the full diversity of young people who are currently part of the care system or who have a background in the system.

This includes young people who are or have been looked after at home, in secure care, in foster care, in kinship care, or in residential care.

However, care experienced young people who, under the Equality Act 2010, have protected characteristics are currently under-represented as beneficiaries within our Programme.

This year, we launched a new small grants scheme called Empowerment Grants, designed to support projects which target care experienced young people who may face additional disadvantage due to protected characteristics, experience of youth justice, homelessness or mental health issues.

These young people are sometimes referred to as “hard to reach”. We prefer to use the term “quieter voices”.

Expressions of interest

Following the first round of Empowerment Grants, we have approved 17 applications for funding. We have subsequently identified funding gaps in relation to care experienced young people who may experience disadvantage due to:

  • sexual orientation/gender reassignment
  • physical/learning disability
  • race, religion or belief

As a result, we are currently seeking expressions of interest from organisations who:

  • have an established track record of working with young people in relation to the above issues
  • are interested in delivering a project which specifically targets care experienced young people

We would welcome expressions of interest which propose a collaboration between organisations. Project ideas should focus on:

  • improving knowledge of the needs and aspirations of care experienced young people affected by the protected characteristics listed above
  • improving care experienced young people’s ability to exercise their rights
  • improving confidence and skills

Applicants can apply for a maximum of £75,000 for up to three years. We expect successful applicants to fully engage young people in the design and delivery of their proposal.

Timetable

Expression of Interest published / 17 July 2017
Deadline for Expression of Interest / 24 August 2017
Invitation to submit full application / By 7 September
Deadline for full applications / 19 October
Assessment and decisions / October/November 2017
Successful candidates notified / Mid-November

Care Experienced Young People Programme

Rights and Equalities

Expression of Interest Form – 2017

Organisation details
Organisation Name:
Please summarise the main purpose and activities of your organisation
Please tell us which of our priority groups for this funding initiative you are interested in working with / Care experienced young people who have the following protected characteristics:
☐ sexual orientation or gender reassignment
☐ physical/learning disability
☐ race, religion or belief
Please summarise your project idea (no more than 500 words)
To help us to review your expression of interest, please consider the following points:
  • overall aim(s) of the project
  • main activities
  • the geographical area you will work in
  • when you would like to start
  • how long you expect the project to run for

Please tell us how you involve young people you work with in designing and delivering your projects/services (no more than 250 words)
Project Costs – please give us an indication of the likely costs of your project and the amount of funding you would like to request.
Estimated funding request to Life Changes Trust: / Year 1:
Year 2:
Year 3:
Estimated match funding (if applicable): / Year 1:
Year 2:
Year 3:
Total estimated project cost (funding request + match funding):
Contact details
Full Name:
Job Title:
Telephone:
Email address:

Thank you for completing this form. Please return to:

Expressions of Interest should be returned by Thursday 24 August by 5pm. Please put “Rights and Equalities Expression of Interest” in the subject line of your email.

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