Supporting Islington S Families - a Life Not a Service

Supporting Islington’s Families - ‘a life not a service’

Building Social Networks - Application Guidelines

Introduction

Islington is a borough of stark contrasts – a place where great wealth sits alongside hidden poverty. Islington Giving was set up in 2010 to address these issues and create opportunities for people in Islington. It is a partnership that brings together residents, businesses, community organisations and funders to make a real difference in the Borough.

Islington Giving currently supports over 40 local projects across 3 core themes:

• Investing in Young People
• Supporting Families
• Reaching Isolated People

Working in partnership and giving time, through volunteering, are fundamental principles to Islington Giving and underpin all three themes.

All our work aims to open up opportunities for people to enjoy life and socialise, to build skills and possibilities and to make connections with each other and services.

Please see the Islington Giving website for further details of our work.

Background to this call

Over the last seven months we have reflected on our knowledge and experience of supporting Islington families. We have had dedicated conversations with local families and those who work with themto inform how we can develop and grow our support for families over the next 5 years.

Click here to read asummary report of our findingswhich includes how we will act on what we have heard or alternatively request a hard copy by emailing us at

In preparing our Supporting Families strategy we heard that whilst there are some good sources of support for Islington families these are often time limited. The launch of this open call around ‘Building Social Networks’ is in direct response to what people told us would make a difference in addressing a gap in the availability of long-term trusted support for isolated families.

Through this call we aim to fund projects which provide long-term,and more informal and personal methods of support for families. This could be support from professionals or peers or a combination of both. The key is that trusted long-term relationships can be built and sustained for the benefit of the individual and families.

Our focus is particularly on offering support to families who have limited access to wider networks because of social or financial isolation, relationship conflict / domestic violence or a family member living with a physical or learning disabilities and / or mental ill-health.

This document provides overall guidance for interested organisations. It is intended to help you (1) decide whether this call is right for you, and (2) frame the content of your application if you would like to proceed.

Call for applications

With the benefit of learning from Supporting Islington’s Families - ‘A life not a service’we are seeking applications from organisations that canhelp families build long-term supportive relationships.We are open to a range of project ideas and suggestions; for example projects may offer peer to peer support, provide space and time to enable informal information exchange between parents or children, or offer more structured support delivered by paid staff or volunteers.

The overall budget for this call is around £200,000 to pay for projects for up to 2 years. We envisage funding up to 5projects depending on the nature and quality of the applications we receive. We are intentionally not indicating an upper financial limit for applications; rather we want to see proposals that are built on identified needs or priorities and are designed to meet objectives at a manageable or appropriate scale.

Proposals do not have to be for new or innovative projects. We will give equal consideration to tried and tested approaches as long as they achieve the aims of the programme.

Projects may be aimed at the whole family or at individual family members – parents and carers or children - thatin turn will benefit the family as a whole.

We are keen for applicants to consider family members whose needs may not be obvious in the presenting issues family faces for example children who live in households where there is domestic violence or parental mental ill-health.

Projects must demonstrate well thought through engagement strategies to demonstrate how they will reach isolated families with limited supportive networks.

Applicant organisations are asked to identify how their work will contribute to two or more of the following outcomes and how they will assess progress against these if grant funding is approved.

Families are:

-Less isolated with improved social networks and increased use of community resources and support

-Better connected and more confident and able to take advantage of local services and opportunities

-More Resilient -enjoying family life more and better able to cope with the challenges they face

-More confident and empowered

Priority will be given to:

• Organisations who are able to reach isolated families with limited supportive networks who experience financial hardship, domestic violence or a live with a family member who has a physical or learning disability and / or mental ill-health.

• Organisations that work in partnership and have a good working knowledge of Islington.

• Organisations that demonstrate how they will engage families / family members after their delivered programme to sustain support and maximise impact.

• Organisationswilling to act as ambassadors and supporters of the Islington Giving campaign, and that have imaginative ideas for how they will achieve this.

Who can apply?

In order to be eligible to apply for this Programme organisations must have:

• a management committee of at least 3 unpaid and unrelated people, which has ultimate responsibility for the organisation and its finances
• a governing document or constitution

• a bank account

Islington Giving prioritises supporting voluntary and community sector groups based in Islington. However, through this call we are also interested in hearing from groups based out of the Borough which are able to provide support for Islington families. If you are based out of the borough you will need to demonstrate that you have local knowledge and local links. All decisions will be made on a case by case basis.

Please note that the programme will not fund:

• Services that are not free at the point of access
• Advancement of religion and religious groups, unless they offer non-religious activities and support to the local community
• Commercial or business activities
• Work that has already taken place.

How to apply

If you are interested in applying we strongly encourage you to contact Nikki Wimborne on 020 7288 6942 or via email at to discuss your proposal.

When applying, you are asked to complete an online application.

To accesstheform please click here

Attachments which cannot be submitted electronically can be sent to:

Islington Giving

13 Elliott’s Place,

London

N1 8HX

Following receipt of your full application, you will be asked to meet with Islington Givingprogramme staff as part of the assessment process. This conversation allows staff to follow up with you on any points of clarification and ensure they have a full understanding of all the elements of your application. All applications will then be considered by Islington Giving at its meeting in January 2018. Applicant organisations will be informed of the decisionbythe end of January 2018 at the latest.

If Your Application is Successful

Once you have been notified of the decision to fund your project, staff will send you our terms and conditions – which you will be required to read, sign and return - and liaise with you to set up your grant.

Full details of the monitoring requirements for your project will be agreed following confirmation of a successful application. Funded organisationswill be required to keep financial records of how the grant is spent and to provide a monitoring report after every 12 months from the start of your project.

Successful organisations will also be asked to provide publicly accessible examples of their work (e.g. case studies, photographs, blog posts) and mustbe willing to act as ambassadors and supporters of the Islington Giving campaign, with imaginative ideas for how this can be achieved.

Islington Givingis administered by Cripplegate Foundation, registered charity no.207499