[WiLT] Community Fund - apply by 3rd April 2009

[WiL Admin]

Community Fund - apply by 3rd April 2009

Funding area: England and Wales
Next Application Deadline: 03/04/2009

The aim of the Home Office Community Fund is to support smaller
voluntary and community organisations who can demonstrate successful
approaches to tackling the issues of guns, gangs or knives among young
people and those particularly at risk of involvement in serious
violence.

The Community Fund is open to voluntary and community organisations
with activities located in the Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP)
police force areas. These are: Metropolitan, Essex, Lancashire, West
Yorkshire, Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Thames
Valley, Nottinghamshire, South Wales, Northumbria, South Yorkshire and
Bedfordshire.

Total Fund Value: £ 4,500,000
Grant Value - maximum: £ 10,000

Organisations can apply for grant funding of up to £10,000 per annum
for three years.

In December 2008, the Home Secretary outlined the new £4.5m Community
Fund, for local community groups to run activities for young people in
13 priority areas, and to fund intensive work with young people
through mentoring and outreach work.

The Home Office previously funded local community organisations
through the Connected Fund which was launched in 2004. The Connected
Fund was designed to assist small local community projects working to
tackle gun and knife crime and gun culture. The fund provided £1.75m
to over 400 community groups across the country through 6 separate
funding rounds.

The Community Fund aims to build upon the success of the Connected
Fund, but is designed to be more sustainable and fund organisations
with a key focus on intensified work with young people at risk of
becoming violent offenders, or those already involved in gangs and
criminal activity, over two or three years.

Building on the cross-government strategy all projects will need to be
able to demonstrate that they meet at least one of the following
programme themes.

Theme 1: Reduce knife crime among young people.
Theme 2: Reduce gun crime and gang-related violence among young
people.
Theme 3: Combat and change the negative influence of delinquent peer
groups.
Theme 4: Prevent young people from initially becoming involved in gun,
knife and gang related crime.
Theme 5: Break the cycle of re-offending among young people.

The Community Fund is open to voluntary and community organisations
located in the Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) police force
areas. These are: Metropolitan, Essex, Lancashire, West Yorkshire,
Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Thames Valley,
Nottinghamshire, South Wales, Northumbria, South Yorkshire and
Bedfordshire.

Please Note: Organisations do not have to be located in these TKAP
areas however the project activity must take place in one or more of
these areas.

The Community Fund is being managed on behalf of the Home Office by
Tribal's Community Development Team, for more information, go to the
Tribal website (http://grantsadmin.co.uk/homeoffice_communityfund/).

The following types of organisations are ineligible under the
Community Fund:
* statutory organisations, such as local authorities, school, police
force, or further education/higher education institutions;
* organisations in Scotland and Northern Ireland;
* commercial or profit making organisations;
* individuals.

The priority target group are young people age 25 years or younger.
There is no minimum age for beneficiaries.

The following types of organisations are eligible under the Community
Fund:
* registered charities;
* social enterprises;
* unincorporated associations/community groups;
* companies limited by guarantee (with charitable aims);
* organisations with project activities within a TKAP police force
area (see 'Extended

Eligible Expenditure:

The Home Office will prioritise projects which are engaging young
people involved (or at risk of being involved) in gun/knife crime and
gang activity in the following areas:
1. Mentoring, outreach or education
2. Support for siblings/parents/families of high risk young people

For more details see the Guidance Notes (these can be downloaded from
the 'Documents and Links' section at the bottom of this page).

The following activities are unlikely to be funded:
* films/videos on gun or knife crime (unless produced by young people
and where there is clear evidence that the activities will directly
contribute to one of the five programme themes);
* educational resources for schools;
* gun and knife crime seminars / workshops / events;
* sporting activities (unless there is clear evidence that the
activities will directly contribute to one of the five programme
themes, see 'Extended Dexcription').
* campaigning activity;
* any party political activity;
* commercial ventures - i.e. if the project will make a profit.

Application Procedure:

The Community Fund Application Form can be downloaded from the
'Documents and Links' section below. Completed applications should be
sent by 12.30pm on Friday 3rd April 2009 to the Grants Programme
Administrator (see 'Contact Information' below).

Please Note: The Home Office welcome organisations working in a
partnership arrangement to deliver the activity. If you choose to work
in partnership the lead partner needs to complete the application
form. If you include details of partner(s) at this stage they must
have already agreed to be included in the proposal.

All applicants are strongly advised to read through all of the
available guidance before submitting an application.

Contact Information:

Grants Programme Administrator
2nd Floor
154 Gt. Charles Street
Queensway
Birmingham
B3 3HN
Phone: 0845 603 1869
Fax: 0845 094 0535
Email: info at grantsadmin.co.uk
Web: http://grantsadmin.co.uk/homeoffice_communityfund/

http://www.governmentfunding.org.uk/VCSSearch.aspx?WCI=htmSchemeView&WCU=DSCODE=DSCLIVEGF,SCHEMEID=12-S187,SEARCH=DS=DSCLIVEGF


Documents and Links:

Protecting the Public: An action plan for tackling violence 2008-11
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/violent-crime-action-plan-08/

Youth Crime Action Plan
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/youth-crime-action-plan/

Tackling Knives Action Programme
http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/tackling_knives.htm

Gangs and Guns Practical Guide
http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/violentstreet/violentstreet012.htm

Application Form
http://grantsadmin.co.uk/homeoffice_communityfund/Community%20Fund%20Application%20Form.doc

Guidance Notes
http://grantsadmin.co.uk/homeoffice_communityfund/Community%20Fund%20Guidance.pdf

Community Fund web page
http://grantsadmin.co.uk/homeoffice_communityfund/

(where possible I haave tried to find the download links from the
original web site as the governmentfunding web site is only open to
subscribers. If you have any doubts about which documents you need
please contact the grants programme administrator for clarification.
deborah)