Reaching Out: Supporting Families Questions and Answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 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: [email protected] Information is also available on our website at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk