Please read the Essential Information before applying.
What is the scheme?
The scheme, delivered by the Community Foundation for Merseyside (CFM) in partnership with the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside (PCC) and the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP), is targeted at community projects that offer diversionary activities- particular those that include arts, culture and sports to support young people aged under 25 years who may be more vulnerable to experiencing violence and at risk of anti-social behaviour. This could be due to a lack of self-esteem, experiencing challenges at home, they may live in a community where drugs and alcohol are prevalent, or the community may lack infrastructure and accessible services. All these factors are recognised as increasing vulnerability to experiencing violence and/or exploitation.
Applications can be considered from all areas within Merseyside (Halton is not eligible as this falls under Cheshire PCC) and we encourage applications from areas suffering of high crime and ASB.
The grants panel are keen for organisations to include capacity building costs for your organisation and would encourage consortium/partnership applications that will allow groups to work together (although this is not a requirement). The primary focus of the scheme is community provision and out of school hours engagement.
Interventions/programmes delivered must fall into one of the following types:
Please note that funding must be spent in full by 31st March 2025 and must include an element of youth engagement during the summer school holidays and October half-term/Halloween/bonfire night period.
The Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership receives government funding to identify and support those areas which have the greatest need and impact (in terms of demand upon blue light services). This is based on localised data, using several datasets held within the Trauma & Injury Intelligence Group (TIIG) Data Hub. The datasets include information relating to Serious Violence offences (Merseyside Police), Deliberate and Preliminary Fires (Merseyside Fire and Rescue), Ambulance call-outs (North West Ambulance Service), Attendance to Emergency Departments (Merseyside Emergency Departments),Pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) Support, Pupils eligible for free school meals, Suspensions & Persistent absences (Department for Education), Index of Multiple Deprivation (Gov.uk).
Based on this data, we encourage proposals for programmes and projects based as follows:
St Helens – Town Centre, Parr
Sefton – Linacre, Duke’s, St Oswald, Litherland
Wirral – Bidston and St James, Birkenhead and Tranmere, Leasowe and Moreton East, Seacombe
Liverpool – Central, County, Riverside, Tuebrook and Stoneycroft, Norris Green, Prince's Park
Knowsley – Northwood, Stockbridge, Page Moss
We recognise that locally there will be additional need for funding to other communities (particularly at certain times of the year) and therefore although funding will be prioritised to organisations based within the identified communities, we welcome bids from other communities. Please ensure that your application can fully evidence this need and explain how these resources will have a significant impact on tackling the identified issues.
How much funding can organisations apply for?
The minimum grant applied for is £5,000 and maximum grant is £25,000. The grants panel will award grants that are proportionate to the turnover of the organisation(s) applying.
A wide range of arts, culture and sports engagement and prevention activities that meet the below target outcomes can be considered:
Closing Date
4pm Friday 14th June 2024
We aim to make decisions in July before the summer school holidays, therefore the expectation is that funding delivery should be between late July 2024 and 31st March 2025.
Young people’s voices:
The PCC and MVRP are extremely keen to involve the community, particularly young people (under 25yrs), in this process to ensure that young people are central to the provision and youth-directed provision is favoured where possible. Applications should therefore include some evidence of young people being involved in the co-production, co-design, or co-evaluation of programmes/projects.
Trauma Informed Training:
Please note, to ensure that delivery aligns with the PCC and MVRPs strategic priorities, there will be a mandatory requirement for all successful organisations to attend a trauma informed awareness session to provide staff with an overview of the following six trauma informed core principles in settings.
Capacity Building:
This scheme is keen to support organisational and people development in addition to project and service delivery; therefore, part of the grant requested can include capacity building costs for your organisation. In the main, this is dependent on your organisation’s needs and the application form will ask for information on this. Please note that trauma informed awareness training will be provided free of charge as part of the grant so please do not request costs for this in the budget. Capacity building could also include staff and volunteer training, strategy/leadership development, financial planning, marketing development.
Tailored capacity building support/training may be offered through a third party provider or by your local infrastructure organisation such as One Knowsley, Halton & St Helens VCA, Liverpool CVS, Sefton CVS, Wirral CVS. We would recommend contacting them to discuss before requesting costs for this in your grant application budget.
Evaluation:
Please note that if the scheme will be evaluated by a third party, it will be a condition of grant that successful applicants will engage with the evaluator.
Who can apply?
Constituted voluntary, community and faith organisations, community sports clubs, registered charities, CIC’s (Limited by Guarantee).
What cannot be funded?
How to apply?
Please visit the Community Foundation for Merseyside’s website - www.cfmerseyside.org.uk – and complete an online application form (available on the scheme page for this grant programme). Once you have submitted the online application, you will need to send the documents listed below. You can attach the documents to your online application, or email them to applications@cflm.org.uk
Who to contact:
If you have any questions about the scheme please contact CFM.
Kelly Court, Programmes Manager:
Programmes Team:
applications@cflm.org.uk / 0330 440 4900
Documents that need to be included with your application:
1. A copy of your governing document
2. A copy of your latest annual accounts or income and expenditure document if a newer organisation
3. A copy of a recent bank statement for your group.
4. A list of your Trustees/Directors/Management Committee Members
5. A copy of your current Safeguarding Policy
If you have applied to us within the last 12 months and provided this information, we do not need you to send it again (unless anything has been updated since i.e., accounts) and we will require a bank statement dated within the last 3 months.
What happens next?
Completed applications are considered by Community Foundation staff to check eligibility and complete due diligence checks. You may be contacted for more information after applying and a decision-making panel will make decisions based on the scheme’s criteria and the budget available.
Community Foundation for Merseyside
Third Floor, Stanley Building
43 Hanover Street,
Liverpool, L1 3DN
Email: applications@cflm.org.uk
