High Sheriff and Merseyside Police Charitable Fund

The High Sheriff and Merseyside Police Charitable Fund (“the fund”) aims to work with voluntary bodies and community groups in Merseyside to support community safety, crime prevention and security initiatives in their locality.

For 2026, the fund will support projects which make a contribution towards preventing and ending violence against women and girls in order to support the focus of the current High Sheriff of Merseyside, Hazel Snell to raise awareness and tackle this issue.

Applications must demonstrate how the project will make an active contribution towards preventing and ending violence against girls and women (VAWG) and meet one of the three main priorities of the fund:

Examples of preventing Violence Against Women and Girls projects the fund could consider this year (non-exhaustive)

• Early intervention work with boys/young men to challenge harmful narratives/behaviours/attitudes. To promote respect for women and healthy relationships and build the confidence be an ally to women.
• Intervention work with men who have early indicators, risk factors or who have committed low level harm, to raise awareness of the impact of domestic abuse to reduce risks of offending.
• Support which reduces risk of domestic abuse survivors returning to perpetrators or re-entering cycles of abuse.
• Early intervention work with girls/young women to help them spot the early signs of a controlling or coercive relationship and promote self-empowerment and healthy relationships.
• Support for survivor children/young people of a domestic abuse relationship, addressing the impact of this adverse childhood experience to reduce cycles of violence and abuse.
• Activity which seeks to create/retain safe streets/spaces for women.
• Activity which seeks to keep sex workers safe.
• Projects which adopt an intersectional approach, recognising the impact of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and age in ending violence against girls and women.

The fund’s criteria are reviewed and revised in line with the latest available guidance and evidence, from relevant research, and expert advice. To ensure the activities in your grant application reflect current best practice, you may find the following toolkits useful: the College of Policing and Youth Endowment Fund.

• Statutory organisations or work that is their responsibility
• National organisations that cannot demonstrate local governance and control of local finances
• CIC’s where there are unequal Director powers due to persons registered as having significant control – your group governance should be clear via Companies House that all Directors have equal powers in running the company
• Private Businesses or Companies Limited by Shares
• Organisations with fewer than three unrelated Trustees/Directors/Management Committee members
• Commercial ventures
• Purchase or maintenance of vehicles
• Activities that will have already taken place before we offer you a grant
• Politically connected or exclusively religious activities
• Projects for personal profit
• Trophies and medals
• Organisations that are set up for the benefit of animals or plants: environmental groups that work with animals or the environment (such as city farms) are acceptable
• Groups comprising just one family
• Debts and other liabilities
• Reclaimable VAT
• Travel outside UK
• Gifts or projects exclusively for the purpose of entertaining – social events can be funded where there is a clear community benefit

Documents which need to be included with your application:

1. A copy of your governing document.
2. A copy of your latest annual accounts or income/expenditure document – must clearly show your income, expenditure, and reserves.
3. A copy of a recent bank statement for your group. If you do not have a bank account in place, you must be able to nominate another organisation to hold the funds (CVS, another local charity, church etc.).
4. A list of your Trustees/Directors/Management Committee members. A minimum of three un-related must be in place.
5. A copy of your current Safeguarding Policy. All applicants must ensure that they hold relevant policies and procedures in place to undertake activities, such as Disclosure and Barring Service checks and/or a health and safety policy, depending on proposed activity. If unsure, we recommend taking advice from your local CVS..

If you have applied to us within the last 12 months and provided this information, we do not need you to send it again, although we may require a more recent bank statement.