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Funding Available for Disabled People's Organisations to make their Voices Heard
News release: 19 March 2008
The Trust for London is calling for applications from small, disabled-led organisations involved in, or who are interested in developing, campaigning and advocacy activities. One of the Trust's key current aims is to support user-led work that directly challenges discrimination faced by disabled people.
The Trust works within the social model of disability. This includes all disabled people including those with mental health issues, people living with HIV/AIDS, and those living with other chronic health conditions. We are particularly interested in work that addresses multiple disadvantages, for example, the double discrimination faced by disabled people from Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities.
Funding is available for work that:
➢ Encourages disabled people to have a stronger voice with service providers, policy-makers and increases involvement in public debate.
➢ Campaigns to improve the quality of life for disabled people, locally or nationally.
➢ Includes self-advocacy groups of people with learning difficulties.
Two recent examples of Trust for London grants under this aim are:
Newham People First - awarded £30,000 to employ a part-time staff member with learning difficulties for 2 years, to reach out to BME communities. This includes supporting its Black and Asian self-advocacy group to become more focused on learning about and standing up for their rights, and getting their voice heard by policy makers.
North London ME Network - awarded £8,000 towards running costs over 2 years to continue its work to raise awareness of ME and to improve local services for people with the condition.
The Trust funds new and emerging groups in London, which have less than one full-time equivalent staff member.
The next deadlines for applications are 30 May 2008 and 25 October 2008. Full guidelines are available at www.trustforlondon.org.uk/grants including an easy-read version. If you would like a copy of the guidelines in any of these formats or Braille, please phone us.
We are more than happy to discuss your application with you, and you can speak to one of our Officers on 020 7606 6145 or e-mail trustforlondon@cityparochial.org.uk
Editor's notes
1. For more information, please contact Mubin Haq or Sioned Churchill on 020 7606 6145.
2. Trust for London (TfL) is an independent funder established in 1986. It aims to support small, new and emerging voluntary organisations which have been established to improve the lives of people and communities in London. It believes that local people are often in the best position to identify the problems that affect their lives and the possible solutions to those problems. It works closely with its sister fund, City Parochial Foundation.
3. Funding will be available to support work to directly challenge discrimination faced by disabled people from 2007 until 2011.
4. The average grant made by Trust for London is around £8,000. The maximum grant is £45,000 over three years.
Social welfare requires a long term approach, says Tim Cook
Challenges – reflections on funding and change in London 1986-2007 by Tim Cook.
Posted 22 November 2007
Tackling and solving the major social welfare issues is a long term task – and even at the end there are few, if any, neat solutions, according to Tim Cook, former Clerk to the Trustees of City Parochial Foundation
He made his comments as the author of a new report published by CPF (see note 1) to mark the 21 years of Trust for London, and the lessons that funding programmes of both CPF and TfL had revealed over that period.
“Funding is not science – it is not a question of discovering the DNA,” Cook said. "But funders are sitting on knowledge and experience built up over a long period. At the moment, little is made of it. They need to share that knowledge, to create a ‘social policy databank’ which can be used to influence the way they fund.”
The report describes how CPF and TfL funding has developed over 21 years and looks at what has worked and how these have affected subsequent initiatives. At the same time, it describes programmes which have not turned out as hoped or expected, and the lessons that need to be learned from these failures.
In his foreword, CPF chair Nigel Pantling states that Tim “is unusually well qualified to examine the development of the Trust for London, and the changes that have been taking place simultaneously at CPF…. we are immensely grateful to him for the insights and wisdom that he has provided.
The lessons that Tim draws from the way that the two charities have tackled the difficult business of grant making will, we hope, prove valuable to future generations of CPF trustees, staff and advisers. If the lessons of our mistakes – and hopefully some successes – prove useful to a wider audience too, then so much the better.”
For Bharat Mehta, Chief Executive of CPF and TfL, two of the most important features the report draws attention to are the constancy of the voluntary sector and the increasingly local/global nature of its work.
“Despite all the organisational and structural changes in government and social services, the one constant is the voluntary sector, where thousands of groups continue to pursue their aims to benefit the most disadvantaged in society.
And while so much of the work is at a local level, the connections are global. Events overseas have direct and immediate impact at the local level, particularly for diaspora communities and organisations working with them”.
For more information please contact Bharat Mehta, Chief Executive of CPF/TfL on 020 7606 6145
email: info@cityparochial.org.uk
Issued by City Parochial Foundation 6 Middle Street London EC1A 7PH.
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New funding initiative to tackle faith-based child abuse in London
Posted on 20 September 2007
City Parochial Foundation (CPF) and Trust for London (TfL) have awarded £450,000 over three years to four organisations addressing faith-based child abuse linked to a belief in spirit possession.
The funding, through our ‘Safeguarding Children’s Rights’ special initiative, will support work with London’s African communities that develops and strengthens community-based preventive activities in this field. The initiative was established in response to concerns raised with TfL and CPF by African community groups about the need for support at a grassroots level. Funding will support work with young people, parents, social workers, policy-makers and church leaders.
Grants have been awarded to: AFRUCA, UK Congolese Safeguarding Action Group, Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service, and the Victoria Climbié Foundation, who will work closely together through the initiative.
“These organisations have a track record of addressing this complex and difficult human rights issue, often with very limited resources”, says Bharat Mehta, Chief Executive of TfL and CPF. “This new initiative will sustain and develop their work in London and enable them to contribute to the safety, quality of life and well-being of children and to promote children’s rights.”
CPF and TfL will support funded organisations through an advisory group involving experts from relevant fields including the Metropolitan Police, child protection and children’s services. An external evaluation will be commissioned to assess the impact of the funded work.
For more information about the initiative and the grants made, please contact
Rachael Takens-Milne, Field Officer (Special Initiatives) on 020 7606 6145 or
rtakensmilne@cityparochial.org.uk
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Building Blocks
Posted 10 January 2007
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Further information about the Trust can be found in a range of publications including annual Grants Reviews