The Open Philanthropy Funds are now open for applications. We are launching two separate funds in the financial hardship sector, aiming to relieve and reduce financial hardship in the UK. The deadline for applications is 5pm Friday 16th December 2022, and you can only apply to one.
Panel A’s Fund
The Tackling Financial Hardship Fund (A) is a one off funding cycle awarding £250,000 in grants to relieve and reduce financial hardship in the UK, with a specific focus on supporting:
Asylum seekers
Young people
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities
Those with experience of domestic violence
Single parent households
Women and girls
Panel B’s Fund
The Tackling Financial Hardship Fund (B) is a one-off funding cycle awarding £125,000 in grants to relieve and reduce financial hardship in the UK, with a specific focus on supporting:
The Fund is open to applications from foodbanks for funding to help meet costs such as the purchase of additional food items and increased running costs.
You must be a not-for-profit organisation established before 1 January 2020
Your annual income is between £25,000 – £1,000,000
The Community Relations Council, with the support of Government, has established a fund to spend each year on community relations projects. This funding is intended to help community/voluntary groups throughout Northern Ireland develop their capacity to engage in community relations work and to enhance the community relations potential of projects they undertake.
The Ulster-Scots Agency has re-opened the Small Events Fund.
This is for Ulster-Scots events taking place from 1 December 2022 to 31 March 2023.
Funding will close at 12 noon on 7 December 2022 – or once the budget has been exhausted.
The Small Events funding will cover a wide range of events including Hogmanay, Burns Night, St Patrick's Day or Commonwealth Day events.
Once you register, you will receive an application form and guidelines via email. Please read the guidelines carefully to check what we fund, and details of the various rates permitted under this programme.
6Update on the Dormant Accounts Fund Northern Ireland
From 5pm on 3 March 2023, The National Lottery Community Fund will not be accepting applications to Phase One of the Dormant Accounts Fund Northern Ireland from individual organisations. If you are thinking of submitting an application to the fund, we encourage you to get your applications in as soon as you are ready. You don’t need to wait until 3 March.
The team will continue to assess applications and to announce the new awards that are made, but no new applications will be accepted from 5pm on 3 March.
The National Lottery Community Fund are expecting Dormant Accounts Fund NI to remain highly competitive, so before you apply please read through the information on their website for guidance and to find out about the projects they have already funded. You can also contact their team in Northern Ireland if you would like advice.
The National Lottery Community Fund always said that they would take a test and learn approach to the Dormant Accounts Fund NI. They have awarded just under £13m through 147 grants. This is helping organisations to develop new skills and build resilience and sustainability, creating a strong voluntary and community sector which can continue to support people and communities across Northern Ireland. There is lots to learn about the models that are working well, and the challenges faced, that they want to share with the sector. You might like to read the first learning report on Dormant Accounts Funds NI which they published in June 2022 to find out what they’ve learned to date.
The Dormant Accounts Fund NI will continue to remain open for strategic applications. Discussions will still take place with organisations who are interested in developing strategic projects that enable collaboration and develop new and creative approaches to the sustainability of the sector.
New legislation was passed in June 2022 expanding the UK-wide scheme to include a wider range of Dormant Assets. This means that additional funds will be made available to Northern Ireland through the scheme in the future, as announced by Finance Minister Conor Murphy on 25 October 2022.
The Department of Finance has confirmed its policy direction that the Dormant Assets scheme should continue to support the sector to build capacity, resilience and sustainability in the future.
The National Lottery Community Fund will take some time to reflect on how they have delivered against policy directions and engage further with the sector to identify and address gaps. In doing this, they will continue to work with the Department of Finance and ensure that feedback from stakeholders informs the development of the next phase.
Their National Lottery programmes will remain open to applications and you can find out more about these here.
7 Update on our approach to Cost-of-Living crisis in relation to Awards for All
Across the UK we have agreed that organisations can now apply for more than one Awards for All grant within a 12-month period - so long as they only have one ‘live’ grant open at a time and that one of the grants is focused on a response to the cost-of-living crisis. We’ve updated our website with the following statement. If you currently hold a grant with us through National Lottery Awards For All Northern Ireland, you can apply for an additional grant, but your current project must be completed. One of the grants must be focused on a response to the cost-of-living crisis.
You can apply for up to £10,000 at a time and up to £20,000 in total in any 12-month period.
Helping local community and voluntary organisations make stronger funding applications and prepare better for future challenges and opportunities.
WHEN: Thursday 8th December TIME: 7.00pm-8.30pm WHERE: ZOOM Facilitator: Michael Hughes, Community Foundation NI Registration Form: https://forms.gle/xXwkmFubshWYWn8s8
Does your group wish to learn more about how to make stronger funding applications and how to be more strategic in your planning?
Does your group want an opportunity to meet with a range of funders from across the United Kingdom?
If the answers to all of the above questions is yes then the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland’s New Voices Programme could be for your group, please join us to find out more about the programme at our free information session.
The New Voices Programme will support your group, through a mixture of in-person and group meetings and 1-2-1 meetings online that will focus on building your group or organisations capacity and enhancing your connections to potential Funders.
The main areas covered during the course of ‘New Voices’ include:
Business planning and preparedness skills
Developing sustainable ideas and projects
Developing a case for support with funders
Impact measurement
Access to funding
Assessing Need and Bid Writing
Whole systems’ approaches and Impact Measurement
Beyond Grant Funding - Corporate Support & Community Fundraising
Supporting Communities is delighted to provide free connectivity to those who need it through a Vodafone initiative to tackle digital exclusion. We will distribute 1500 free SIM cards to those who have difficulty paying for internet access or are digitally excluded.
There is no need for community groups to go through a formal process, just get in touch, and we’ll make it happen!
Individuals who would like to apply should fill in this quick form, and we will post one to you while supplies last.
The Law Family Commission on Civil Society is keen to hear your views to feed into its current UK-wide research looking at how to unleash the full potential of community, voluntary and other civil society organisations to tackle societal issues. This online event hosted by NICVA will give you the chance to input and hear more about their findings to date.
We are delighted to offer free Elevate training on using community development approaches to reduce health inequalities.
These interactive training workshops will explore topics such as the social determinants of health, poverty and health, the impact of Covid-19, community development values and how community development approaches can be used to reduce health inequalities. Elevate training will highlight the importance of meaningful engagement with communities where you live and work.
All our sessions are open and interdisciplinary allowing for discussion-based learning with good opportunities to build connections across sectors.
This is a full-day training programme; morning session 10am to 1pm and afternoon session 1:30pm to 3:30pm. Participants must be available to attend both sessions.
Thursday 1st December, online via Zoom Wednesday 7th December, online via Zoom
13WHSCT area Substance Use Needs Assessment Information
Figure 8 Consultancy Services Ltd. (Dundee, Scotland) has been commissioned by the Public Health Agency (PHA) and Strategic Planning and Performance Group Department of Health (SPPG) to carry out a comprehensive needs assessment to find out more about the needs of people who experience problems with substance use.
The first way that people can contribute to the needs assessment is via attending the stakeholder event we are holding. The aim of this event will be to identify the priority themes that the research will need to prioritise, and we wish to ensure that we have a representative sample of all key groups in attendance (service users; carers; professionals; commissioners etc.).
Places are limited (due to venue size), so if you would like to be considered for a place then please email your name, contact details, job title and organisation details to: enquiries@f8c.co.uk, with ‘WHSCT Substance Use Needs Assessment’ in the subject line of the email.
You may or may not already be aware of our charity and the services that we provide for people with Deafblindness across Northern Ireland.
We are Deafblind UK and we work across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our work in NI is currently funded by the Big Lottery Community Fund and we are in the fourth year of a five-year project, supporting people with a dual sensory loss.
We have three Outreach Officers working in NI, who are working to provide the services listed in our Member’s services Handbook (attached) to our current and future members in NI.
It is an important part of our work, to work with professional bodies, groups, and other charitable organisations, to ensure that as many people with Deafblindness as possible are made aware of our services and have access to them. To make a referral, or if you have further questions about our services, please contact our helpline 0800 132320 or email to info@deafblind.org.uk.
I would be very happy to have a telephone call, or a Team call with you for an initial introduction and a chat about what we are currently doing to support our members. If you could give me a couple of dates/times when you would be free for a call, I will ensure that I am available. Contact Paula Meenan on 07876881012 / Paula.Meenan@deafblind.org.uk
15Exhibition to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities
The Department for Communities is hosting a two-week exhibition to celebrate the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The travelling exhibition, Disability on the Record, which was curated by the Department’s Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and Disability Policy Branch, will explore the issues that have directly impacted upon the lives of Deaf and disabled people through the years. PRONI archives and additional source material are utilised to bring the experiences of people through those times to life.
The exhibition will be launched at the PRONI building, Titanic Quarter, Belfast, on Monday 28 November 2022 at 12pm. Michaela Hollywood, the respected disability rights advocate, will deliver a keynote speech sharing her experiences of living with a disability. The launch is a free event and is open to the public. Places to attend are limited and attendees must register here:(external link opens in a new window / tab)
The exhibition will run from 28 November and will be open to the public from 9.00am to 4.45pm Monday to Friday until the 9 December 2022. Access is also free and booking is not required.
The travelling exhibition will next go on display at branch libraries across Northern Ireland in 2023 and is available to interested partners in sectoral organisations and the wider public sector.
16Claudes at the City Hotel Christmas Dinner sit in and home delivery 2022
Hi all, it's that time again. We delivered 1400 dinners to our guests' homes over the last 2 years during the Covid restrictions. We are very proud and grateful to the many contributors and volunteers who make it possible every year especially in challenging circumstances.
We are delighted to offer Claude's traditional sit-in service this year. We are putting more of an emphasis on entertaining more folk sitting in as our guests in order to share more of the true Christmas Experience. We live in a world where getting food delivered has become the 'norm' and we understand how easily we can become disconnected from others due to Covid isolation habits. That's why we are delighted to re-kindle the Claudes original Christmas experience with our biggest sit-in ever, thanks to the City Hotel.
We will still offer 125 dinners delivered to those who can't come to us for totally understandable reasons and this facility remains very important to us. For food safety reasons, we can't offer a Boxing Day dinner this year. Please see attached flyer and spreadsheet for guest details. Numbers are restricted to 250 so please don't delay in meeting your client's needs. Thanks in advance, kind regards Dermot 07885 173993
18School Employer Connections launches its brand-new website
On November 29th, School Employer Connections will launch their brand-new, reimagined and up-to-date website, designed to be a ‘one-stop shop’ of resources and information for students, parents, teachers, schools and the broader business/education community in Northern Ireland and further afield.
Made possible by the generosity of the Wesleyan foundation, the website will be a modern, user-friendly and easily navigated platform that will contribute enormously to the company’s stated aim of ‘preparing the future workforce’.
The newly redesigned website will boast such features as an exhaustive employer directory, an informative ‘Jobs for Me’ archive and a convenient labour market information section.
School Employer Connections is a business/education partnership charity based in Derry-Londonderry. Formed in 1999, the charity aims to organise and broker meaningful, structured engagements between the world of education and the world of work for post-primary school students, linking over 1,000 employers with all 193 post-primary schools across Northern Ireland.
The manager of School Employer Connections, Mr Owen Crozier, had this to say about the significance and importance of the new website’s creation and launch: ‘The world we live in is changing irrevocably and at a fast pace. The world of work and the world of education are undergoing significant challenges also which will involve future telling changes. Young people in particular are having difficulty navigating an extremely unpredictable and challenging situation. SEC ‘Careers Hub’ Website will help address many of these issues including those presented by Covid-19’.
19Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company seek new board members
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company is currently seeking new people for its board of directors.
We don't have a specific idea of background skills or experience. Mainly we are interested in people with enthusiasm to get to know us, whose interests and values align with those of the company. We are interested in people who are prepared to be questioning and gently challenging in a helpful and constructive way and who will support us to continue our work with the integrity and quality for which we have become known.
If you are interested in getting involved or wish to know more, please get in touch with us over the next few weeks. The closing date is Friday 16th December 2022.
St Columb’s Park House is a peace centre located in the heart of a beautiful historic park in the Waterside area of Derry/Londonderry. St Columb’s Park House contributes to peace building and active citizenship by providing a range of programmes which promote civic participation, human rights & leadership. We also operate as a ‘not for profit’ social enterprise that offers conference and residential facilities.
The BLOOM project, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund will provide activities and spaces for local communities, young people and Park Users to re-connect post COVID
We wish to appoint the following posts A Community Engagement Officer and a Grounds and Garden Animator. Both posts are 35 hours per week on a fixed term contract for 5 years Gross salary £26000 per annum for contracted term
This Grounds and Garden Animator post will focus on developing the grounds at St Columbs Park House for various uses including the Walled Garden, an activity space and sensory garden. They will build and co-ordinate a bank of volunteers – the Garden Guardians to support the design and development of the shared spaces. The Community Engagement Officer will be responsible for developing and building on the already existing partnerships and community connections of St Columbs Park House, developing the programme outline. There will be a strong emphasis on developing a cross community intergenerational programme which will include a series of events and activities within the grounds including Horticulture, Music and Performance and Community Based Events as detailed in the project application.
The successful candidates will have a keen interest in the outdoors and a clear understanding of the benefits linked to health & well-being from being connected to the outdoors.
Shortlisting criteria will be detailed in the Job Description and Personnel Specification as “Essential” and may be enhanced in the instance of large numbers of applications.
Further information and application packs are available from Sharon Doherty St Columb’s Park House, 4 Limavady Road, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, BT47 6JY using email; sharon@stcolumbsparkhouse.org or online at Job Apply NI.
Completed Applications must be returned either online or via email marked “JOB APPLICATION” no later than 5pm 5th December 2022. We will only accept completed and signed application forms issued with the job information. We do not accept CVs. Applications received after the closing date / time will not be considered. Interviews for short-listed applicants will be held on the week beginning 12th December 2022.
The Department for the Economy are advertising an open competition for five new Members to the Board of Tourism NI (TNI). Appointments will be made on a staggered basis for a term of 3 years, the initial set of appointments will be effective from 1 April 2023.
TNI is a statutory Non-Departmental Public Body responsible for the development of NI as a tourist destination as well as being responsible for the promotion and marketing of NI within NI and the RoI. The organisation’s overall aim is to ensure that tourism contributes to the creation of a dynamic, competitive economy.
Members are expected to attend Board meetings and other events, amounting to at least 1 day per month. In addition the successful candidate will be expected to attend occasional evening engagements. Remuneration is £5,435 per annum.
Members will also receive reimbursement for all reasonable travel and subsistence costs, and any dependant-carer expenses incurred whilst undertaking Board duties.
We particularly welcome applications from people with a disability, those from minority ethnic communities and young people as these groups are currently under-represented on the Board.
We are operating a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for applicants with a disability.
No academic qualifications are required for the post. Appointments will be made from those individuals who best satisfy the essential criteria detailed in the application pack.
An application pack with full details and guidance can be downloaded from the Department’s Public Appointments webpage.
Or by emailing pau@economy-ni.gov.uk Or by Telephone: Janet McCrum on 028 9052 9492 or Text Relay: 18001 028 9052 9492.
The closing date for applications is 12.00 Noon (GMT) on Thursday 8th December 2022. Late applications will not be accepted (Except in exceptional circumstances).
Applicants invited for interview are eligible for reimbursement of reasonable travelling expenses incurred within the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Equality of Opportunity: The Department is committed to the principles of public appointments based on merit with independent assessment, openness and transparency of process. The Department is also committed to equality of opportunity and welcomes application forms from all suitably qualified applicants irrespective of religious belief, gender, race, political opinion, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or whether or not they have dependants.
NI Environment Link and the National Trust invite you to complete a survey about Northern Ireland’s Urban Green Spaces. You could even win £100 All4one voucher!
This short survey will only take you 5-10 minutes to complete.
Your response will be used to help develop a vision and action plan for the future of urban green space in Northern Ireland.
The survey will close on 30 November. Please share it with friends and family!
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