Belfast City Council Small Grants: Good Relations Grant

Overview

Funding Limits

Maximum award: £5,000 for each organisation in each financial year.

Purpose of the fund

The purpose of the fund reflects the Together: Building a United Community Strategy which outlines a vision of “a united community, based on equality of opportunity, the desirability of good relations and reconciliation – one which is strengthened by its diversity, where cultural expression is celebrated and embraced and where everyone can live, learn, work and socialise together, free from prejudice, hate and intolerance.”

Small Grant Outcomes

Projects which are funded by the Good Relations Grant must clearly link to at least one of the small grant outcomes. These are:

1. Children and young people: To continue to improve attitudes amongst young people and to build a community where they can play a full and active role in building good relations.
2. Our shared community: To work towards the creation of a community where all areas are open and accessible.
3. Safe community: To create a community where people can live, learn, work and socialise in safety.
4. Cultural expression: To create a community which promotes the positive expression of cultural heritage and identity.

In scoring applications officers will take account of how the project meets good relations needs.

Eligible Project Costs

• Please note that for travel outside Northern Ireland, funding is only available from the Good Relations grant on condition that:
• The proposal provides a clear rationale of how the requested travel will meet the outcomes of the fund
• The beneficiaries are from the Belfast City Council area
• The event / project / activity has clear good relations impacts
• The event / project / activity cannot be replicated or be available within Northern Ireland.

Capped Rates

• Activities such as ‘fun days’ will be capped at £500
• For events lasting less than three hours, there is a basic cost for refreshments which is capped at £2.50 for every person present.
• Refreshment fees are available for events that continue for more than five hours at a capped rate of £8 for every person present.
• For a residential, which is referenced as essential to the project, fees are capped at £80 for every person for every 24 hour period. This includes accommodation and all refreshments. Activities must be listed and costed separately
• If you are using a facilitator, mediator, consultant or project evaluator you must provide names and organisations and a detailed breakdown of the rates, including your reason for choosing this person/persons.
• Good relations practitioners may apply for bursaries to go to conferences, this is capped at £300.

Criteria for assessment

Weighting = (out of 100%)

• Identification of need for the proposal: 30
  • The extent to which the programme activities has clearly identified good relations need and provided detail of participants, partners and content.
• Respecting and valuing diversity and difference: 25
  • The extent to which the project will support participants to improve attitudes towards people from different racial, political and faith backgrounds.
• Building positive relationships: 20
  • The extent to which the project supports the building of positive relations between local neighbouring communities from different backgrounds.
• Promoting Good Relationsoutcomes: 15
  • The extent to which the proposal contributes to the delivery of one or more of the Good Relationsoutcomes.
• Project planning and value for money: 10
  • The extent to which the project is well planned and requested amounts represent value for money.

Completing your budget for small grants

You must show that all costs are reasonable and necessary to complete the project, and you should give them enough detail to assess this. For example, you should give the unit costs and quantities needed, 10 artists x £50 = total cost £500.

They will not consider your application as eligible if you do not provide a detailed project budget.

Application notes

The Good Relations fund exists to support programmes and projects that involve people in engagement activities on Good Relations themes. You should apply for a project that you already have plans to deliver. You must list the proposed participants or named groups from which you will draw participants.

Outcomes and impact can only be assessed if the right participants are involved in the project, for example if you simply say you are working with 20 young people from different ethnic/religious backgrounds, that is not sufficient detail for us to assess the application. You must provide detail of exactly who the participants are or the partners you are linking in with to engage participants.

You will be asked in your evaluation form how the programme that you had delivered achieved the impact it said it would do, on the basis that the participants involved were the right participants. Applicants will have to undertake monitoring and evaluation of participant attitudes and the impact of the project. Failure to provide such documentation will result in the grant being revoked. The Council will provide the required participant survey questionnaires for this task.

If you are applying for a grant to work with other groups it is essential that you talk to your partner groups before you apply for funding, you must also submit evidence demonstrating their support and level of involvement.

If you do not provide this information, it is unlikely that you will achieve a score high enough to be awarded funding