Building Inclusion and Equality Access Grants
Overview
The grants will range from £500 to £2,000 and awards are conditional on applicants securing Partnership Funding for medium and small-scale projects.
Culture, arts, heritage, community and leisure venues are eligible to apply.
The scheme will fund:
- Auxiliary aids such as induction or infra-red hearing systems, text phones
- Accessible facilities such as wayfinding signage, information in non-standard formats communication support & signed performances
- Essential adaptations such as ramps, handrails, lifts, sanitary facilities
- Including but not limited to the above, other innovatory ideas will be considered
Applications must:
- Demonstrate how the proposal will improve accessibility
- Demonstrate how the project will support social inclusion for the local community.
- Demonstrate the proposal is viable and that partnership funding is being sourced or in place to meet objectives.
- Demonstrate a realistic budget is in place.
- Demonstrate effective financial and project management.
Priority will be given to low-income voluntary organisations and venues that can demonstrate a commitment to disability equality through practice (inc. evidence of previous adaptations or efforts to improve accessibility)
Grants are available on a sliding scale up to 75% of total costs. Statutory Bodies and Local Authorities owned venues must provide at least 50% partnership funds.
Last year Adapt re- commitment the investment to building equality and inclusion by providing financial support.
Adapt incentive grant scheme was open to arts cultural and leisure venues across N Ireland. During the past year the scheme assisted organisations with financial support and access guidance in the provision of :
- designated parking bays,
- accessible sanitary facilities,
- ramped access including the more innovative access solutions such as Big Telly Mobile Victorian Theatre.
The Adapt Board, designated £20,000 to be distributed as grants for access adaptations. The need for this popular Adapt scheme can be measured in the number of application submitted. Although the applications were quite competitive, due to the limited budget, only 8 organisations were successful.