Comic Relief: Tech vs Abuse

Overview

Through the Tampon Tax Fund, a partnership between HM Government and Comic Relief they anticipate making up to seven grants from a total fund of up to £300,000.

Grants can be for amounts between £20,000 and £50,000 over a period of one year from August 2017 to August 2018.

Eligibility

• Organisations or partnerships applying to this initiative must meet Comic Relief’s general eligibility requirements. In addition:
• Grants are available for work throughout the UK.
• There is no restriction on the annual income of the organisation or partnership applying for a grant.
• There is no restriction on applying for this grant if you have another grant with Comic Relief.
• They will not fund pure research for the duration of the grant, however, they will support research as part of the grant that results in the creation of a tangible solutions.

Five Design Challenges

Comic Relief will be funding five key design challenges. These have been prioritised on the basis that if addressed effectively and safely, these solutions would make the most immediate difference to people affected by domestic abuse. The design challenges are intended to inspire innovation in the design and delivery of services for people affected by domestic abuse, both online and offline.

The five key design challenges are:

1) Fifteen minute window

Provide or curate key information online for women experiencing domestic abuse in a way which is easy to find, simple to navigate and quick to interact with.

2) Effective real-time support services

Enable women to find and access services for support (including referrals) when required, day or night, seamlessly and with minimal logistical and emotional burden.

3) Safer digital-footprint

Provide people affected by domestic abuse and frontline professionals the confidence and knowledge they need to use technology and stay online safely, with full control over their online data, privacy settings and social media accounts.

4) Accessible legal and financial information

Create engaging, accessible and digestible information on the legal process or the financial situation women find themselves in, connecting to support and advice where relevant.

5) Realising it’s abuse

Use the creative opportunities of the web to raise awareness of what an abusive relationship looks like, provoking women and girls experiencing abuse to recognise this and get support.

They will support new technology development as well as low-technology solutions and any training and resource publications required to meet these design challenges. However, they are particularly supportive of innovative approaches ensuring these solutions have high immediate impact or a lasting legacy beyond the life of the funding. They are also interested in solutions with the potential to scale up, whether this is gained through buy-in across domestic abuse support agencies, by open sourcing the solution or ensuring shared learning and the possibility of replication. They will assess projects based on their ability to work towards the set of design principles set out in the design challenges report, as well as giving further support on these as part of the grant.

What will be funded?

• Applicants should focus on one of the design challenges and refer to the research and rationale relating to this.
• They will fund digital solutions at any stage of development (from idea stage to those with existing solutions) and are looking for those projects and partnerships with potential to address the design challenges. They are happy to support projects without a digital partner in place at the point of applying.
• They welcome proposals from the women and girls sector and beyond, including unusual collaborations, such as those working together to develop new solutions alongside design or digital agencies.
• The grant will include additional support from social-tech development experts, which will include a start-up workshop over two days at the start of the grant, connections to tech experts, on-going mentoring and two peer learning days in November 2017 and April 2018.
• Applicants should budget for three trips to London to attend these sessions.
• The first three months the grant will also be dedicated research, ideas development, user testing or piloting, before development and delivery work begins in full over the remaining nine months to develop a solution.

For more information see the website