Community Foundation for NI: Civic Innovation Programme

Overview

The programme will formally commence at the Community Foundation’s Democracy Day event on 29th January 2020, delivered in partnership with the Imagine Belfast Festival. At this event participants will have an opportunity to ‘pitch’ their ideas for projects to one another, as well as get some inspiration from international and local contributors working in the fields of public participation and democratic innovation. However you can attend their information workshops to learn more and get the ball rolling on your project idea (See details below).

From there, programme participants will self-form into up to 15 teams, each committed to developing a specific project idea. The teams will then attend a series of project design workshops in Derry-Londonderry or Belfast from February to April 2020 where they will have time to work up the details of their idea and receive expert mentoring and support.

All of the 15 teams will then receive a small grant of up to £5,000 to test their idea at a small scale, or to undertake necessary preliminary work such as research or political engagement. Following the completion of the small grants phase each team can then apply for a major grant of up to £50,000 to deliver their project over an 18 month period, with up to 10 projects being supported.

Across the entire programme the Community Foundation will seek to tap into the groundswell of democratic innovations taking place around the world and provide opportunities for grantees to learn from this and showcase their own work.