Thriving Futures Fund

The Henry Smith Charity is a large independent trust in the UK that gives out over £40 million each year.

The Charity aims to use its resources to help people and communities in a time of need and to bring about positive change. They achieve this by funding organisations that work with people to reduce social and economic disadvantage.

The Fund

The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland is delighted to work with the Henry Smith Charity to launch the new Northern Ireland Thriving Futures Fund.

The fund aims to support:

• refugees and people seeking asylum
• people experiencing domestic abuse
• people leaving the criminal justice system

These periods of challenge and change are often high-need points, where negative experiences can lead to economic disadvantage, poverty and exclusion, or worse. However, they are also high-leverage points where clusters of need can be addressed by effective interventions to break cycles of disadvantage and achieve lasting transformation.

Applications are welcome from organisations providing support in one or more of these three areas.

People leaving the criminal justice system:

The Fund seeks to support organisations in their work to improve life outcomes for people leaving the criminal justice system; enabling them to transition into the community and so reduce reoffending.

The UK has the highest imprisonment rates in Western Europe, with overstretched prison and probation systems. High reconviction rates – 38% overall and 58% of women were reconvicted within a year in 2022 – highlight the failure to rehabilitate people effectively.

This failure to support people to resettle into the community has an impact on communities, victims and offenders’ families, especially children. These impacts disproportionately affect minoritised communities, who are significantly over-represented in the system. The majority of people who have contact with the criminal justice system have faced significant challenges and trauma, and the current system, particularly overcrowded prisons, is not working effectively to meet the needs of those people.

Evidence shows that a primary driver of reoffending is when people’s needs are not being met, for example safe housing, mental health and substance misuse support. Well-resourced services and support in prison, on release and within the community that meet those needs is essential for people caught in the criminal justice system. This will improve the outcomes for those individuals, empowering them to realise their ambitions and will have a positive impact for their families, communities and wider society.

Key issues highlighted as part of an initial consultation were:

• Lack of support around addictions and mental health
• Lack of suitable housing and lack of support with accessing accommodation
• Delays in accessing benefits
• Risks of re-offending, homelessness, poverty
• Paramilitary barriers to re-integrating within former community
• Lack of support pre and post leaving prison system
• Need for wraparound support inc engagement with families, and mental health & addictions support
• It is often time intensive to provide the right level of support – and there is currently a lack of capacity. Foreign national prisoners have particular issues to deal with – lack of access to advice, no visitors, racism (both within the system and outwith)

What we would like the funding to help achieve:

Impact on services, so that:

• People are better prepared for prison release and better supported in the community.
• There is an increase in high quality, trauma informed support so people can build on their strengths and make positive transitions.
• There are reduced recall and reoffending rates.

Systems and Policy Change, so that:

• Community based sentencing and support are better resourced and utilised which leads to fewer people going to prison.
• Policies are more responsive to lived experience and tackle the systemic discrimination within the criminal justice system.
• Organisations working in this area have increased resilience, voice, support and are better able to sharing knowledge and insight.

Refugees and people seeking asylum:

The Fund seeks to support organisations in their work to help improve the lives of refugees and those leaving the asylum system, enabling people to resettle and lead safe, dignified and fulfilling lives.

People who have fled conflict and persecution for the UK often face systemic, uphill battles to settle into and flourish in their new communities. Newly recognised refugees have limited time to leave asylum accommodation and find housing, work or welfare. As a result, many face compound injustice – homelessness, destitution, exploitation and related harms. Evidence indicates key unmet need include legal advice, housing and employment support – critical enabling factors supporting people’s transitions into community.

The Fund is to enable organisations to help refugees and people seeking asylum to access justice, social, educational and economic opportunities so they can rebuild their lives within the community. This might include, for example, organisations helping people access safe housing, legal advice, education, training and employment opportunities, as well as organisations working to improve systems, laws and policies so they are more supportive.

Key issues identified as part of an initial consultation were:

• Difficulties in finding suitable accommodation – can end up anywhere in NI & often in unsuitable, temporary accommodation
• Lack of support generally and lack of consistent support particularly when moving accommodation
• Lack of practical support around issues like transport costs
• Lack of access to immigration advice
• Lack of capacity within support organisations providing services given current levels of demand
• Digital exclusion – lack of access to devices & data, as well as need for skills development (e-visa system & accessing health and benefits support are particular issues)
• Risk of destitution – lack of access to public funds, lack of casework support, homelessness, delays in benefits, lack of income
• Lack of understanding and capacity within both statutory & VCSE sectors
• Lack of advocacy support alongside a need to hold agencies to account
• Lack of access to legal support
• Isolation & lack of integration within community settings (issues with hate crime & racism)
• Amount of time required to support individuals – can be resource intensive for support organisations

What we would like the funding to help achieve:

Impact on services, so that:

• People in the asylum system are better prepared for leaving the system and better supported in the community
• Refugees and people leaving the asylum system are equipped and empowered to make positive transitions.
• People are safe from destitution, homelessness, exploitation or abuse
• People are able to realise socio-economic opportunities.

Systems and Policy Change, so that:

• Systems and policies enable people to make positive transitions.
• Organisations working in this area have increased resilience, voice, support and better able to sharing knowledge and insight.

People experiencing domestic abuse:

The Fund seeks to support organisations in their work to help people with experience of domestic abuse can recover and live safe lives free from abuse.

Domestic abuse is widespread in the UK. An estimated 2.1 million people aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in 2023. This widespread problem has huge personal, social and economic consequences. Domestic abuse is the leading cause of homelessness amongst women and drives demand for temporary housing, costing local authorities £1.7bn a year.

Abuse is often linked to other serious issues, such as poor mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, and crime. It also impacts on children, with almost 250,000 children referred to social services in 2022 due to domestic abuse.

Despite the scale of abuse, reporting remains low, and support services are inadequate, particularly for minoritised and excluded communities.

The Fund seeks to enable work that focuses on providing specialist support for individuals experiencing domestic abuse, especially those from minoritised communities. We want to help ensure that people experiencing domestic abuse can rebuild their lives, process trauma and improve their social, physical and financial situations. Through our support we aim to contribute to people becoming free from cycles of abuse and able to live safe, independent lives.

Key issues identified from an initial consultation:

• Lack of support for women going through criminal justice system – need for intensive & prolonged support to achieve convictions & ‘closure’
• Risk of homelessness with associated financial & emotional impact
• Ongoing harassment & intimidation – lack of enforcement of protection orders
• Lack of therapy & counselling support
• Lack of advocacy support, particularly with social services & legal system
• Issues are exacerbated for women who are also within the asylum system

What we would like the funding to help achieve:

Impact on services, so that:

• People live free from abuse and the threat of violence.
• People overcome the trauma, financial and social impacts of abuse and can improve their lives.

Systems and Policy Change, so that:

• Systems are better equipped to support people effectively.
• Policies are supportive of survivors.
• Organisations working in this area have increased resilience, voice, support and better able to sharing knowledge and insight.

Grant size:

Grants will be available for up to three years and will range from £30,000 to £50,000 per annum. The maximum available for a three-year grant will be £150,000.

We envisage making 8 to 10 awards.

Priorities:

Service delivery – We will prioritise services that are:

• Informed by Lived Experience & Evidence – where the voice of lived experience is embedded within the organisations we support, and services are informed by people with first-hand experience of the issues.
• Holistic – where services consider the “whole person” and provide support across multiple areas to enable people to overcome challenges and to live healthy lives.
• Person Centred – where services work with people to provide the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their situation more effectively and to advocate for themselves, treating individuals as a partner in their own improvement and acknowledging their capabilities.
• Relational – services that work in a relational way with people to develop their capabilities and resilience, improve opportunity and connect to others.
• Lasting Impact – services that create creating enduring, sustainable improvement in circumstances. Services will have a long-term perspective aiming for sustainable development of individuals’ social inclusion, capacities, resilience, empowerment, and community connections.
• Improving systems – In addition to supporting service delivery, we want to play our part to improve the systems in which organisations operate, and which people must navigate to receive support. We will provide funding for activities that address the structures, standards and practices that influence service provision.

Some of the ways we will look to improve systems may include:

• Place based systems improvement- work to improve the performance of systems at a local level – through joined up working, sharing of data/ insight, encouraging groups to work together effectively, bringing leadership together.
• Harnessing collective effort-bringing organisations working in the same areas together to work on a joint agenda to drive change.
• Scaling existing models-adapting/scaling existing models.
• Shaping sector practice-changing how people work by sharing ideas and tools.
• Building the evidence base using evidence to unlock scale by making the case for wider change.
• Using Data for Transparency and Insight-strategies that use data to shine a new light on problems, change how people understand issues or galvanise action.
• Influencing the allocation of Wider Funding-strategies that seek to change or redirect the way funding is allocated.
• Challenging the status quo-questioning the status quo from outside, alongside or within the systems.

What we can and cannot fund:

We want this fund to be flexible and to support the costs needed to deliver on your work. We will therefore consider any costs associated, including core costs, with your application, providing the application clearly outlines how these costs support work that meets the fund criteria and priorities.

There are, however, some costs and organisations that are ineligible for this fund as outlined below:

Organisations or activities which promote causes that are contrary to our purposes. Causes and activities that are contrary to our purposes include, but may not be limited to, those outlined in our investment policy. We will not therefore fund organisations or activities which we determine are linked to the promotion of armaments, alcohol, human rights abuses, tobacco or pornography.

In addition, the Fund will not support: 

• The advancement of religion. This includes organisations whose purposes include the advancement of religion;
• The establishment of endowment of any school or institution providing further education within the meaning of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1972;
• The provision of assistance to any Housing Association within the meaning of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1976;
• Promotion of religious or political activity, including any flags and emblems that may deem to be associated with such;
• CIC Companies Limited by Shares, or CICs without an asset lock clause. Eligible CICs must have at least three unrelated committee members, and/or the majority of the committee unrelated;
• Applications from individuals;
• Applications from statutory organisations;
• Vehicles;
• Retrospective funding;
• Substitution for statutory funding.

Application Process:

The application process will be two stages.

Applications must be submitted online by 1 pm on Monday 12th May.

Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to present to a panel early to mid June.