Deadline: 15-Jul-25
Applications are now open for the COMHOM subgranting initiative aims to promote cultural change and digital transformation among EU homelessness service providers by offering support through essential funding and resources.
The ultimate goal of this initiative is to establish a European network of homelessness service providers, all embedded in a culture of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and integrating digital tools into their service delivery. By joining the COMHOM project, organisations will strengthen their role as key actors in driving systemic innovative solutions within the social service sector, enhancing operational efficiency, service quality, and resource allocation.
They are looking for organisations that are ready to digitalise and enhance their operations with innovative solutions. Ideal applicants will demonstrate the following:
- Initiated or in the process of digitalising their organisation or actively implementing measures to start their digital transformation.
- A desire for innovative social solutions to address current challenges and improve service delivery.
- A willingness to test and adapt COMHOM digital solutions tailored to the unique needs of the homelessness sector.
- A recognition of the critical importance of M&E to continually improve services and ensure lasting impact.
Benefits
- Participating in the COMHOM project presents a unique opportunity for homeless social service providers to strengthen their digital capacities and embed a culture of M&E within their organisations. Selected organisations will benefit from:
- Drive social innovation: take part in a pilot project that promotes forward-thinking approaches, empowering your organisation to co-create, test, and adapt digital tools specifically tailored to the homelessness sector.
- Collaboration: successful applicants gain access to a vibrant European network of homelessness service providers, digital experts, and M&E specialists. Participants will benefit from ongoing mentoring, peer exchange, co-creation activities, and access to a range of resources designed to help overcome challenges and strengthen internal capacities.
- Multi-disciplinary data integration: bringing together the expertise of all professionals working to combat homelessness.
- Access to funding: receive between €40,000 and €60,000 to accelerate your digital transformation and strengthen your M&E capabilities with direct financial support.
- Capacity Building: engage in tailored training and hands-on support aimed at enhancing staff skills in digital technologies, data analysis, and results-based management, ensuring long-term sustainability and impact.
Eligible Activities
- Advancing digitalisation initiatives and establishing basic data infrastructure for homelessness services
- Engaging in COMHOM’s capacity building programs and knowledge exchange activities
- Implementation of the COMHOM M&E framework
- Covering personnel costs (including new hires or reallocation of existing staff) related to digital transformation, data management, and monitoring
- Purchasing relevant software licenses and digital tools for homelessness data collection
- Hiring or contracting services from external experts such as IT professionals or data managers to develop an integration module to ensure smooth data exchange between the applicant software and COMHOM
What Participation Involves?
- Selected subgrantees will play a central role in shaping and testing the COMHOM platform, supporting its development through real-world insights, and embedding a M&E culture within their organisations. Below is an overview of the key areas of involvement:
- Living Labs
- Subgrantees will actively engage in Living Labs (LL), contributing to the co-design, prototyping, and iterative testing of COMHOM tools and methodologies. Their involvement will include providing practical feedback and user insights to refine the platform and enhance usability. Subgrantees will also participate in mixed-method evaluations, including surveys, interviews, and focus groups, aimed at assessing platform impact, usability, and organisational change.
- Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (M&E)
- Subgrantees will implement a standardized M&E framework, using project-provided checklists, guidelines, and recommendations. They will be responsible for collecting, monitoring, and reporting operational data, which will feed directly into the COMHOM platform. These efforts will contribute to fostering a culture of M&E within their organisations, encouraging continuous learning, internal improvement, and the sharing of insights across the wider network.
- Social Experimentation
- Social Experimentation is the real-world testing of COMHOM tools, where subgrantees integrate them into their daily work with support and mentoring, while sharing feedback to assess their feasibility, usability, and effectiveness.
- Capacity Building (CB)
- Subgrantees will participate in three in-person Capacity Building (CB) meetings, during which they will appoint an English-speaking CB focal person to be trained and cascade knowledge internally. Additional virtual CB sessions will be organised based on identified needs.
- Data integration
- Subgrantees will adapt their data collection system to integrate into the COMHOM platform:
- Subgrantees with existing data-collection software: following a push-based approach, subgrantees will upload their datasets to COMHOM in a predefined format. This will require implementing a transformation module to extract data from their existing systems, translate it to English and format it according to a standardized schema. To support this, COMHOM will provide detailed documentation outlining the required data structure, including specified columns and acceptable values as well as an SDK (Software Development Kit) to facilitate integration.
- Subgrantees that do not currently have data collection software: will need to acquire a data registration software with COMHOM funds and implement the integration process.
- Subgrantees will adapt their data collection system to integrate into the COMHOM platform:
- Living Labs
Eligibility Criteria
- The call manager will review all applications and select those that fulfil the following eligibility criteria which outline the characteristics of social care organisations that are eligible or ineligible to apply for the third-party grant.
- Legal Status: The sole applicant must be a legal organisation (public or private) based in one of the EU Member States, non-EU countries listed in EEA countries associated to the ESF+ or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before the Subgranting contract grant signature.
- Sector of Activity: Service providers actively working in the homelessness sector, delivering direct care to homeless individuals through residential centers, shelters, housing-led initiatives, and other long-term housing solutions.
- Type of Organisation: Applications are welcome from both individual organisations and affiliated or subsidiary entities (child organisations) that are part of a larger network or umbrella organisation. Please note that network or umbrella organisations themselves are not eligible to apply directly; only their individual member organisations may submit applications.
- Capacity: Applicants must demonstrate relevant experience, organisational structure, qualified personnel, and financial means necessary to effectively carry out and coordinate their involvement in the project.
- Digitalisation Maturity: Organisations must demonstrate a minimum level of digitalisation, such as maintaining structured digital records (e.g., CSV, Excel, or similar formats). Must be able to use cloud-based systems.
- Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E): Practices Applicants must have an established data collection system capable of capturing quantitative or traceable data for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
- Team Language Requirements: At least two team members must demonstrate a professional command of English to serve as representatives of their organisation.
- Availability: Entities must be ready to start in December 2025. One representative will need to travel to the first COMHOM Capacity Building event on December 2-4th 2025.
Ineligibility Criteria
- For-profit organisations, even if they are legally registered in an eligible country.
- Organisations are not eligible to apply if they are registered or have their fiscal address outside of the following countries:
- EU Member States
- Non-EU countries that are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and associated with the ESF+
- Countries that are in the process of negotiating an association agreement with the ESF+, provided that the agreement is in force before the subgranting contract is signed
- Networks of organisations, i.e. parent organisations with multiple affiliated or with multiple subsidiary entities.
- Organisations that do not directly provide services to people experiencing homelessness.
For more information, visit COMHOM.