Deadline: 26-Nov-21
The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland is inviting applications for its Housing and Homelessness Innovation & Voice Programme to support the development, testing and delivery of new ideas and collaborations addressing the root causes of housing issues and homelessness, and work with a range of organisations and giving voice to individuals with lived experience across Northern Ireland.
By amplifying the voices of those with lived experience, embedding participation, promoting collaborative and utilising a creative problem solving process, they aim to address the root causes of the challenge and contribute to reducing and preventing homelessness in Northern Ireland.
The Housing and Homelessness programme is an innovative, participative initiative which not only funds individual projects but which supports the creation of a movement working on the root causes of homelessness.
The purpose is to provide an opportunity for organisations working on housing and homelessness to collaborate in developing, and delivering, solutions to shared challenges. The outputs of the process could comprise either new services to be directly delivered by the sector, or campaigns seeking policy change at statutory level, or both.
Priority Areas
The Foundation’s Housing & Homelessness Programme Steering Group, which comprises individuals with lived experience as well as representatives of key organisations working on housing and homelessness, reviewed the results of the survey and the associated research and agreed the following 13 themes as the basis for the next stage of the programme.
- Rented housing
- Mental health & complex needs
- Stigma & respect
- Hostels & temporary emergency accommodation
- Violence against women & girls
- Female homelessness
- Services/support for male and other victims of domestic violence
- Relationship breakdown
- Homelessness affecting asylum seekers and refugees
- Homelessness affecting LGBTQ+ people
- Homelessness affecting young people
- Early intervention support
- Agencies & organisations not collaborating enough
How the Programme works?
- Steering Group: Advice and guidance from experts by experience and partner organisations
- Challenge Identified: Individuals affected by homelessness identify the priority issue
- Collaborative Teams: Organisations explore working together on the challenges identified
- Creative Problem Solving: Facilitated process to help teams develop their solution
- Seed Fund: Participatory Grant-Making process to allocate awards of E15k – £25k
Expected Outcomes
- New collaborations emerge amongst organisations working on housing issues and homelessness
- New solutions to specific challenges within housing and homelessness are developed and tested, placing the insights and voices of people with lived experience at the centre
- New opportunities to influence decision making and public services relating to housing and homelessness
- Enhanced knowledge and skills in creative problem solving for participating individuals and organisations
For more information, visit https://communityfoundationni.org/programme-resources/housing-and-homelessness-programme-2021-2022/