Deadline: 27-Feb-23
Are you a community group or civil society organisation supporting migrant Londoners? If yes, then Migrant Advice and Support Fund is for you.
The Mayor of London is offering funding to frontline organisations providing specialist advice and/or holistic support to migrant Londoners.
Specialist advice is crucial if migrant Londoners are to navigate these hostile policies, understand their rights and entitlements, and access essential services.
Aims
- The fund aims to support a resilient and inclusive advice sector to meet the dynamic needs of migrant Londoners. The broad objectives of the fund are to:
- Develop advice, support and outreach capacity for currently underserved groups and areas of emerging need;
- Promote lasting collaboration across the advice sector to improve support for migrant groups by funding partnership work;
- Promote practices which prioritise staff wellbeing in challenging contexts to improve the long-term resilience of the sector.
Funding Information
- Grant funding of up to £300,000 is available for 6 months of activity from March to September 2023. There is an intention to extend this for a further 6 months, pending approval of additional funding.
How much can you apply for?
- For the first six months (March 2023-Sep 2023), individual organisations can apply for grants between £10,00 and £30,000.
- Organisations working in partnership will be able to apply for grants from £10,000 up to a maximum of £70,000.
- For the extended six months (Sep 2023 – March 2024), individual organisations will be able to apply for between £10,00 and £30,000, whilst partnerships will be eligible to bid for between £10,00 and £70,000. They particularly encourage applications from partnerships for this programme.
Activities
- Activities supported by the fund may include, but are not limited to:
- Establishment or strengthening partnerships between organisations providing advice and support to migrant Londoners, including across community groups. This may be an opportunity for organisations supporting London’s newly arrived communities to collaborate with more established networks and civil society organisations and invest in lasting referral pathways and the development of culturally tailored services.
- Outreach, signposting, or holistic support activities to support enduring access to information and support for migrant Londoners who are currently underserved by existing advice provision.
- Expansion of advice and casework provision for migrant Londoners and their family members in response to emerging areas of need. This may include immigration advice or broader advice provision, as long as this is tailored to support those with immigration needs and meets the priority advice needs of your target client group.
- Development and dissemination of translated information to support migrant Londoners to understand and access their rights, including the Migrant Londoners Hub.
- Investment into organisational capacity to respond to the new and emerging needs of migrant Londoners, including development of awareness and cultural competence through collaboration with community groups.
- Development of a tailored response to new communities and/or new community needs (including supporting new arrivals from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Hong Kong).
- Investment into staff welfare and wellbeing, including contributions to staffing, organisational governance, development of or support to staff counselling and assistance services. Applications should include staff time to participate in the wider wellbeing elements of this programme.
What can the grant cover?
- Grants can cover costs incurred in delivering or facilitating projects that align with the fund’s objectives. This could include, but is not limited to:
- Costs for qualified advisors or solicitors’ costs whether employed directly or not. This may cover areas such as immigration, social welfare, community care, housing, etc.
- Interpreting and translation costs where these are related to accessing specialised advice.
- Salary costs for outreach or community engagement workers to support underserved migrants to access advice and support.
- Pro-bono barrister or volunteer expenses, such as essential travel and subsistence.
- Client expenses such as essential travel and obtaining ID documents.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications are open to community groups and civil society organisations that have a strong track record of working with migrant Londoners and/or are responding to an increase in need for migrant Londoners, especially newly arrived and underserved groups. In particular:
- Organisations must be delivering work to support Londoners, they cannot fund activities where the target beneficiaries are not resident in London.
- While they will accept applications from individual organisations, partnerships or joint applications made up of two or more organisations are strongly encouraged (with one lead partner identified in the application).
- Lead organisations will need to confirm they have adequate and appropriate policies and procedures in place, including policies for Safeguarding, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and complaints (where services include advice provision).
- Lead/applying organisations may comprise of a range of governance structures but need to be a constituted group, at a minimum. This includes organisations with the following structures:
- Registered, exempted, or excepted charity
- Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
- Community Interest Company limited by guarantee
- Charitable company limited by guarantee (that is not also a registered charity)
- Community benefit society (Industrial and Provident society)
- Faith group, where the activity is not promoting religion
- Constituted but unincorporated club or association
- Constituted community group
- Community Infrastructure Organisations
- Social Enterprise/CIC
- In the case of partnerships applications, only the lead organisation needs to meet the criteria.
- Applicants must have appropriate experience or qualification for the services offered. For example, applicants offering immigration advice must demonstrate OISC or SRA accreditation, whilst applicants offering holistic support, outreach, or signposting must demonstrate reach and experience of working with the groups or communities they serve.
- Organisations must be financially sound, secure and in a healthy position to deliver their proposed projects through the duration of the grant. The GLA will undertake financial due diligence prior to awarding any grants.
For more information, visit Migrant Advice and Support Fund.
