Deadline: 28-Apr-23
The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) has announced the opening of its Violence Reduction Fund to fund projects providing positive diversionary activities, role models, development, and support for young people across South Yorkshire.
The Violence Reduction Fund is open to community groups, social enterprises and non-profit organisations working in South Yorkshire who provide support to young people aged 4-25, to stop them engaging in violent crime.
Aims
- The VRU has an overall vision “To empower and enable people in the communities of South Yorkshire to work together and embrace opportunities for preventing and reducing violence” and has identified 16 priorities to achieve this:
- Work with partners to promote safe, nurturing, and stable relationships between children and their parents and caregivers
- Encourage all professionals and organisations to become trauma-informed, to an approved standard for South Yorkshire Tackle domestic abuse and work to ensure that survivors can access the support they need
- Promote gender equality to reduce and prevent violence against women and girls
- Work in partnership to improve South Yorkshire residents’ mental health, and work so that those who need support receive it in a timely manner
- Support people who misuse substances to make more positive choices
- Work in partnership to reduce the harmful use of alcohol
- Work in partnership to ensure that children and young people have equal opportunities to access education and that their different starting points and situations are taken into account
- Support people into employment and provide pathways to further education and retraining
- Promote the importance of access to adequate housing for people to help them stay healthy and thrive
- Increase community cohesion, supporting residents to identify and maximise their assets
- Support effective rehabilitation, providing ways out for those already entrenched in violence, or who have previously been in prison
- Reduce access to lethal means
- Work to change the cultural and social attitudes which contribute to violence
- Work to embed the Public Health approach in Community Safety Partnerships, and ensure that existing mechanisms for change are fully utilised
- Reduce violence through victim identification, care, and support programme
Focus Areas
- The Community Grants Scheme directly contributes to these areas of focus by enabling non-profit organisations to deliver community-based projects aimed at keeping people safe, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, and supporting victims of crime. Grants awarded are typically aimed at achieving the following:
- Breaking down barriers to participation
- Changing behaviours, attitudes and lifestyles
- Diverting children and young people, particularly those facing disadvantage, away from anti-social and/or other negatives behaviours
- Strengthening communities and improving community cohesion
- Increasing awareness of and resilience against local issues and risks
- Improving outcomes and opportunities for targeted groups such as victims of crime, young people, veterans, care leavers, ex-offenders, those on the cusp of entering the Criminal Justice System, homeless people, etc.
Funding Information
- Non-profit organisations can apply for up to £20,000 to deliver projects lasting up to 8 months to support young people aged 4-25 (between 1st July 2023 – 29th February 2024 (35 weeks)).
What they fund?
- The VRU recognises the important role that voluntary and community sector organisations play in developing and delivering local solutions to local issues. The VRU Community Grants scheme invites organisations to apply for funding to support young people aged 4-25.
- The funding can be used to establish new activities, to build on existing provision or to trial something completely new as a pilot project. We are especially interested in funding imaginative and innovative projects that offer new ways of meeting and addressing the VRU’s priorities.
- Proposals can be targeted towards supporting specific groups or communities and/or addressing local issues. All applications should be developed in response to an identified or unmet need which can be backed up with evidence. Applicants should also engage with other local providers to ensure the project is integrated into the wider local offer.
Eligibility Criteria
The scheme is eligible to non-profit making organisations delivering projects and activities to benefit local people and communities in South Yorkshire. These include:
- Registered charities
- Voluntary organisations with a clear not-for-profit purpose in their governing document
- Unregistered community groups that comply with our governance arrangements
- Community Interest Companies limited by guarantee
- Schools and trusts (delivering non-statutory activities additional to the National Curriculum and standard school day)
- They do not fund NHS bodies, prisons, or local government bodies, including councils at all levels. We do not fund businesses or profit-making enterprises.
For more information, visit VRU.