Deadline: 15-Jul-22
The Webs of Safety and Care Grant (WSC Grant) is seeking applications for its grant program to support women and non-binary organisations and their networks with resources to create community-based structures and resources through which they are able to build and strengthen their responses to risks and threats they face.
WSC Grants seek to provide women and non-binary human rights defenders with sustained access to resources to support their holistic movement infrastructure for collective care, deepening their resilience, wellbeing and safety, that would sustain their lives and their long-term social change work.
Funding Information
- Grant amount – up to USD 10,000 per grant is provided to those applications that have conducted complete safety and care analysis. The proposed plan to address the risks and threats is based on this analysis.
- Grant amount up to USD 5000 per grant is provided to organisations and networks that are proposing to conduct a complete safety and care assessment of their organisation/ network or communities.
- Applications sought through invitation: previous grantees and other partners; recommended by Advisors. [Period of 4weeks]
- Processing of application: This will include verification process through their Advisors and other trusted partners as well as their recommendations. [maximum of 4 weeks period since the application deadline]
- Decision by UAF A&P Working Group: approximately 6 weeks from the application deadline
What do the WSC Grant support?
With a WSC Grant, women and non-binary defenders and activists, their communities or networks can carry out following towards developing sustained safety and care structures:
- Assess holistic risks and threats, and safety and care needs – Grantees can conduct an overall assessment of risk and threats they face as an individual or as part of a movement. They can also assess the existing structures that can support them in times of crisis. If needed, UAF A&P will support by providing tools that can be adapted as required as well as technical accompaniment in analysing the needs and designing required structures.
- A grantee in Nepal used the grant to conduct a-two day assessment of risks and threats faced by women human rights defenders working on land-rights. They identified that major risks faced by the defenders were lack of health and well-being support for activists, lack of social-cultural support including from their families as well as risks to their livelihood. Following this assessment, they identified developing sustainable livelihood structures for activists and defenders can mitigate the risks they are facing and are now working towards that.
- Build – Expand or deepen existing efforts activists and their networks may have put in place including well being and safety for defenders and communities. This can include enhancing the skills of defenders and create networks of skilled defenders to address risks and threats they regularly face, such as primary digital security trainers, skilled peer psycho-social counsellors or network of pro-bono lawyers
- Using the grant, a network of women human rights defenders in South East Asia trained women and non-binary defenders in their networks to develop their skill as psycho-social counsellors. This will help create network of skilled counsellors among the peer defenders who will be able to support and identify psycho-social needs of their peers.
- Create – New structures that help defenders / communities in building resilience or prioritizing rest and rejuvenation; provide holistic well-being and care for defenders’ and communities; Example of this can be creating sustainable safe spaces for women and non-binary defenders that can be accessed when they are facing threats or when they need respite from their day to day activism work.
- A grantee from Indonesia received UAF A&P Resourcing Resilience Grant to start a beauty salon operated by transgenders activists. This space which was sustained through the earning as a beauty salon was created to use as a safe space for transgenders community to come together. Similar initiatives can be supported under WSC grant, provided it is based on holistic assessment of safety and care.
- Connect – Grantees are able to share learnings, ideas and experiences within their own across movements on promoting resilience, well being and collective care. Examples include workshops or convenings with their defenders on normalising conversations on mental health and well-being.
- Grantee in Sri Lanka used WSC grant to create a learning and sharing spaces of individual and collective care practices, fear and hopes for their movements and used the space to map out overall safety and care issues faced by the network and their movement.
Eligibility Criteria
Women and non-binary activists and defenders, their network and communities can propose initiatives that:
- Include a complete assessment of safety and care or are based on such assessment that have previously been conducted. The documentation of the holistic safety and care assessment is essential.
- Have a clear link between the safety and care needs identified and how the proposed initiative addresses them.
- Have a clear strategy of how the initiative will be implemented and what is expected as outcomes
- Must be led/conducted by organisations, collectives and networks led by women and non-binary human rights defenders.
- Must be supported by networks of human rights, women’s rights and other related networks at local or national levels. This may include UAF A&P’s network of advisors and other partners.
For more information, visit https://uafanp.org/webs-safety-and-care-grants