Keep The Faith magazine - Britain's leading publication about Black faith

Thursday, 11 August 2011 17:56

As part of the government's ambition to drive up community activism and build safer neighbourhoods, organisations from the voluntary sector across England and Wales are being invited to apply for a share of two new funds to support local areas in tackling the issues that matter most to them.

The Home Office is inviting applications from the voluntary sector for two funds:

*       A £5 million 'Community Action Against Crime: Innovation Fund' - to bring together active citizens and encourage new and         creative ways of working within communities to tackle crime, with a further £5 million set aside for 2012-13.  Full         details of the application process for 2011-12 will be made available on the Home Office website shortly - enquiries         should be addressed to: CAACFunding@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk; and
*       A £4 million 'Choices Fund' - to support the development of innovative local solutions to reduce substance misuse and         offending by young people. The Home Office is inviting applications from national voluntary sector organisations.  The         deadline for applications is Thursday 18 August 2011.  Further information  and how to apply is available at:                 www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/reducing-reoffending/iom/choices


BACKGROUND
Since January the public have been able to see what crime and antisocial behaviour is happening on their streets via www.police.uk www.police.uk and find out how to contact their local police if they have concerns. Through the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners from May 2012 the government is also giving power back to the people, giving them a proper say in how their local area is policed, and at the same time freeing up the police from central government targets and red tape to help officers get back out on the streets fighting crime.

Community Action Against Crime: Innovation Fund The purpose of the Innovation Fund is to stimulate creative new approaches to tackling crime. It will do so by empowering local groups to develop innovative projects to tackle local community safety problems. We are particularly keen for the fund to be made available to grass roots community activists who are not traditional recipients of government grants.

We also want the fund to encourage the voluntary sector to work more closely with local Community Safety Partnerships, and other statutory agencies that impact on community safety, to drive co-design and co-delivery of services.

The Innovation Fund will be worth £5 million in 2011-12 with a further £5 million set aside for 2012-13. Applications will be invited from voluntary and community sector organisations.

Choices Fund
Choices is focused on preventing and reducing substance misuse and related offending amongst vulnerable groups of young people who are most likely to be at risk of, or already starting to become involved in substance misuse or related offending.

The programme is designed to encourage the national voluntary sector to support small grass roots organisations to deliver targeted prevention and early intervention programmes.  We also want to encourage the transfer of skills, expertise and knowledge between national voluntary sector organisations and smaller voluntary sector and community groups in developing local approaches and practices that are effective in reducing substance misuse and related offending.

Faith Communities Engagement Team