Grants database

Comic Relief and Paul Hamlyn Foundation are working in partnership to deliver the Tech for Good funding programme in 2017. The programme will support 10 charity organisations who are using technology to deliver new ideas and make their services more effective. This funding will support 4 of the 10 grants made with successful applicants receiving £15,000 – £50,000 over four months, which will include £3,500 for dedicated technical support.

Kim Furnish and Islay Downey have 20 years’ combined experience working with families where a child’s behaviour is challenging; they are regular contributors to TV and radio shows and have recently published a book on parenting violent children. PHF funding will enable Kim and Islay to pilot Reducing Child to Parent Violence, a programme that offers parents access to real time therapeutic support in their own homes via internet teleconferencing. Parents will participate in individual sessions guided by an experienced practitioner to make lasting changes to their own and their child’s behaviour.

Rosie Havers developed her ​‘Vegucation’ idea whilst undertaking her Masters research project at Cardiff University, having been inspired by her work on school gardening projects in Canada and the USA. Vegucation aims to embed food growing into the school curriculum in an educationally meaningful and sustainable way. The programme will be piloted with five Cardiff primary schools over one academic year (reaching approximately 1500 children) and will deliver one, hour-long gardening session for each class (51 in total) per half-term. A volunteer support network will be established to encourage sustainability and wider community involvement.

Anne-Marie Douglas has 17 years’ experience working with children and young people in the care and youth justice systems. She has spent the past year conducting research on peer-led ​‘Positive Psychology’ as part of her Peer Power initiative and has presented her ideas at the Youth Justice Convention and House of Lords. PHF funding will enable Peer Power to pilot peer-led ​‘Positive Psychology’ workshops to test their effectiveness at increasing well-being amongst excluded young people in the criminal justice and care systems. Whilst Positive Psychology – the scientific study of optimal functioning and well-being – has been shown to increase well-being amongst adults, it has not yet been tried with excluded young people. During the pilot, an evidence base will be developed, and research sites, partners and further funding options will be identified.

Juno Roche is a campaigner, dedicated to creating systemic and structural change in the field of sexual health for trans people. With this funding, she will seek to highlight the sexual health needs of trans people with particular reference to HIV. She will put on a roundtable event bringing together leading HIV clinicians, academics and representatives from the trans community. She will commission a film about the work of CliniQ, a specialist sexual health service for trans people, and training from CLiniQ staff for 16 other sexual health clinics in London and the Home Counties.

Sashy Nathan is one of the founders of Commons, a new initiative of lawyers who work on legally-aided cases across the UK and want to help those most in need with a sustainable, digitally-oriented, legal services practice. With PHF funding, Commons plan to set up the first not-for-profit cooperative law firm offering services to vulnerable people who would otherwise be forced to manage on their own. By supplementing legal aid with grant funding and private client work, they will undertake a scoping exercise to identify the unmet needs of future service users and potential partners, so that they are in a position to apply for funding for the start-up costs of the initiative.

Siobhan Pyburn wants to bring survivor insight into training for professionals working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Siobhan has created a short film, aired on TV, telling her story of child sexual abuse, as well as raising awareness by speaking at conferences on child sexual exploitation and establishing her own YouTube channel focusing on specific aspects of abuse. With PHF funding, she plans to distil her learning on this issue into training resources, while continuing her activism to bring survivor insight to the fore and developing her skills as a speaker and presenter. She plans to work three days per week on resource development, speaking and other activism over the six-month grant period.

brap is an equality and human rights charity, based in Birmingham, which undertakes community engagement, training, research and campaigning. It will explore innovative group facilitation techniques as a way to engage communities experiencing high inward migration more positively in the integration debate. The ​‘process work’ method of community dialogue will be used to explore various viewpoints on issues of concern, in particular ​‘unheard’ and ​‘marginalised’ voices. The aim is to better understand community conflicts, establish meaningful relationships between residents and to inform public sector strategic thinking on migrant integration. Learning will be captured in a guidance document and shared via Birmingham-wide and national events.

BOM is a city-centre gallery, events and co-working space that hosts exhibitions, artist residencies, shared learning and outreach, including Arts Award. This grant will support work with Baskerville School, a secondary for students on the autistic spectrum. BOM will investigate whether teaching science through art can: 

• Increase student engagement and achievement
• Improve staff confidence in STEAM (combining traditionally arts and science subject matter)
• Increase the arts’ status within the Baskerville community

Volcano Theatre Company is a small, energetic and responsive arts company. This grant will support ​‘Spiked’: a partnership between Volcano and Coastal Housing, examining how a professional arts organisation can work with socially excluded people and make performances that represent life on the streets.

Founded in 2011 by the Mayor of London, Shubbak (‘window’ in Arabic) is London’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture. This grant will support curators and artists from the Middle East to work with community organisations in London on a series of workshops and residencies. Shubbak will to explore and test new approaches to increasing the participation of Arab communities in the arts.

Phoenix Dance is a contemporary dance company that tour both internationally and across the UK and delivers dance education programmes. This grant will provide weekly after-school dance classes, performances and opportunities to participate in more intensive programmes for around 80 – 120 boys aged 8 – 19 from diverse backgrounds across Leeds and Bradford.