Community Cohesion and Resilience Programme (CCRP): Guidance for Applicants

Introduction

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has secured £2.5m through the Integrated Security Fund (ISF), a cross governmental fund seeking to address high priority security threats, both domestic and international.

Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (GMBC) has been awarded a proportion of this funding (current allocation is £55,000) to distribute to VCSE organisations in Gateshead. We are inviting applications to deliver projects which seek to bring communities together and/or raise community awareness and support.

Scope of the fund

Programme objectives

The programme will support projects that deliver outcomes in at least one of the following four themes:    

• brings communities together to improve cohesion and reduce divisions in places facing the worst extremism challenges
• improves the capability of places to tackle the extremist narratives and ideologies that are driving our communities apart
• improves local partnership approaches to supporting community resilience by funding projects to strengthen 'bridging' social capital in at-risk places
• improves the capability of places to respond to periods of community tensions through initiatives that strengthen community connections, promote unity and shared values

Expenditure - eligible and ineligible

All spend is strictly for project delivery, with the sole aim of achieving outcomes aligned with one or more of the four specified themes.

Eligible expenditure

Direct staff costs

The salaries and on costs for those staff delivering the project or engaged in activity directly related to the implementation and management of the project.

Direct costs

All eligible non staffing costs which directly relate to the delivery of the project. These may include:

• premises costs and associated running costs which are exclusively used for the project - that is to say costs that are not shared or apportioned across multiple projects or other activities of the organisation
• equipment used exclusively for project purposes
• materials and consumables purchased solely for project activity
• other costs such as marketing, publicity, and evaluation where these can be clearly identified and directly attributable to the project
• procured goods/services/works (used exclusively by the project) essential for the delivery of project activity
• cost of business trips, other travel, and subsistence required for project activity

Ineligible expenditure

The following costs are excluded as eligible expenditure:

• expenditure covered by any other projects
• any costs incurred before and after the project period
• paying for lobbying, entertaining, petitioning or challenging decisions, which means using the Fund to lobby (via an external firm or in-house staff) in order to undertake activities intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, government or political activity including the receipt of UKSPF funding; or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action
• payments for activities of a party political or exclusively religious nature
• VAT reclaimable from HMRC
• gifts, or payments for gifts or donations
• statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties
• payments for works or activities which the lead local authority, project deliverer, end beneficiary, or any member of their partnership has a statutory duty to undertake, or that are fully funded by other sources
• contingencies and contingent liabilities
• dividends
• bad debts, costs resulting from the deferral of payments to creditors, or winding up a company
• expenses in respect of litigation, unfair dismissal or other compensation
• costs incurred by individuals in setting up and contributing towards private pension schemes.
• profit

Eligible activities

Activities to be supported by the fund may include but are not limited to:

Bringing communities together

• bring people together from different groups, including those of different faiths, around a shared goal/objective, such as volunteering, befriending or mentoring schemes
• connect school pupils from different backgrounds in safe spaces
• activities that bring different parts of the community together to listen, share and interact for example events/workshops where individuals can hear directly from people who are 'different' from them, for example refugees directly sharing their experiences
• inter-community projects aimed at connecting people of different backgrounds and improving community connections, for example activities that support mental health through gardening, art, singing or sports projects
• projects which build communication pathways between communities that promote ongoing dialogue and a shared identity, for example sessions providing English Language provision or improving English language skills
• projects which help address broader public realm issues, such as graffiti, and bring different people together to improve their local communities and/or environments
• projects which increase personal confidence interacting with others or build trust in others                   
• capacity/capability training delivered that enables communities to build networks and deliver projects/ activities that foster greater cohesion         
• products introduced that enable local communities to address key community cohesion issues

Raising community awareness and support

• raise awareness of extremist narratives and promote moderate/healthy narratives across different groups
• bespoke workshops to youth to build resilience to extremist ideologies
• support to counter or strengthen resilience to mis/disinformation and prevent false and harmful narratives spreading
• social media focused 'critical thinking' lessons in schools to equip young people to navigate challenges around different points of view
• projects that facilitate dialogue on emotive subjects, for example support for schools around how to have challenging conversations and listening to different points of view
• events, workshops or campaign activities to educate on what constitutes a hate crime
• support individuals to report hate crime, including those focused on particularly vulnerable groups, such as women
• activities in schools/universities to address tension, unrest, linked to hatred and intolerance
• guidance to teachers on how to de-escalate tensions and respond neutrally to concerns
• deliver training courses to provide teachers with confidence and skills to address extremist-related topics
• products to combat dissemination of harmful narratives
• campaign activities to educate on what constitutes a hate crimes

Project monitoring

At the end of February, you will be expected to report on project progress, milestones, and issues, along with any support needed.  At the beginning of April, you will be required to submit a final report detailing the achievement of Outputs and Outcomes.

You will be required to provide forecasts and targets for planned Outputs and Outcomes and then report progress against them. You will be expected to make Gateshead Council aware of any key risks / challenges relating to your project delivery. 

An overview of the data which you will be required to forecast and report against is set out in Annex B.

You must keep accurate and comprehensive records and provide the Council on request with copies of those records and evidence of eligible expenditure of the grant such as original receipts and bank statements and such other information reasonably requested.

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI)

Monitoring and reporting arrangements will seek to capture how your project contributes to gender equality and social inclusion (GESI).

Project evaluation

The Council will complete an end-of-grant evaluation

All projects will be required to contribute and participate in an evaluation where appropriate.

Annex A - Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Organisation definition

GMBC define an VCSE organisation as an incorporated, voluntary, community or social enterprise organisation which serves communities within England, and which is either:

(a)   a charity, Community Interest Company or Community Benefit Society, registered with the relevant registry body; or

(b)   an unregulated organisation which:

• has a clear social mission which, in the reasonable opinion of the Fund Administrator, is analogous to a recognised charitable purpose
• distributes less than 50% of post-tax profits and reinvests at least 51% surpluses into pursuing its social mission
• has a constitutional or contractual lock on its social mission, its dividend and surplus distribution policy and "asset-lock"
• carries out, or has ambitions to carry out, trading activities in support of and which are causally linked to its social mission
• offers its products and services for general public benefit without restrictions and barriers, such as affordability
• is open to undertaking an independent social impact audit
• has remuneration and benefits policy which it is willing to make publicly accessible, and which is reasonable and proportionate relative to the market practice for VCSEs
• in the case of a sale of the organisation, the directors make best efforts to preserve the social mission under new ownership; and
• can demonstrate that no private benefit will arise from the grant

Annex B - Data monitoring sets

In addition to disaggregation by gender, where practical, projects should look to report the breakdown of those supported by their protected characteristics.

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