Funding for rehabilitation of offenders

The Nationwide Foundation has developed, through the experience of the New Generation Initiative (NGI), an innovative thematic approach to grant making. This approach draws on their values and provides a commitment of longer term support to selected charities, whilst encouraging partnership working in pursuit of the fulfilment of a vision.

The chosen theme for the Investor Programme is Supporting Families. They aim to take a preventative approach with this programme to achieve an impact on particular social issues of families and the potential consequences of a breakdown in family life. The breakdown of a family is recognised as one of the key drivers of those affected by domestic violence into homelessness and crime, particularly for young people.

Three aims have been identified to help fulfil the vision of the Supporting Families programme, which will be rolled out over a three year period. These are:

• To promote the well-being of young men, women and children whose lives have been affected by domestic violence and to reduce the prevalence of domestic violence through increased service provision, education and awareness raising
• To improve the quality of life of families with a member or members in prison, through the provision of services responsive to their needs
• To provide young people who are or have been involved with the criminal justice system with a rehabilitation programme designed to obtain the skills, confidence and personal support networks to enable them to lead fulfilled and successful lives

Invitation to Submit an Expression of Interest

They are currently focusing on the third aim of the Supporting Families programme, which is concerned with supporting:

Young Offenders

The aim is to provide young people who are or have been involved with the criminal justice system with a rehabilitation programme designed to obtain the skills, confidence and personal support networks to enable them to lead fulfilled and successful lives.

The objectives of this aim are:

• To promote services to enable young people in custody to obtain the life skills needed to lead a successful, fulfilled life
• To encourage the development of stable family and other social networks to support young people leaving custody to lead a successful life
• To promote services designed to assist young people leaving custody to access suitable services that address their housing, health, financial and other needs.

In particular, they are interested in supporting work, projects and services which:

• Enable young people in and leaving custody to improve their basic skills
• Assist young people leaving custody to access suitable housing
• Assist young people in and leaving custody to access suitable health services, especially in respect of mental health needs
• Assist young people in and leaving custody to access meaningful and constructive volunteering activities
• Assist young people in and leaving custody to develop constructive and supportive social networks.

The Foundation is particularly interested to learn about, demonstrate and share the added value of the voluntary sector in respect of the provision of services and share these lessons with policy makers, funding organisations, employers and the voluntary sector.

Support Available

They are seeking to select six UK based charities which can deliver this work within the larger context of the Investor Programme, its vision and their values. This would include three year funding support totalling approximately £150,000.

Submitting your Expression of Interest

If you think your registered charity shares our values and is well placed to help them achieve the third aim of the Investor Programme, please send them no more than ONE page of A4.

Information which will be required at this initial stage is:

• Your organisation's turnover in the last financial year
• Numbers of staff and volunteers working for your organisation
• Where your organisation operates
• Main aims of your organisation
• How your organisation measures its achievements against its aims
• What the future plans are for your organisation
• How your organisation could benefit from 3 year involvement in the Investor Programme
• What your organisation could bring to the Investor Programme

Please include your organisations name, address, telephone number and a contact name. If they then require further information, this will be requested from you, and / or an appointment will be made to visit you.

They are currently inviting appropriate charities to submit an expression of interest for support under the third aim of the Supporting Families programme, which is concerned with the rehabilitation of young offenders.

The deadline for the receipt of expressions of interest is Friday 22 September 2006

www.nationwidefoundation.org.uk