Grants are available for locally based community groups and 'communities of interest' in Northern Ireland for projects that are promoting or embedding human rights and social justice in their day-to-day work, for and with their chosen communities.

Aims of the Social Justice Fund:

To support local community groups to give voice to excluded groups, and work to advance a fairer and more equal society where the human rights of all are protected.

Target Group: Community Sector

The fund will support locally based community groups and locally based ‘communities of interest’ with an interest in promoting or embedding human rights and social justice in their day-to-day work for and with their chosen communities.

Size of Grant:

Grants will be available up to £5,000.

In some instances, the panel may consider awards up to £15,000.

Objectives:

Applications must demonstrate that their proposal will contribute to at least one of the following objectives:

To give voice and power to those whose human rights are most at risk and to support them to challenge inequality, exclusion, and unfairness.
To provide groups and communities with support to challenge, monitor and remedy inequality and rights violations.
To increase awareness of and contribute to building a culture of rights within and between communities, particularly those most marginalized from decision making
To support communities and marginalized groups to find solutions to contentious issues

Values:

Applicants must demonstrate in their application how they will advance and adhere to the values of the NIHRF:

Inclusive – drawing on human rights expertise, including those with lived experience, to develop NIHRF’s strategy, grant making and learning.
Applying a rights-based approach – adhering to the principles of participation, accountability, non-discrimination, empowerment, and legality.
Collaborative – The essence of the NIHRF is partnership and collaboration based on mutual trust which draws on the strengths of the partners who will work together to advance the NIHRF’s purpose.
Encouraging Learning – the NIHRF will support learning between all partners, actively encouraging, listening and being open to responding and adapting.
Courageous – We will approach complexity with courage and ambition and be open to new solutions to entrenched problems.

We would particularly welcome applications for projects which focus on peacebuilding/legacy, racial justice, gender, health, socio-economic rights, tech, and digital rights, (including the need for accountability and safeguards), and climate.

Project Ideas:

Rights/Culture/Identity Projects
Anti-Poverty Initiatives
Projects which contribute to Peace Building
Projects which tackle digital justice, environmental justice, and feminism

Eligiblity:

To be eligible for consideration for a grant, the applicant groups must:

be constituted and based in Northern Ireland or working towards being constituted
have an active committee and current bank account
maintain financial records and present accounts to your AGM
provide minutes of committee meetings
have at least three cheque signatories who are unrelated
have an income of £1.5m or less

Closing date for applications is 6th October 2023 at 1pm. For more information and to apply, please visit Social Justice Small Grants Programme - Community Foundation Northern Ireland (communityfoundationni.org)