To bring people together and to encourage a sense of belonging to people who are disenfranchised or isolated.

About Belong North East

Belong North East Fund (the Fund) is a collaborative approach by Mercers’ Charitable Foundation, Community Foundation North East and Point North to support unity within our communities in some of the toughest of times.

The fund tackles disadvantage by bringing people together and building a sense of belonging for those who feel isolated or disenfranchised across the North East. This can be due to lack of opportunities linked to ethnicity, cultural differences, age, health, poverty, lack of voice, or where someone lives.

What the fund will support

The Fund seeks to support activities that fulfil one or more of the following:

• Bring together groups divided or excluded by race, culture, age, or ability
• Engage disadvantaged communities and families who are facing challenges because of poverty or disenfranchisement
• Help older people who experience poverty and loneliness keep engaged with their communities
• Meaningful intergenerational activity – bringing children & young people together with older people
• Provide opportunities for young and older people to become more involved in their communities

You will need to outline in your application form which one or more of these your activity will be addressing.

The aims of the fund

The Fund will primarily target communities within the 20% most deprived areas in the North East. However, it will also support work addressing hardship, inequality, and disenfranchisement in other communities (up to the top 50% on the IMD) where these issues may be less visible in public perception. This includes:

• specific socio-economic groups e.g. older isolated people, disabled people, informal carers, and families in workless households.
• individuals experiencing multiple disadvantage
• minority and marginalized groups
• rural communities

Who can apply

The fund is open to charitable organisations with an annual income below £500,000. Organisations with annual income above £500,000 where there is a compelling case may apply but they will not be a priority.

Organisations in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland need to apply via Community Foundation North East.

Organisations based in County Durham or Tees Valley can apply for the fund via Point North here

How much can we apply for

The Fund will provide grants of up to £10,000 to support your organisation to deliver your work effectively. This can be for an ongoing or new activity.  We would welcome/expect to see full cost recovery to support organisational running costs.

We expect to make 10-15 grants across Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.

Required monitoring

It is essential on application that you tell us why your project is needed and the difference you expect it to make on the one or more aims listed above, as you will be required to report on any impact once your grant is spent.  You may need to consider how you will capture any impact e.g. increased engagement, greater confidence, reduced isolation, new skills, better health and wellbeing, greater understanding of different communities etc. As well as capturing how your grant was spent, we would expect that the work will demonstrate through case studies one or more of the following:

• any additionality e.g. the inclusion of additional support provided to beneficiaries that shows the alleviation of disadvantage
• how and where social engagement or social action is improving people’s lives,
• the difference made to disadvantaged communities coming together to ‘belong’.

You can see the areas we will be asking for data on this sheet. Please be prepared to collect relevant data as you deliver the programme,. We understand not all of it will directly relate to your planned activity.

If you have any questions before applying please contact Pete Barrett, to apply you will find the fund listed under the ‘calls for applications’ section on the grantee portal.