SUPPORT FOR COMMUNITY INITIATIVES (SCLR)

SUPPORT FOR COMMUNITY INITIATIVES (SCLR)

Donors: Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Great Britain; Irish Emergency Alliance, Ireland; Church of Sweden (CoS), Sweden; Aidsfonds – Soa Aids Nederland (Netherlands); The Elton John AIDS Foundation, Great Britain.

Coordinating partner: Charity organization Christian Aid

Technical assistance: international initiative “Local to Global protection” (L2GP).

The main stages of the implementation of the approach:

June 1, 2022: launch of the first round of measures piloting approaches.

From September 1, 2022: full-scale implementation of the approach to support community initiatives, including communities vulnerable to HIV, throughout Ukraine.

From May 1, 2023: the activities of facilitators of regional initiative groups, who are mentors of initiative groups to unite them, prioritize the problems and needs of their community, which need to be quickly resolved and satisfied, to prepare an application for receiving a mini-grant, and also to support mini-projects at all stages of their implementation.

Mechanism of implementation of the approach in Ukraine:

Providing initiative groups with mini-grants worth up to USD 5,000 for implementing mini-projects to help local communities meet urgent needs and solve critical problems.

An initiative group is a group of people/representatives of a particular community formed to solve a specific problem or implement a public initiative/project. The initiative group prepares and submits an application for targeted charitable assistance, and in case of receiving funding, implements and reports following the approved application. Initiative groups can be both officially registered organizations (for example, an NGO, a public organization, a volunteer movement, a charitable foundation, a religious organization, etc.) and unregistered groups that have united to solve a problem in territories freed from occupation or in places where there is a significant number of internally displaced persons. Unregistered groups and public initiatives can apply for the competition together with a partner registered organization, which will act as the legal representative of the initiative group or can provide a reasoned explanation for the absence of a partner organization in the application.

Mini-grants are provided through open tenders. In order to consider the received applications and select the winners who will receive the mini-grant, the Alliance forms a Competition Commission, which evaluates the applications following the specified criteria. Each criterion is estimated using a point scale from 0 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) points. Competitive applications from initiative groups that score the highest points according to all evaluation criteria will be considered winners and receive funding.

Criteria for evaluating competitive applications from community initiative groups:

  • Relevance of the problem. The problem to be solved is urgent and relevant for community representatives and residents of villages, towns, cities, etc. The issue corresponds to the theme of the announced competition;
  • Deadline for solving the problem. The problem described in the application must be solved within 1.5-2 months; the implementation terms must be realistic and achievable;
  • Social influence. The benefit of solving the problem proposed in the application should be for many community representatives and residents of villages, towns, cities, etc.;
  • Prospect of solving the problem. The application must contain a clear plan for solving the problem with specific deadlines and responsible persons, a realistic and detailed budget that corresponds to the implementation plan;
  • Motivation of the initiative group of the community. The team must be interested in solving the problem and able to implement the proposed idea quickly.

Usually, mini-project implementation takes place within 2-3 months; however, if the solution to a specific problem requires more time, this term can be extended.

Target groups

Initiative groups that can apply for funding must represent the interests of people/communities in need of urgent humanitarian assistance and problem-solving:

  • representatives of HIV-vulnerable groups (PLHIV, PWID, SW, MSM, LGBT),
  • women with children,
  • large families,
  • internally displaced persons (IDPs),
  • people with disabilities,
  • people who find themselves in difficult life circumstances, and others.

Information about contests for receiving mini-grants is posted on the Internet resources of the ICF “Alliance for Public Health”, regional NGOs, and public websites. Therefore, if you wish to receive funds for your community, we recommend following these resources.

A community of practitioners of the “Supporting community initiatives” approach has been formed in Ukraine. This is an association for exchanging experience and best practices, discussing the main problems and obstacles in work, and a joint search for ways to solve problems and overcome barriers. The community of practitioners can help master the approach by providing methodological recommendations for preparing documentation and implementing the project.

More information about SUPPORT FOR COMMUNITY INITIATIVES (SCLR)

Contact: Maryna Varban, Project Manager, Varban@aph.org.ua

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