CAF Resilience Fund Sector Partners

Working with Sector partners

Phase 2 of the CAF Resilience Fund targeted specific cause areas that had been disproportionately affected by covid. CAF research identified that  people living with a disability, Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and the employment prospects of young adults aged 16 to 35 had been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Alongside our direct grantmaking CAF worked with sector partners in these cause areas to ensure the resilience funding reached where it was needed most. We worked with 5 sector partners in total, utilising their knowledge, contacts and expertise. These partners provided complementary granting to charities and community organisations to expand the reach and impact of the CAF Resilience funds.

Scope

Cause area- Supporting people living with a disability

Funding- £1.5 million

Activity- Scope utilised their extensive local networks to distribute grants to support activities that improved resilience and wellbeing, and reduced isolation. Funding was distributed under the externally used name “Connecting Communities Fund.”

Outputs:

• 77 grants have been awarded that will reach 131,657 beneficiaries:
• 21 organisations received Community Engagement grants.
• 17 organisations received small grants.34 organisations received medium grants.
• 5 organisations received large grants.

Baobab Foundation

Cause area- Working with and/or led by Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

Funding- £1.5 million

Activity- The funding has been used in Baobab’s launch funding programme – the Collective Fund which aims to resource grassroots organisations who are resisting racial injustice.

Outputs:

• The funding will support 18 organisations with multi-year grants ranging from 2 to 5 years. 

This newly established organisation was created in 2021 to grow resources for under-resourced grassroots UK Black and Global Majority communities. Baobab believes that the communities harmed by racism are best placed to create change and aims to return power to the people with direct, lived experience of the issues they are trying to solve.

They launched their new £3million fund (with a £1.5 million contribution from the CAF Resilience Fund) to resource grassroots organisations and individuals who are resisting racial injustice.

The fund was open to applications for a month and received 280 expressions of interest requesting a total of £26.6 million. Baobab have made 35 awards ranging from £10,000 to £150,000, with most grants awarded over 3 to 5 years. The fund was open to applications from England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and 18 of these awards will be funded through the CAF Resilience Fund. The grant holders will start their activities in the autumn of 2023 and we look forward to reporting in the future the difference that this funding makes to communities across the UK.

The Prince's Trust

Cause area- Assisting young adults aged 16 to 35 years with skills to transition from education, training and unemployment into work.

Funding- £500,000

Activity- Supporting young people through their established ‘Get Started’ and Development Award programmes.

Outputs:

• 2,327 young people helped on Prince’s Trust programmes.

The Prince’s Trust has supported over 1,000,000 young people since it was established in 1976 and has been an effective sector partner choice for the CAF Resilience Fund to ensure that we could support young people across the country to access the right support and training to succeed, no matter what their background or the challenges they are facing. The Trust is well placed to help those from disadvantaged communities and those facing the greatest adversity by supporting them to build the confidence and skills to live, learn and earn. The £500,000 award to the Princes Trust has been used to support a total of 2,327 young people across the UK. The funding was used to support;

• 970 young people on Get Started programmes
  These programmes are provided by community partners and targeted to support young people’s career aspirations. They deliver short courses that engage young people through the arts, sports or other activities. The programme energises young people, helping them gain the confidence and motivation to move forward with their lives. A total of 970 young people have received this support across a range of activities, including beauty, wellbeing, animal care and football.
• 1,357 young people with Development Awards
  Responding to the cost-of-living crisis: the financial support the Prince’s Trust’s Development Awards provide continue to boost young people’s access to education, training, and employment by assisting with costs such as childcare, course fees and equipment for their work.

Youth Futures Foundation

Cause area- Assisting young adults aged 16 to 35 years with skills to transition from education, training and unemployment into work.

Funding- £500,000

Activity- 3 large awards made to organisations providing comprehensive support for young people furthest away from the employment market

Outputs:

• 866 young people furthest away from employment supported.

Youth Futures Foundation (YFF) was established in 2019 and has ambitious plans to test and evaluate interventions to provide critical support for young people into the jobs market. They have recently published their Impact report.
They will be using their funding from the CAF Resilience Fund to provide additional investment into their current grantees who are supporting young people aged 14-24, so that they can provide tailored support to enable these young people to ultimately access and gain meaningful employment. These investments will provide three forms of support for grantees;

1. Multi-year funding to deliver their intervention to support young people into work.
2. Capacity building to strengthen the organisation and maximise impact.
3. High quality evaluation by an independent expert body that can be cited to demonstrate the value of their work.

They have made three awards totalling £500,000 and will support a total of 866 young people. These awards have been selected to support three highly promising programmes working with young people furthest away from the labour market. A core component of YFF’s funding is the ability to support delivery of ‘the best version’ of a grantee’s youth employment programme. The additional funding from the CAF Resilience Fund has allowed YFF to continue to encourage organisations to present high quality promising programmes that will move young people closer to the labour market. Their hope is that the valuable work of three grantees supported will unearth valuable insights through their evaluation approach that will influence policy and practice of work to support young people, with experience of care, homelessness, and mental health challenges, into the labour market.

St Giles Trust

Cause area- Assisting young adults aged 16 to 35 years with skills to transition from education, training and unemployment into work.

Funding- £500,000

Activity-Emotional and practical support to upskill young adults across England and Wales.

Outputs:

• 700 young people supported. 

St Giles Trust will use their grant from the CAF Resilience Fund to support casework across England and Wales in five key locations, as part of their Skills Employment Programme, delivering and shaping the regional employment support for 700 young adults. Activities will start from August 2023.

Caseworkers reflect local needs and trends, and deliver a programme which includes direct emotional and practical support to upskill young adults by:

• building the foundation for skills and aspirations as many of the young adults they work with are not “work ready”.
• providing tailored and engaging digital and functional skills training as many of the young adults have low/no qualifications.
• providing employability support with application, CV and interview preparation, and connections to the workplace.

The grant will also support the establishment of an Employment Forum to share good practice, review and develop the existing offer to young adults in response to changing needs and socio-economic factors.

Finally, it will also support their Peer Advisor Training programme, upskilling 75 young adults to become Peer Advisors, delivering City & Guilds accredited Level 3 NVQ in Advice & Guidance. As a vocational course, Peer Advisors gain the required practical experience by undertaking a part-time six-month volunteer placement with a St Giles team or one of their partners.