02 February 2011

The Ministry of Justice has announced three funding schemes aimed at voluntary sector organisations offering specialist support to victims and witnesses:

Rape support fund
Deadline: 28 February 2011

Existing rape support centres are invited to apply for three year grants of a minimum of £30,000 per year, to provide core funding. Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) are not eligible to apply for this funding but a voluntary sector provider working within a SARC may be eligible if certain conditions are met.
Applicants centres must:

•  Be in a physical location

•  Have services which are accessible and free at the point of delivery

•  Normally be a registered charity or be for public benefit and not for profit

•  Have a primary purpose of providing direct, specialist support to victims of rape and other forms of sexual assault, including recent and historic abuse

•  Have the skills and capacity to help address the legacy of the assault, improving the victim's mental and physical health, wellbeing and social functioning as appropriate

•  Include a dedicated service for adult women that have experienced rape or other forms of sexual assault.

Victim and witness fund
Deadline 4 March 2011

This fund is for organisations providing frontline services for victims and witnesses of crime. Funding will be given to organisations over three years. The types of work which will be funded are:

•  Intervention and practical assistance

•  Emotional support

•  Advocacy, advice and/or information.

The three main objectives of this fund are:

•  To sustain service provision

•  To aid transition to local commissioning

•  To build capacity.

Domestic violence support services may not be funded through this fund, as they are funded through a different Government funding stream, apart from current service providers of court-based Independent Domestic Violence Advisers who may apply to maintain their existing service levels.

Homicide fund
Deadline: 4 March 2011

The Homicide Fund has grants available for organisations supporting people bereaved through murder and manslaughter. £2 million has already been made available to Victim Support to maintain and develop the Homicide Service, with £250,000 being made available through the Homicide Fund to smaller organisations to deliver specialist services not met by the Homicide Service. To be eligible to apply, organisations must be offering at least one of the following services:

•  Trauma counselling

•  Legal advice

•  Services for children

•  Assistance with murders that occur abroad (of British Nationals)

•  Peer support

•  Respite care.

The fund will provide sustainability funding of up to £45,000 per year over three years by offering:

•  £15,000 per year, for voluntary and community organisations supporting those bereaved pre-April 2010.

•  £30,000 per year for organisations supporting people bereaved post-April 2010. Organisations will get one year's funding of this amount with the expectation that this will be extended over three years (subject to an evaluation of the Homicide Service and the Victim Commissioner's report) and will be eligible to have services commissioned directly by the Homicide Service.

Voluntary and community sector organisations can apply for funding to support both pre and post April 2010 beneficiaries.
Organisations outside the voluntary and community sector cannot apply for sustainability funding but can apply to be commissioned service providers.
For further information on these funds, see the Ministry of Justice website here.