Support For Communities Addressing Social Justice Issues

Opportunity to work with IVAR (www.ivar.org.uk)  

Are you a group led by and supporting Black or minoritised communities? Are you  tackling a social justice issue? Would you be interested in support to further your work in  some way? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Overview 

At IVAR, we work with charities, foundations and public agencies to strengthen  communities across the UK through action research. Through this project, we hope to  support community-led solutions that privilege the voice of individuals from Black or  minoritised communities. We believe that the work and strengths of Black and minoritised  communities are not sufficiently recognised and we want to use our platform to highlight  diverse voices in an authentic way. We want to help shift the conversation around  community led solutions towards those that recognise the diversity of experiences and  solutions to creating social change. We are committed to conducting action research in a  way that is inclusive, iterative and developmental. 

You can read about our approach to equity, diversity and inclusion on our website.  

We would like to hear from people who are tackling a challenge or trying to bring about a  specific change for (or within) their community. We hope to work with up to four groups  who are: 

• Led by and supporting people from Black or minoritised communities • Developing community-led solutions to a social justice issue in their local area (E.g.  health inequalities, mental health issues with young people, migration etc.) 

We will shape the work and our approach in collaboration with applicants, based on the  need and preferences of each group.  

Our offer 

We are offering up to four days of support, which could include: 

• Bringing together different stakeholders to discuss how your community led work  can be supported and what role others might have to play in achieving your vision  of social justice. 
• Opportunities to influence funder practice – we will seek to understand how funders  can better support you, and share this with our network of over 90 open and trusting  grantmakers. 

[email protected] Opportunity for IVAR support on community led social justice 1 ivar.org.uk 

Examples of delivery models we have used before include:  

• As part of the #iwill campaign, we trained a group of young people to become peer  researchers to explore and share experiences of youth volunteering in hospitals.  • Our Connecting Health Communities initiative offers facilitation and action planning  to cross-sector partnerships addressing health inequalities. 

In all our work, we seek to share learning from the research with a wider audience and  profile the voices of the people we work with, this will be guided by groups we work with.  

Who is eligible?  

Any group that is led by and supports Black or minoritised communities; and is developing  a community-led solution to a social justice issue.  

You do not need to be a registered charity, social enterprise or CIC to register your interest  in support – we are open to working with unconstituted groups. We may be able to provide  modest financial support to enable outreach and participation, but will not fund service  delivery or staff time. 

How to register interest 

If you are interested in applying, please complete this short form by 17:00 on 31st March. The form asks: 

• Your name 
• Organisation 
• Email address 
• What type of community-led social justice work is your group or organisation  involved in? E.g. health inequalities, mental health issues with young people,  migration etc; what is the local aspect of this work; and how is this work community led? (Max 200 words) 
• How would you like to use the IVAR offer of support? (Max 200 words) • Who would be involved in the research? Please tell us a bit about the group or  organisation that will be involved in the research (including any charity numbers,  Facebook pages or websites). (Max 300 words) 
• Whether you require any financial support in order to enable outreach and  participation. Please note we are not able to fund service delivery or staff time. (Max 100 words) 

If the form is a barrier in any way, please do get in touch with us by emailing or  calling Vita Terry at IVAR: [email protected] / 07826 848559. 

We aim to make a decision about who will receive support by the 14th April, but we will  reply to you within a week of hearing from you and may want to set up a call with you to  discuss the partnership. We will select four groups that, together, cover a range of  geographical areas and social justice issues.