To qualify for this grant you must be a second tier organisation/network – that means that some of your members are organisations rather than individuals. Your area of work should contribute to the aims of the Team Hackney partnership.

£3000 is available for network development (increasing impact and influence, your membership, skills of staff and outreach) for networks who can demonstrate their work will support the achievement of at least one of the Local Area Agreement targets listed in the application guidance form.

The total grant programme is £30,000. (Examples of activities we would expect to fund are: building up your membership, running sessions for your members to better understand the work of Team Hackney and how the CEN relates to it, rewriting or expanding your terms of reference, skills training for members, partnership events, activities to raise awareness of your network, briefings on public sector policy).

The CEN Coordinator can help you complete your application and to understand the funding criteria. We are really keen that the right networks are funded so its good if you can engage with the CEN Coordinator before you apply. Please contact Liz Hughes on 020 7923 8184 or liz@hcvs.org.uk

If you need assistance please contact Liz Hughes, temporary CEN co-ordinator on 020 7923 8184 or liz@hcvs.org.uk

Team Hackney is the strategic partnership dedicated to improving the quality of life for everyone in the borough by bringing together the key people in the public, private, community and voluntary sectors in Hackney. It aims to improve mainstream services by facilitating better partnership working.

The Community Empowerment Network (CEN) is a partnership of representatives from local voluntary and community organisations who are the voice of the sector on Team Hackney and its sub-boards who carry out multi-agency strategic planning.

Team Hackney’s work is driven by the Local Area Agreement and its associated targets. One set of these, known as the Third Sector Indicators, relate to developing the VCS in Hackney, particularly:

£30,000 of this grant has been put aside to support Cross-Cutting Networks which don’t fit neatly within one of the five priority work areas of Team Hackney listed above.

To qualify for this grant you will need to demonstrate that your network supports the achievement of at least one of the LAA targets listed in the application guidance form.