Comic Relief Young Carers Grants Programme 2007/08

Welcome to The Princess Royal Trust for Carers / Comic Relief Young Carers Grants Programme 2007/08

About the Grants Programme
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers has been contracted for a second time by Comic Relief to distribute grants to voluntary sector services for young carers during 2007/2008. Young carers are children and young people who have a caring responsibility for a sick or disabled family member. They take on caring responsibilities that are inappropriate to their age, such as personal care for a disabled adult or emotional care for a parent with a mental health problem. In addition, they are often responsible for younger siblings and all the household chores. For some young carers this means missing school, physical ill health and stress or sleepless nights. To find out more about young carers, visit YC Net: www.youngcarers.net/professionals

Following on from the success of the first Young Carers Grant Programme 2006/07, the second round of funding will continue to prioritise high quality support to the most vulnerable young carers by identifying projects for those who are hard to reach such as young carers who are hidden due to stigma attached to the person they are caring for, or are from under represented communities such as ethnic minority or refugee communities.

The two stage grant application programme will be open to all registered charities and registered charitable organisations throughout the UK and will continue to provide funding for projects that are providing services or activities for young carers. However, the new funding will be more tightly focused on delivering work against specific programme outcomes related to positive change for young carers.

The funding programme will also offer all those interested in the funding the opportunity to attend regional and on-line based training. This training will focus on transferable project planning skills which will cover establishing need, defining and measuring outcomes and learning from work. For more details on the dates for training see the guidelines for the grants programme below.

Applications for grants up to £70,000 over three years will be considered by a decision making panel made up of members of The Trust and Comic Relief, together with representatives from other voluntary sector organisations. Stage one - Expressions of Interest - opens 11 October 2007 and closes 5pm 14 December 2007. Applicants will be notified of the assessment outcome by mid January 2008.

We believe that no child should have to take on a caring role that is more appropriate for an adult. Sadly, this situation is the reality for many children and we hope that this partnership will help many young people to be children as well as carers.

Want to apply?
1. For more information and to see if you are eligible, we recommend that you download the guidelines in full: Guidelines for Young Carers Grants Programme 07-08 (318 KB)

2. Download an expression of interest form here. You can print it out, fill them in and post the completed form to us: Expression of interest form 07-08 (354 KB)

3. Regional and on-line training initiative for applicants

As part of our commitment to young carers’ services, the funding provided by Comic Relief has allowed us to provide a training programme for all those interested in this funding programme. The courses which were held across the UK have now taken place. We were encouraged by all those who were interested in the training opportunity and we received positive feedback from all those who attended. The course covers best practice around evidencing needs, outcome based project planning and evaluation and is still available to all those interested in applying. The course can be downloaded below:

Online Training Session (1.5 MB)

We strongly advise projects to have a look over the online training session before submitting an expression of interest for funding. Please contact the Grants Team if you need any further information or would like feedback on the exercise included in the online training.

Contact us:
If you have read the guidelines and have any queries, please email our Grants Team
Tel. 0208 498 7934

Or write to us for an application pack:
Young Carers Grant Programme,
Unit 14
Bourne Court
Unity Trading Estate
Southend Road
WOODFORD GREEN
IG8 8HD

For media enquiries please contact Pamela Knight, Tel: 01772 733157.