By Liz Davies, CE SociaLink Tūhono Pāpori
The Social Investment Agency held two webinars last week about the Social Investment Fund.
The one I attended had over 350 people tune in so there is a lot of interest out there. Probably the biggest takeaway message is that in the scheme of things there is not a lot of money in the pūtea, $200 million over 4 years for all of NZ. While it would be fantastic to see some of that funding come to the Western Bay of Plenty it will be very competitive and will need to meet the criteria outlined below.
The outcomes for the fund will be set by the Social Investment Ministers and will be announced in July. They have signalled the outcomes will relate to children and young people.
They are looking to fund 5-8 initiatives, and decisions will be made before Christmas that:
- are early-intervention outcome-focused programmes aligned with priority outcomes that are based on strong evidence
- are well placed to measure impact, have a theory of change and evaluation framework in place from the beginning of the programme
- will reach several hundred people or families.
The second pathway they are developing is contract consolidation, targeting secondary prevention initiatives. This is for organisations that hold multiple contracts with a number of government agencies.
So look out for the announcement of the Social Investment Fund in July.
