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New Generation Initiative
In April 2000, we received a donation from the Nationwide Building Society of £7.0m. This was used to support a two year small grants programme, but additionally our Trustees agreed to invest £2.4m in a larger grants programme, representing a new form of grant making for the Foundation. This programme is called the New Generation Initiative (NGI).
The concept of the NGI was to provide funding representing a long term commitment under a thematic approach with the added dimension of encouraging collaboration among the charities supported.
Extensive research was undertaken to identify a theme where a real impact could be made. The chosen theme was 'parenting' with a view to providing support to those at the vulnerable stage between teenage-hood and new parenthood. This incorporated the aim of helping to break cycles of poor parenting, recognised as a major driver of social exclusion.
The programme was shaped to help fill gaps in statutory funding at the time and to raise the profile of parenting related issues within government policy. Further research identified charities best placed to help the Foundation meet the aims of the NGI. The following five charities, located across the UK, were selected:
- Action for Prisoners Families - aims to improve the quality of life of parents and children affected by imprisonment and to support organisations which provide assistance to the families of people in prison
- Home-Start - offers friendship and practical help to families under pressure which have a least one child under five years of age. They provide relief to children and parents in despair and distress and work to prevent the emotional and physical abuse of such children
- M6 Theatre Company - uses theatre as a positive, creative and active learning medium to assist young people's personal, educational and social development. They stage productions for young people covering a range of topics accompanied by workshops and educational resources
- Parentline Plus - offers practical support and information to anyone parenting a child, through a national free helpline, its website, parenting courses and a network of parenting groups
- The Straight Talking Project - trains teenage parents to raise young people's awareness of the problems associated with teenage parenthood, with the aim of reducing high rates of teenage pregnancy
The NGI recognised the importance of funding charities with what they really need in order to help meet their original aims and objectives. It provided the charities with:
- core funding
- development funding
- flexible funding
- long term funding (3-5yrs)
- funding which did not demand frequent, rigorous and heavy monitoring
- the opportunity to work collaboratively
Supporting the charities in this way made a real difference and enabled them to develop naturally, expand their services practicably and manageably, it offered them security and the time to achieve their goals.
Our Trustees were very keen to include a collaborative aspect as a part of the NGI in order to add additional value and make the project more than the 'sum of its parts'. The charities had for the most part, not previously worked together before. Benefits of doing so included forming new relationships, enabling smaller charities to learn from larger ones, profile raising, shared learning, encouragement of best practice and personal development for the individuals involved. It helped the charities to more clearly learn about one another's services, learn tips for improving and developing their own services, and know what other support was available which they could refer their own beneficiaries on to, if appropriate.
The resultant work of the NGI has benefited many thousands of parents and children and families across the country. It is hoped and anticipated that the results of the work will continue to have an impact on the future generations of those reached.
An independent consultancy company called Shared Intelligence was appointed to monitor and evaluate the NGI. Their experience lies in economic development, regeneration and public policy and they believe that sharing knowledge helps bring success. The results of Shared Intelligence's findings on the NGI have been innovatively presented in the form of a Virtual Town. This demonstrates how the lives of parents, children and families would have benefited if it had been possible for the work of the NGI to take place in one geographic area.
The NGI’s unique form of funding has provided many valuable lessons for charities and funding organisations, and we are keen to share the results with the voluntary sector. View the Virtual Town evaluation as a PDF. It is also available on CD Rom, a copy of which can be obtained from the Foundation. You can view the Virtual Town as a Flash movie but you will need Macromedia Flash 8.0 in order to run it. Flash Player 8.0 can be downloaded from www.adobe.com (previous called Macromedia). Please note: You may experience long delays if you are downloading the Flash movie using a dial-up connection.
THE NGI PROGRAMME IS CLOSED TO NEW APPLICANTS
Site updated: 13 October 2008