1. Funding

Funding Information

Cosc was established to co-ordinate the state’s response to the issues of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Cosc does not provide funding for the running of services for victims. Service providers can access funding for capital, staffing and running costs from a number of sources, including the Health Service Executive (HSE),and the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government.

Cosc provides funding for the following activities;

On this page you will also find information about other sources of funding 

Awareness Raising Activities

Cosc has a clear objective to raise awareness about the nature and extent of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and the services available for those experiencing these forms of violence; and to identify and change the attitudes and behaviours that contribute to these forms of violence.

Cosc currently funds a range of awareness raising activity. Some of this activity is being developed directly by Cosc in partnership with many organisations at national level, and other activity is happening at local level, funded through a grant scheme.

 

Awareness Raising Grant Scheme 2012 relating to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence


One of the High Level Goals of the National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2010-2014 is to promote a culture of prevention and recognition through increased understanding of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.  Cosc’s remit provides that it will, among other objectives, seek to raise awareness of the nature and extent of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Ireland and of services available to help those who experience these crimes.  Developing, implementing and sustaining national and local awareness raising campaigns that challenge myths and increase understanding of the issues are key tools in the process of increasing recognition and understanding of this violence and need to be supported by related activity.  

The purpose of Cosc's Awareness Raising Grant Scheme is to support groups at local, regional and national level in raising awareness of these crimes and services for victims. Cosc also carries out its own awareness raising activities and these, together with the activity supported under the grant scheme, should be mutually complementary and supportive. Cosc recognises that some activities are best carried out by those working on the ground, but we also recognise that we can play a role in ensuring a degree of co-ordination and collaboration where that makes sense.  Cosc supports collaboration between groups in raising awareness as an effective and cost saving tool of communication in that it gives groups an opportunity to reach a wider target audience to reinforce a common message. 

Cosc is pleased to annouce that it has secured funding to run its Awareness Raising Grant Scheme in 2012. It is expected that an announcement inviting applications for the scheme will be made in mid-march 2012.

 

Guiding Principles for Public Awareness Raising Activities Relating to Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence

 

Guiding Principles for Public Awareness Raising activities relating to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence have been included in the Guidance Manual for Grant Applicants for the 2011 grant scheme. These Guiding Principles have been agreed by the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women (NSC) based on work and recommendations from its Public Awareness Sub-Committee (PASC).  The document forms part of the implementation of activities 1.2 and 3.3 of the National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2010-2014 which aims to develop guidance on practical steps to increase personal safety for those most at risk from domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.  The guidance outlines guiding principles for conducting public awareness raising activities related to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and is intended as a guide to organisations and professionals undertaking such activities. 

Primarily the guidelines aim to encourage a shift from a focus of public awareness raising activities on the victim to an inclusion of a focus on the perpetrator and bystander whilst also ensuring that information on support services is available to victims/survivors.

It is suggested that organisations developing a new public awareness raising campaign relating to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence take the guiding principles into account.


Please Click Here to download the Guidance Manual for Grant Applicants 2011 (which includes Guiding Principles for Public Awareness Raising Activities relating to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence).


Please Click Here   to download the Guiding Principles for Public Awareness Raising Activities relating to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. 

Successful applicants that receive funding under this scheme are required to:

Cosc strives to support the improvement of awareness raising through the implementation of a clear communications strategy and through transparent and fair funding procedures. All successful grant recipients are subject to audit by Cosc and may also be audited by the Department of Justice and Equality’s Internal Audit Unit.

 

Auditing of grants under the Cosc Grant Scheme

Cosc recognises the burden of financial management and 'form-filling' but  we are obliged to ensure that taxpayers money is well spent. We try to ensure that our systems meet our obligations while not overburdening already stretched organisations.

In any event, we have to have a method of ensuring that the grant aid is being spent appropriately. The first part of this process is the information that applicants include on the application form, using the Grant Guidance Manual to help them. It's very important that this is done properly, using the Manual as a guide. Some activities are eligible for grant aid and some are not, and this is set out in the Manual. A properly completed form also helps the grant assessment team to fully and quickly ascertain the correct level of grant that each applicant should be paid.

The second part of the process is the audit process. Each year a certain number of grant applications will be selected for full audit on the basis of amount granted, geographical location, previous audit performance and random selection. The groups selected will be asked to send in all invoices and proofs of payments associated with expenditure of money received. The audit of successful grant applicants who received grant aid in 2011 will take place during the Spring of 2012. The majority of the organisations audited in 2011 had spent the money granted appropriately or had a plan to spend any funds remaining at the time of audit.

It is worth remembering that

We keep all these processes under review to make sure that we are striking the right balance between accountability and burden. Our aim is a fair transparent system which works for everyone and gets information on services to the victim as efficiently as possible.


Perpetrator Intervention Programmes

One of Cosc’s key tasks is to ensure that there is a system of appropriate interventions to change the attitudes and behaviour of perpetrators of domestic violence in conjunction with measures to support the victims of their violence while this change is made. At present there are some 13 intervention programmes which deal with clients referred in a variety of ways, including self-referral and by court mandate. These programmes, which receive funding from Cosc, are run by three different organisations throughout the country.

A Perpetrator intervention programme committee, comprising representatives from Cosc and intervention programmes has been established and is meeting quarterly to discuss matters of mutual interest.

Other Funding

While Cosc’s funding is confined to awareness-raising and perpetrator intervention programmes, it is possible to obtain funding from various other national and supra-national organisations.

Other funding opportunities may be available for organisations from the European Commission under the Daphne III programme.

Daphne III

The general objective of Daphne III is to contribute to the protection of children, young people and women against all forms of violence and to attain a high level of health protection, well-being and social cohesion. These general objectives will contribute to the development of Community policies, in particular those related to public health, human rights and gender equality, as well as actions aimed at protection of children's rights, and the fight against trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation.

The programme's specific objective is to contribute to the prevention of, and the fight against, all forms of violence occurring in the public or the private domain against children, young people and women, including sexual exploitation and trafficking in human beings, by taking preventive measures and by providing support and protection for victims and groups at risk.

The programme will achieve its objectives by means of transnational actions involving at least two member states (grant funding), the Commission's own-initiated actions (contracts) or operating grants to NGOs, which aims will be to:

Please check the European Union website (EUROPA) Daphne page for further information.  http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/funding/daphne3/funding_daphne3_en.htm

Daphne III 2011 Annual Work Programme

The European Commission has published a call for proposals for Action Grants for 2011 / 2012 for the Daphne III Programme.  The dead-line for submitting proposals is 29 March 2012.  Full information is available here 

 

Projects require a minimum partnership of 2 organisations from 2 different Member States and cannot have an initial duration exceeding 24 months. If the applicant/partner is from an EFTA/EEA Member State, the project must involve in addition at least two eligible organisations from two different EU Member States.
Projects should not be planned to start until after the notification of an award (an indicative estimate being at least 4 (four) months after the deadline of the call). Projects that have already started or are completed before the deadline for submission of the proposals will not be eligible for funding.
Only projects, which do not aim to generate a profit, will be eligible for funding.
EU funding cannot constitute more than of 80% of overall eligible project cost and requested amount under this call cannot be less than EUR 75.000.

Applicants must comply with the conditions set out in the call and follow the instructions stipulated in the Guide for Applicants published with this call constituting an integral part of the conditions of the call.
The deadline for submitting proposals via the PRIAMOS on-line application is 29 March 2012, 12:00 CET.

Overall priority will be given to large-scale projects built on a wide partnership involving organisations from a significant number of Member States and offering a true European scope and relevance. The projects under this call for proposals shall focus on the annual priorities described below:
• Rights of victims of violence
• Violence linked to harmful practices
• Children as victims and perpetrators of violence
• Perpetrator programmes and interventions
• Training programmes for professionals in contact with victims
• Empowerment work at grass-roots level
• Media violence, particularly violence linked to new technology and social networking tools

Rights of victims of violence (RoV)
Projects should focus on identification and analysis of the needs for specialised victim support services (e.g. shelters, helplines, counselling services, rape crisis and sexual assault referral centres, 116 000 hotlines and specialised child support), and development of best practices for establishing and running such specialised services with a national coverage (building on past Daphne projects on the subject) as well as their cooperation and networking
across the EU.
Violence linked to harmful practices (VHP)
Projects dedicated to combating and preventing violence linked to so-called harmful practices (e.g. female genital mutilation, forced marriage or forced sexual relationships, honour killings) committed against women, young people and children, in particular activities with emphasis on direct participation of the communities, including targeted awareness raising, education, specialised training of key professionals as well as promotion of dialogue within
practicing communities.


Children as victims and perpetrators of violence (CVP)
Projects should address the problems of the most vulnerable children such as unaccompanied minors, victims of sexual exploitation, disabled or Roma children, children as victims of violence within family (by siblings, parents, other relatives) and problems caused by children as perpetrators of violence (i.e. bullying, violence within family such as on siblings, on mothers, on elderly family members).

Perpetrator programmes and interventions (PpaI)
Under this priority, projects should relate to the evaluation of the existing perpetrator programmes and interventions to identify best practices and minimum standards (for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention). Furthermore, the Commission would fund projects aimed to conceive and implement new programmes and to design new interventions,including programmes designed for child abusers and consumers of child abuse images, as well as
programmes aimed to reach persons who are at risk of committing violence including sexual violence.

Training programmes (Tpfp)
The Commission wishes to support projects involving the preparation and delivery of the programmes including the creation of manuals and protocols for professionals in contact with victims (police, judicial, social workers, health staff) or people working in the area of specialised victim support.

Empowerment work at grass-roots level (EW)
Projects should be aiming to empower children, young people and/or women to protect themselves and their peers against violence. Such programmes might specifically include training, counselling, formal and informal support group mechanisms and innovative ideas for developing a protective environment for children, young people and women.

Media violence, particularly violence linked to new technology and social networking tools (MV)
Targeted educational programmes and activities designed to increase children, young people and/or women's understanding of the potentially negative impacts of new technologies and to educate them on risks and solutions with the aim to ensure their well being and safety.

The full call for proposals document is here

The Daphne Toolkit is also available on the Daphne pages of EUROPA.  The Daphne Toolkit is both an archive of projects supported by the Daphne Programme and an active resource for those planning new projects in this field.  Organisations interested in applying for Daphne funding are strongly encouraged to visit the Daphne Toolkit to learn from past experiences. The tool kit can be viewed here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/daphnetoolkit/html/welcome/dpt_welcome_en.html