1.Mainstreaming Equalities Programme

The aim of the ‘Mainstreaming Equalities Programme’ is to provide imaginative and replicable models of practice which demonstrate how community/voluntary agencies can practically address the inequalities faced by disabled people and people from minority ethnic communities in their participation in and access to social housing and related service providers/provision.

The objective is to practice and promote partnership working across the social housing sector to maximize investment in the programme and ensure that the learning outcomes are disseminated to as wide an audience (appropriate) as possible thus influencing policy and practice in the longer term.

To deliver several specific outcomes including:

·         Greater involvement and participation by people with disabilities and those from minority ethnic backgrounds in devising and delivering new solutions to their housing problems

·         The adoption and/or funding by mainstream housing agencies and bodies of new solutions to housing problems faced by these marginalised groups

·         A measurable increase, at a local level, in uptake of services from these two groups

·         More consistent integration of minority ethnic and people with disabilities' housing needs into the general housing policy and provision of mainstream housing providers and bodies.

Methodology

LintelTrust will allocate grants to community-based groups and will evaluate both the projects progress and conclusion versus its original objectives.

As a result of initial consultation with the local agencies including Communities Scotland, the Scottish Executive, statutory agencies, housing providers and in light of learning from other projects, three key themes have emerged

Themes

1. Involving disabled people and people from minority ethnic communities in the decision making processes through –

·         Capacity building. This will be a two way process, involving building the capacity of both individuals and community groups in conjunction with developing the capacity of housing providers to be able to respond appropriately and practically to meet the specific needs of these groups

·         Advocacy

·         Training

2. Ensuring information provision is accessible and informed choices are promoted through –

·         standards, style and methods

·         capacity building

3. Reducing attitudinal barriers through –

• building bridges between communities
• peer support
• sharing skills

These themes will be finalised in dialogue with representative groups and individuals experiencing these barriers:

 Grants

LintelTrust will seek applications that can contribute to the development of work within these three themes. LintelTrust has established the following criteria for grant applications:

·         Projects will be :

·         Based in Scotland and working at a national and/or local level

·         New developments i.e.work your organisation is not currently undertaking

.

·         The applicant must be able to demonstrate:

·         there is a need for the project

·         that there are clear methods and processes to meet that need

·         there is a system in place to monitor and evaluate the impact of the project

·         that the project is likely to be of sustainable benefit.

·         The project will aim to:

·         involve users and carers in developing the project/service.

·         demonstrate collaborative working

·         promote Equal Opportunities

·         demonstrate a benefit to a number of people (value for money).

·         Develop good practice which can then be disseminated to other organisations throughout Scotland.

Evaluation

All projects involved in the programme will be required to participate in an evaluation process, which will include providing information on the progress of the project and the projects conclusion versus its original objectives to the Trustees of LintelTrust and participating in a series of seminars where participants will be able to share and learn from each other.

 2.Older People’s Programme.

All larger grants have currently been awarded in this category.  However, work is ongoing to increase funding under this heading (as with the Mainstreaming Equalities Programme).  Projects applying under this Programme should have a direct bearing on improving the lives of older people, by promoting innovative projects helping older people to remain in their own homes for longer, should they desire to do so.  Projects should be able to be replicated elsewhere, and be of real benefit to older people.    Thanks to the Miss Agnes H Hunter's Trust, for providing some further capacity to fund some previously assessed projects which fell into this criteria.