Programme objectives

The aim of the grant programme is to support and develop activities which enable families to get access to the information, help and advice they want at the time they need it. The primary objectives are to:

promote effective and appropriate support to families (couples and parents at key life stages) and in particular at times of change, challenge or crisis;
encourage the effective development and dissemination of best practice in the field of family support;
encourage and support innovation among family support organisations;
focus primarily on supporting couple relationships and parents with their parenting role;
promote diversity and address social exclusion through the provision of support;
contribute to one or more of the children, young people and families five outcomes listed in Every Child Matters (for the purposes of supporting families, specific family outcomes are listed in brackets):

1. Be Healthy: enjoying good physical and mental health and living a healthy lifestyle (Parents, carers & families promote healthy lifestyles)

2. Stay Safe: being protected from harm and neglect and growing up able to look after themselves (Parents, carers & families provide safe homes and stability);

3. Enjoy and achieve: getting the most out of life and developing broad skills for adulthood (Parents, carers & families support learning)

4. Make a positive contribution: to the community and to society and not engaging in anti social or offending behaviour (Parents, carers & families promote pro social behaviour)

5. Achieve economic well-being: not being prevented by economic disadvantage from achieving their full potential (Parents, carers & families are supported to be economically active).

All applicants to the programme will need to ensure that their proposal fulfils at least one of the five outcomes.

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