Community Based Services Supporting Women

The purpose of the Community Based Services Supporting Women Project is to support a whole-system approach to improving health and justice outcomes for women in County Durham and Darlington.

The Project ambition is to deliver this by enhancing those community-based services which are greatly valued. This will be achieved by managing existing resources differently to target support more efficiently, avoiding gaps or duplication in service provision, to support women to be better able to cope and build resilience to lead fulfilling lives.

The Project aims to deliver community-focussed activities in a welcoming and safe space, to ensure equality and equity of support service provision for women, across County Durham and Darlington.

If a specific need is identified or disclosed by the service user, this Project encourages Providers to ensure signposting or referral to specialist services, which meets any unmet need. For example, those who are:  

• a victim of crime,
• in contact with the criminal justice system,
• experiencing homelessness,
• engaging in survival sex or sexual exploitation,
• experiencing severe mental health problems,
• experiencing serious drug and/or alcohol problems
• experiencing gambling problems.

What we’re looking to fund

We are looking to fund services who can show that they work to:

• Gender and trauma informed services that provide support that is informed by an understanding of trauma and gendered issues.
• Culturally-responsive services that provide support to services users in a way that is culturally appropriate and ensure the awareness of culture and identity are embedded into policies, practices, and environments.
• Person-centred, flexible and adaptable approaches, that are tailored to the individual needs of each woman and her life situation.
• Multi-agency partnership working, where women are able to access the holistic, wrap-around support they need and bring public and third sector partners together to develop appropriate services and support pathways that are accessible to all women.
• Peer to peer support approaches, which enable peer to peer support between participants are encouraged to foster the building of safe relationships and networks.
• Empowerment and agency participants will be encouraged to lead the process of building on their strengths and aspirations to address challenges that affect their day to day lives.
• Co-production and community led: a way of working where services and services users work in equal partnership to develop the service. It involves consulting, including, and working together from start to end of any project that affects them.
• Barriers to access; being aware of, and addressing, physical and psychological barriers which may prevent engagement.
• Flexible programming and support, recognising that a range of approaches, interventions and supports may need to be identified and employed to deliver the different outcomes.

Funding Guidelines

• Fund amount: £70,000 maximum.
• £5,000 will be awarded to one Provider in each of the 12 Local Network areas (formerly Area Action Partnerships) in County Durham. £10,000 will be awarded for 1 area for Darlington Borough Council (13 areas in total).
• A Provider can apply for more than one Local Network area. There will only be one successful Provider per area.
• Contract Term / Length: 01-01-2026 to 01-01-2028, with possibility of extension of up to 12 months plus 12 months (2+1+1).
• Focus: Community-based services providing community-focussed activities/intervention to women (18 years and above) who are residents of County Durham and Darlington.
• Annual income: no minimum or maximum income requirement.
• Application deadline: Friday 10^th October 2025, 5pm.