Migrant Advice and Support Fund
Applications for the fund are now closed.
Are you a community group or civil society organisation supporting migrant Londoners?
The Mayor of London is offering funding to frontline organisations providing specialist advice and/or holistic support to migrant Londoners.
Recent years have seen the emergence of new and dynamic needs across London’s communities which require effective response. The arrival of new communities from Hong Kong, Ukraine, Afghanistan, as well as many others, alongside events such as Brexit, the Windrush scandal, and the passing of the Nationality and Borders Act have meant that thousands of Londoners need support more than ever with their immigration and citizenship needs.
Many Londoners also find themselves subjected to increasingly hostile policies towards migrants which prevent them from accessing basic services and opportunities. This means that many are excluded from fundamental support such as housing, healthcare, or a basic income if they are unable to prove their immigration status or are subject to restrictive visa conditions.
Specialist advice is crucial if migrant Londoners are to navigate these hostile policies, understand their rights and entitlements, and access essential services.
Migrant Londoners are integral to our city, and the Mayor is committed to a vision where all Londoners can thrive irrespective of immigration status. Access to necessary advice is a key part of this vision. The Migrant Advice and Support Fund has been launched in response to the pressing need to develop a robust and inclusive advice sector which can accommodate and support the needs of migrant Londoners.
About the fund
The fund aims to support a resilient and inclusive advice sector to meet the dynamic needs of migrant Londoners. The broad objectives of the fund are to:
- Develop advice, support and outreach capacity for currently underserved groups and areas of emerging need;
- Promote lasting collaboration across the advice sector to improve support for migrant groups by funding partnership work;
- Promote practices which prioritise staff wellbeing in challenging contexts to improve the long-term resilience of the sector.
The GLA will separately commission a service for organisations which will focus on embedding supportive practices for staff.
Grant funding of £750,000 has been made available for 12 months of activity from March 2023.
The funding pot includes a proportion of funds from the Hong Kong Welcome and Integration Fund that is dedicated to the support of Hongkongers. We are particularly interested in funding partnership work between organisations supporting Hongkongers and those working with wider communities around shared needs or issues.
For the first six months (March 2023-Sep 2023), individual organisations can apply for grants between £10,00 and £30,000.
Organisations working in partnership will be able to apply for grants from £10,000 up to a maximum of £70,000.
For the extended six months (Sep 2023 – March 2024), individual organisations will be able to apply for between £10,00 and £30,000, whilst partnerships will be eligible to bid for between £10,00 and £70,000. We particularly encourage applications from partnerships for this programme.
Applications are open to community groups and civil society organisations that have a strong track record of working with migrant Londoners, and/or are responding to an increase in need for migrant Londoners, especially for newly arrived and underserved groups.
We particularly welcome applications from organisations that are led by and for racialised and migrant communities. This means that at least 50% of your management and staff identify with one or more of these identities. We also welcome applications from organisations that can demonstrate reach among groups that are particularly underserved by existing advice and support services.
Organisations can apply individually or in partnership, however partnerships are particularly encouraged for this programme.
Full details are available in the Migrant Advice and Support Fund prospectus.
Applications must be completed via the online application form.
The deadline for applications is 9am on Monday 27 February 2023.
Supporting documents
Please note that applications must be completed via our online application form once applications open on Monday 23 January.
The application questions document provides the list of questions from the application form, to allow you to prepare your answers before inputting them into the online application form.
Grantees
11 organisations and partnerships have been awarded grants through the Migrant Advice and Support Fund:
- Action for Refugees in Lewisham (AFRIL) in partnership with Southwark Law Centre and Deighton Pierce Glynn
- Alternatives Trust East London in partnership with Bonny Downs Community Association
- Bluetouch London CIC in partnership with Good Food Matters
- Claudia Jones Organisation
- Da’aro Youth Project
- Empowering Deaf Society
- Hackney Chinese Community Services in partnership with Hong Kong Aid and Lewisham Refugee & Migrant Network (LRMN)
- Micro Rainbow
- Project 17 in partnership with The Care Rights Project
- Roma Support Group in partnership with Settled
- Shpresa Programme in partnership with Migrant & Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (MiCLU)
Support for your application
Applying for funding can be daunting and can take up a lot of time and energy. The GLA is partnering with Groundwork to offer a range of support to help you to think about your project and complete your application.
If you would like to apply to the Migrant Advice and Support Fund but have additional access requirements, we can cover the costs of someone to support you to understand the guidance and complete the application.
This could be a BSL interpreter or a support worker to help to write the application.
To discuss how we can help, please contact [email protected].
We are offering flexible, one-to-one consultations to assist applicants to develop their project proposals and complete their applications. There is some capacity to support some applicants to complete application forms via phone, video call, and in-person.
Sessions will be supported by an independent grants officer.
Please get in contact if you feel you would benefit from bespoke support by emailing [email protected].
We will be hosting a series of virtual Q&A sessions for interested applicants.
Please come along and ask the team your questions about the fund. To register for one of the sessions, please click on the relevant link below: