11 March 2010
Grants for Occupation Initiatives in the Community
South West regional group is able to consider applications for one off grants of up to £500 to members of BAOT in the South West for occupational initiatives in all parts of the community. There is a maximum total of £750 per annum available from the Region.

Grants are designed to encourage setting up or supporting specific project work that clearly values occupation and encourages the use of occupation to enhance wellness and / or wellbeing in community settings. It is hoped that monies will encourage innovation and support to members using occupation to benefit community members in a diverse range of areas. Grants may be attractive to members who volunteer with a community group, are involved in a particular community project or who may want to develop something extra above or beyond normal service provision within the community for their work setting. Monies are not available to be given to subsidise budgetary constraints in statutory or other services linked to regular occupational therapy provision. Whilst the grants are not confined to any particular sector or type of community involvement, the following criteria will need to be met within the application process:

• Projects / initiatives must be targeted to a specific named community setting – this may be in a statutory, voluntary or other community setting but must clearly be identified together with the target group of people using the setting

• A brief description of the initiative / project must be given clearly showing how occupation is used / proposed to promote wellness and / or well being (this can be physical, psychological or social). Occupation may promote engagement in a new or developing area / project within a community but not support the maintenance of ongoing work in settings that face financial difficulty

• Aims of the project / initiative must be listed showing clearly how occupation is a key part of the proposal. This must indicate what the money is intended to be used for and how achievement of this will be demonstrated / measured

• The outcome achieved must be clearly time limited within 6 months of the grant being made

• Part of the agreement for the grant is that a list of expenses met by the money & necessary receipts will be required to be submitted for audit purposes to the treasurer of the SWBAOT committee within the time limit indicated on the application

• Successful BAOT recipient members will also agree to produce an article for the Regional Newsletter and / or a poster or brief verbal presentation at the regional annual BAOT conference. This will be to report on how their grant has been used and how the initiative has contributed to wellness and /or well being using occupation. Recipients are responsible to ensure they have any necessary permissions (e.g. ethics) to share this information in this format (e.g. use of photographs / quotes etc), the necessary additional COT consent form is available in the Regional COT web pages.

Members applying for grants need to write a proposal using the attached format. Grants will be decided by the BAOT SW committee that meets every two months. The meeting dates are available on the SW regional BAOT webpage. The deadline for applications is 2 weeks before each regional committee meeting.

Applicants who apply for monies will be informed of the outcome of the committee’s considerations within 1 week of the meeting.

Members who may have any queries about a proposed application can contact Lyn Westcott on behalf of the committee on lyn.westcott@plymouth.ac.uk