ENGLISH
Dear Colleagues,
The Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition and El Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral, is pleased to announce funding for Community Grants that address HIV and AIDS among men who have sex with men (MSM)/LGBT, transgender people, sex workers (SW), and Marginalized Youth (MY) in the Caribbean. Grassroots organizations led by or working with MSM/LGBT, SW or MY communities in Trinidad, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are encouraged to submit proposals.
Attached you will find the following documents in both English and Spanish versions:
- CVC/COIN Call for Community Grant Proposals with MSM/LGBT, SW and MY
- Instructions for preparing Community Grants
- Community Grants Application Form
- Community Grants Budget Form
Organizations may apply for grants of up to $20,000US. The deadline for applications is 22nd February 2012.
Please circulate this widely among your networks.
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ESPANOL
Estimados colegas,
La Coalición Caribeña de Comunidades Vulnerables y El Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral, se complace en anunciar la financiación de subsidios comunitarios que aborden el VIH y el SIDA entre hombres que tienen sexo con hombres (HSH)/GLBT, personas transgénero, trabajadores sexuales (TRSX), y los jóvenes marginados (JM) en el Caribe. Organizaciones de base comunitario que trabajan con HSH / GLBT, TRSX y JM en Trinidad, Jamaica y República Dominicana son invitados a presentar propuestas.
Adjunto encontrará los siguientes documentos, tanto en versiones en Inglés y español:
- CVC / COIN Llamada de propuestas de subvención con MSM / GLBT, TRSX y JM
- Las instrucciones para la preparación de las subvenciones
- Formulario de Solicitud de Becas
- Formulario de Presupuesto
Las organizaciones pueden solicitar subvenciones de hasta 20.000 dólares US. La fecha límite para solicitudes es el 22 de febrero 2012.
Por favor, distribuya esta ampliamente entre sus redes.
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CONTACTO/CONTACT:
Louise Tillotson
Technical and Policy Coordinator
CVC/COIN Caribbean Vulnerabilized Groups Project
Skype ID: louiset47
Email: ltillotson@coin.org.do
CVC/COIN Community Grants for MSM/LGBT, Sex Worker and Marginalized Youth Projects: Phase I Round
Available Funding
CVC/COIN, The Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition and El Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral, is pleased to announce funding for innovative projects that address HIV and AIDS among men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, sex workers (SW), and Marginalized Youth (MY) in the Caribbean. Grassroots organizations led by or working with MSM/LGBT, SW or MY communities in Trinidad, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are encouraged to submit proposals. Funds for these mini-grants are made available under The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Round 9 Caribbean Regional Project.
Approximately $160,000USD is available for this round of mini-grants in Phase I of this project, which initially focuses on only the three aforementioned countries. CVC/COIN anticipates funding between two to three projects in each of the countries for organizations programming with Sex Workers, a further two to three projects in each of the countries for organizations programming with MSM/LGBT, and a final one to two projects in each of the countries for organizations programming with Marginalized Youth. Organizations that submit strong proposals will receive technical support and mentoring from CVC/COIN and can expect to receive funds to begin implementing in March 2012.
Each organization may apply for an award of up to $20,000USD to support project-related costs for up to 9 months, between March 2012 and December 2012. Applications for supporting general administrative and operational costs cannot be considered.
Who Is Eligible to Apply?
· Community-based organizations located in Jamaica, Trinidad, and the Dominican Republic.
· Non-profit organizations (e.g., NGOs, CBOs, and other charitable organizations).
· Organizations led by and working alongside MSM/LGBT, Sex Workers and MY.
· Organizations with solid organizational structures and that take clear steps to ensure meaningful and active engagement and participation of MSM/LGBT, SW or MY in their structure.
· Organizations which seek to launch, expand or replicate an innovative program with a track-record of successful program or service implementation that make measurable impacts on the marginalized populations served.
· Newer organizations that present a revolutionary approach to solving community issues will be considered.
· Organizations with capacity to carry out the proposed activities and effectively manage award funds.
Who Is Not Eligible and SHOULD NOT APPLY?
· Individuals
· Government organizations
· For-profit organizations
· Organizations based in the wider Caribbean region (outside of Jamaica, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic) will have an opportunity to apply for grants in Phase II, but should not apply during this round.
· Organizations with annual operating budgets of more than $1 million USD.
· Organizations that do not meaningfully involve MSM/LGBT, Sex Worker or MY community members in the development and implementation of programs.
Background
The CVC/COIN Vulnerabilized Groups Project is the only project funded in the Caribbean by The Global Fund which focuses on working with socially marginalized and highly stigmatized and discrimination populations who bear the burden of HIV and AIDS.[1] CVC/COIN works in partnership with civil society to challenge structural drivers of the epidemic such as gender-inequality, homophobia, transphobia, and whorephobia and to claim rights. The Vulnerabilized Groups Project recognizes that Caribbean National AIDS Programs lack the ‘know how’, and often willingness, to work with MSM/LGBT, Sex Worker and MY populations. Meanwhile, over the past two decades, Caribbean civil society, CBO’s and NGOs have developed innovative and avant-garde programming and interventions with these populations.
Through the Community Grant Awards, CVC/COIN will provide technical support to community partners to develop model programming. This is an opportunity for community partners to showcase and expand their successful programs and/or to develop innovative models which can be scaled-up in partnership with National AIDS Programs.
Funding Priorities and Areas of Interest
1. Community Grants for MSM
In August 2011 CVC/COIN held a regional consultation with partners in Jamaica to identify core elements of provision of services for MSM and to consider current, potential and unmet needs for MSM programming in the region. Through this consultation, community partners assisted CVC/COIN to identify a framework for action for programming with MSM. CVC/COIN will prioritize grant applications which fall under the following to general areas:
· Community Capacity Building and
· Campaigns to promote health and human rights.
Interventions that include outreach, psycho-social support, social marketing and other innovative strategies around:
Rights-based policy, advocacy, and projects
Community-led research; and/or
A combination of prevention, advocacy, and/or research.
Community capacity building interventions may include
· Provision of community space (including social media and networks and existing safe spaces, such house parties, cafes, clubs, or health services within LGBT-friendly centers as venues for health information and health services)
· Structured mentorship programs to identify and build capacity to increase access to health and other personal development opportunities for MSM
· Interventions which seek to build the community’s informed participation in development of health and rights-based policies and partnerships with policymakers
· Community training in the areas of human rights, security and rapid response mechanisms
· Training of networks of LGBT-friendly healthcare providers to sensitize others in the health sector including support to LGBT-friendly peer educators and professionals in health care settings to help people navigate appropriate health services and care
· Initiatives to support strengthening of national networks of MSM and transgender people, and programs working with MSM and transgender people, to share capacities and information, including about HIV treatment care, and prevention
· Pilot community research, community-based needs assessments
Campaigns to promote health and human rights may include
Development and implementation of communications strategy, including regular updates (via Facebook or other secure media) about national litigation and constitutional change work
Interventions which support greater involvement of communities of MSM and transgender people in any process of impact litigation or national human rights reporting on their behalf
· Community-led reviews of laws and human rights environments, including research to document how existing legal and human rights frameworks impede access to HIV interventions and how adoption of model laws, judicial practice, and law enforcement might improve this access
· Rights literacy campaigns, including audiovisual, written and verbal communications
· Mechanisms to collect/report/document, and respond to rights violations, including partnerships between MSM/trans organizations and national human rights institutions such as legal aid clinics and networks, hotlines, and human rights networks
· Educational campaigns focusing on any of the following alone or in combination - men’s health and transgender health that challenges stereotypes, transactional sex and mental health
CVC/COIN is happy to accept feedback on this call and these priority areas defined.
2. Community Grants for Sex Workers
CVC/COIN is committed to supporting projects that promote the health and rights of the diverse communities of sex workers across the Caribbean.
We encourage organizations led by, or working with, the following populations to apply:
Female sex workers
MSM sex workers
Transgender sex workers
Migrant sex workers
Trafficked sex workers
Imprisoned or formerly incarcerated sex workers
Sex workers who use drugs
HIV positive sex workers
Young men and women engaged in transactional sex
Further, we encourage proposals from groups that are reaching sex workers in all of the settings where they work including (but not limited to): brothels, massage parlors, the street, clubs, rural areas, escort services, the tourism industry, and prison.
Examples of sex worker interventions that CVC/COIN will consider for support:
a. Prevention: Community-based, peer-led prevention programs including distribution of and education about: male and female condoms, lubricant, contraceptives, and harm reduction for drug-users. These programs should be relevant to the specific needs of the populations listed above and preferably reach sex workers at their places of work or in safe community spaces (see below).
b. Health education: Community-based health education programs that address the multitude of health issues facing sex workers. These could include programs on HIV prevention, ARV treatment literacy, sexual health (including anal sex), reproductive health, and new prevention technologies such as treatment as prevention, pre-exposure prophylaxis (prEP), microbicides and vaccines. CVC/COIN will prioritize health education programs that utilize the expertise of both sex workers and resource people from national AIDS programs and public clinics (doctors, nurses, etc.), creating forums for sensitization and learning.
c. Access to care: Efforts to strengthen relationships between sex worker communities and public and private health systems to improve access to HIV testing and treatment and STI screening and treatment. These programs could include training healthcare workers about sex workers’ health needs, developing and strengthening referral, tracking and follow-up systems between sex worker organizations and clinics, Spanish language services for migrant sex workers, and mobile clinics. CVC/COIN will prioritize access to care programs that build the capacity of public health services to provide appropriate, non-stigmatizing services to sex workers as well as efforts to provide sustained care for mobile sex workers who move across the region.
d. Safe community spaces: Safe spaces that are welcoming and safe for sex workers and can be used for support group meetings (focusing on such issues as self-esteem building, psycho-social care, building community solidarity, etc.), one-on-one counseling, and dissemination of health and rights information. CVC/COIN is not able to support general administrative costs, including office rent. If the proposed safe space is within an office, applicants must clearly delineate the costs of community spaces and describe the programs they will house.
e. Structured mentorships: Peer-led mentorship programs in which sex workers learn from one another about effective HIV prevention, care, and treatment interventions, self-esteem building, self-organizing, monitoring and evaluation, and organizational capacity building. CVC/COIN will prioritize funding for long-term structured mentorship programs rather than one-time trainings.
f. Social and economic support: Strategies to link sex workers to the social and economic support they require such as substance abuse counseling, rehabilitation for the formerly incarcerated, school fees for sex worker’s children, and access to alternative employment for those who wish to transition out of sex work. CVC will not support sex worker-led organizations to run social support programs themselves, but rather to develop referral programs and/or collaborative relationships with appropriate social service and economic development organizations.
g. Advocacy to improve health services for sex workers: Monitoring and addressing discrimination and quality of care issues for sex workers in public and private health facilities and advocacy efforts to urge national AIDS programs and research institutions to build the body evidence about epidemiological trends among sex workers in order to improve and inform targeted evidence-based interventions. CVC/COIN encourages peer-learning among sex workers to build capacity to engage in policy and advocacy strategy development.
h. Human rights education: Basic human rights education on local, regional, and international human rights instruments, conventions and declarations that can be deployed to protect and promote the rights of sex workers and training on how to effectively use them in organizing and activism. CVC/COIN will prioritize human rights education and training programs run by sex workers and geared toward realizing the right to health.
i. Enabling environment: Legal and advocacy efforts to challenge national laws and policies that criminalize sex work, increase sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV (such as forced or coercive testing policies or immigration policies that exclude sex workers from services), and violate their rights. This could also include efforts to address violence against sex workers (including rape) through training police and security forces, coordinating reports of violence from individuals and organizations, and self-defense and empowerment programs in which sex workers learn to protect themselves. CVC/COIN will prioritize legal and advocacy activities that further PANCAP’s Regional Policy on HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination.
http://pancap.org/docs/Final%20Policy%20on%20Stigma%20and%20Discrimination.pdf
j. Communication campaigns: Marches and rallies, radio, television, print-media campaigns, and press conferences designed to bring sex worker health and rights issues into the public sphere, challenge stereotypes, and build tolerance. CVC/COIN will prioritize proposals for communication campaigns that build in security precautions and psychosocial support for sex workers who choose to be the public face of organizations and movements.
k. Emergency response: The development of rapid response mechanisms that provide emergency support, and in some cases, technical assistance, to respond to police crack downs, raid and rescue operations, anti-human rights legislation, and flare ups of violence. CVC/COIN encourages sex worker organizations in-country and across the region to collaborate on the development of emergency response planning in order to strengthen the regional response to human rights violations against sex workers.
CVC/COIN is happy to accept feedback on this call and these priority areas defined.
3. Community Grants for Marginalized Youth
Traditionally socially excluded, hard to reach, youth have not been targets of National AIDS Programs in the Caribbean region, despite the fact that young people account for the highest number of new HIV infections. Challenges common to marginalized youth across the region include stigma and discrimination, homelessness, family rejection, lack of or insufficient or sporadic income, high school drop-out rate, unemployment, food insecurity, lack of physical safety, poor or limited access to youth-friendly, confidential and comprehensive healthcare, and limited ability to negotiate condom use.
Projects submitted to CVC/COIN should be rights-based with a focus on promoting positive attitudes towards sexual reproductive health of young people, and should encourage youth-led responses and leadership in the response to HIV and AIDS. All project proposals should include HIV prevention as a core element of programming but as the needs of youth are multi-layered, proposals should respond to a combination of the below needs to create innovative programs for reducing HIV among socially excluded youth.
1. HIV prevention
§ Education
§ Testing
§ Condom services
§ Treatment as prevention
2. Care, treatment and support
· Treatment literacy
· Case management
· Facilitated referral
· Adherence
3. Empowerment, self-awareness and personal development
§ Literacy
§ Self-esteem development
§ Personal hygiene
§ Communication
§ Survival skills (how to complete a job application, how to apply for a passport, how to apply for a driver’s license)
§ Entrepreneurial skills/ income-generation skills (cooperatives)
§ Money management
§ Healthy Eating
4. Psycho-social support
· Counseling
· Family consuelan
· Stress management
· Stigma, self stigma
· Housing
· Conflict management
5. Safe Spaces
· Spaces that are non-discriminatory and non-judgmental for service delivery - clinical, education and for social interaction
6. Advocacy, Networking and Participation
· Inter-personal communication
· Networking
· Social media
· Advocacy campaigns
· Initiatives to enhance participation in decision-taking processes
CVC/COIN is happy to accept feedback on this call and these priority areas defined.
Sponsor Organizations
Grassroots groups that are not yet formally registered may consider partnering with a “sponsor” organization that is eligible to receive funding. The sponsor organization would receive and manage funds, provide general oversight for execution of the funded project, and potentially provide technical support to the applicant. In such cases, the non-registered organization should apply directly. However, the application should clearly identify the sponsor organization, describe in detail all technical support that the sponsor will provide (including monitoring and oversight of expenditures), and include a letter of agreement from the sponsor.
Review Process
All mini-grant proposals will be considered and reviewed by a Steering Committee of peer and community experts in the region, who have expertise working with and designing programming for MSM/LGBT, Sex Worker, and MY populations, including technical staff of the CVC/COIN project.
Following this review, successful community partners will be invited to trainings to refine and further elaborate their proposals, and particularly to detail the workplan, monitoring and evaluation plan, and budget.
Project proposals will be reviewed and scored against the Application Form and Budget Proposal and the following criteria:
· Impact: How effective is the project likely to be in improving conditions for the target group?
· Strength of plan and measurable outcomes: Does the proposal have a clearly defined plan of action with measurable outcomes for success?
· Leverage: Will this grant result in outside donations or government buy-in?
· Documentation: Does this proposal include a reasonable plan for communicating the project's successes and the lessons learned?
· Breadth of Community Involvement: Does the project involve the target group fully in all aspects of the project?
· Budget: Does the project use resources creatively and get the biggest “bang for the buck?” Does the budget presented seem to be an accurate projection of costs?
· Capacity Building: Will the project result in increased organizational and individual leadership skills and improved relationships?
· Partnerships/Collaborations: Does the project involve collaboration between multiple groups, especially those with different levels of capacity?
· Maintenance & Sustainability: Does the proposal identify how the project’s outcomes will be sustained in the future beyond the GF support?
Forms and Instructions
Copies of the Application Form and Budget Form are attached and may be submitted in either English or Spanish. Please read all of the Instructions carefully as they contain the information necessary for the proper preparation and submission of a successful proposal.
Applicants must also provide the names and contact information of at least two external references who are familiar with the organization and its work but who are not affiliated with the organization or the project for which funding is requested. Please do not include letters of support or other documents from your references. References may or may not be contacted as part of the proposal review.
Submission of Applications
Please submit all applications to coin.cvc.human.resources@gmail.com
All applications must be received no later than:
22nd February 2012, 5pm (Dominican Republic time)
Confidentiality and Communications
Throughout the review and award process, CVC/COIN respects the privacy of the applicant and is committed to protecting from disclosure any confidential or proprietary information contained in a submitted proposal.
While we will make every effort to ensure confidentiality in these situations, CVC/COIN, cannot guarantee complete confidentiality and/or be held liable for the disclosure of information that causes harm to individuals or groups associated with funded projects. Groups should be aware that any information provided carries the risk of being shared publicly through open dialogue about funding priorities, peer review processes, and communications about the project, decisions, and reported outcomes. Submission of a funding application is deemed to indicate the applicant’s understanding and acceptance of these risks.
Requirements and Restrictions
CVC/COIN seeks to support quality and accountable programs. Therefore, all organizations funded through this grant-process will be required to provide monthly, mid-term and final reports, and will be required to utilize the community web-based M&E platform and database designed by CVC/COIN specifically for its partners.
Organizations should be able and ready to document appropriate financial and accounting controls, including measures to prevent duplicated use or misappropriation of funds. Any renewal of funding will be contingent upon careful adherence to these reporting requirements.
CVC/COIN will provide close technical support and financial oversight of all mini-grants awarded.
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Louise Tillotson
Technical and Policy Coordinator
CVC/COIN Caribbean Vulnerabilized Groups Project
Skype ID: louiset47
Email: ltillotson@coin.org.do
