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National Lottery funded Better Start Bradford has a new Innovation Fund for local groups to apply for funding to run and deliver new projects to help improve the lives of children in the Better Start Bradford area of Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton. Between £2,500 to £100,000 is being made available as individual awards to local voluntary and community sector groups for new project ideas that will improve child outcomes in social and emotional development, communication and language and health and nutrition. Gill Thornton, Head of Programme, Better Start Bradford said: “After three years of establishing Better Start Bradford and setting up over 20 projects, we are ready to look at some new ideas. We already know that there are some great ideas out there to give our children the best start in life through our £2,500 Parents in the Lead Activities Fund. Our Innovation Fund takes those ideas to the next level and provides a bigger platform to test and learn new approaches. We can work with groups who have a proposal to develop into a project – it just needs to be new, in our area and for pregnant mums, 0-3s and their carers.” We are looking for innovative and creative proposals that will help us achieve our goals and outcomes. The Innovation Fund aims to encourage local innovation and engagement in the design and delivery of activities that will help local children to:
  • Eat well and be healthy
  • Talk and communicate well
  • Be confident, friendly and understand their emotions and behaviour
We are particularly interested in proposals that will:
  • Improve oral health in 0-3s through initiatives such as supporting parent supervised tooth brushing and reducing the intake of sugar in drinks and food
  • Support dads in being more involved in the lives of their 0-3s and contributing to their development
These are current priorities, however, we are open to ideas and have also identified other gaps and if you have an idea for engaging and supporting parents who have challenges in their lives (e.g. poverty, domestic abuse, housing and debt) please get in touch.