Make It Happen Fund

The Make It Happen Fund (MIHF) seeks to support both immediate and long term, lasting impacts through a programme of co-produced work that shifts power, budgets and control into the hands of families and communities.
The MIHF is based on our belief that:

1.    Outcomes for individuals and communities improve when parents, carers, children and young people are seen as the experts in their own lives, and critically, have agency.
2.    If people are able to decide how funds are spent, they will spend those funds on different things and /or in different ways to services.
3.    In doing so outcomes will improve and services will learn about what individuals and communities can do for themselves and where services might better fit in the longer term
4.    Working on the MIHF will build the confidence and skills of parents and professional partners and support more equitable relationships between families and professionals.
5.    This offers lessons for public service about what will need to change in the system to sustain and grow this potential.

The MIHF is intended to add value to funds already available for families, including statutory and voluntary sources, and must not duplicate these offers. We are, however, interested in why existing funds cannot always get to families in the way they need.
The MIHF has two distinct, linked strands:
·       Grants for individuals to enable families to access the items, experiences or services that matter to them.
·       Community grants for parent and / or young person led collaborations, which may include professional partners, to create and deliver the impacts that they want to see in their communities.