- increase employment opportunities by addressing things such as educational underachievement, lack of skills, access to jobs and making it appealing for businesses to start up in areas which have suffered deprivation;
- tackle issues such as mental and physical health, use of drugs and alcohol, becoming a young mother, young people’s involvement in antisocial behaviour and the ability of communities to work together which can all be associated with deprivation;
- increase services in the community by improving existing facilities, making the environment better and providing additional facilities where needed and possible; and
- address dereliction in order to make areas more appealing for investment and for those living there
Operation of the fund
Steering Groups
The fund is being delivered in partnership with communities across nine social investment zones. Each zone has a steering group with up to 14 members from the business, political, statutory and voluntary and community sectors. The Steering Groups developed and prioritised projects to address priority needs in each zone.
Information on the Steering group membership can be found via the link below:
How the investment zones were decided
Four zones identified outside Belfast are broadly the same as the areas where the health and social care trusts operate. Four zones are in the Greater Belfast area and are largely based on Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies. One zone is aligned with the Derry City Council boundary.
Eligibility for funding
The Steering Groups for each zone were asked to identify areas eligible to avail of SIF interventions related to the 4 objectives. It was agreed that the following measures would be used to decide which areas were eligible:
- areas within the top 10 per cent of most deprived Super Output Areas on the Multiple Deprivation Measure 2010
- areas within the top 20 per cent of most deprived Super Output Areas on the key indicators of income, employment, education and health
- areas which could provide independently verified and robust evidence of objective need linked to the four strategic objectives of the Social Investment Fund (as detailed above).