Big Lottery Fund Assist programme

The Big Lottery Fund and NCVO have teamed up for the Assist programme, a new £6million initiative that will help VCS support and development organisations adapt to the changing needs of the frontline.

Assist is the first stage of the Big Lottery Fund’s Building Capabilities for Impact and Legacy approach, which differs from previous capacity–building investments, with most of the funding going directly to local support and development organisations. These organisations will then be able to choose what support they need in order to adapt their services to changing needs, funding and expectations of frontline organisations.

Frontline organisations will be able to choose from a menu of support services as well as have the opportunity to take part in a peer to peer support programme to help each other to improve the quality of their services.

Participants in the Assist programme will be given the opportunity to publicly rate the support they are given by the leading experts, enabling other organisations to make an informed choice about the support they receive and driving up standards across the board.

Further information on the Assist programme is expected in September 2012.

For further information on the Building Capabilities programme, which Assist is part of, visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/building_capabilities.