HeadStart Digital Innovation Fund

Tender description

In August 2016, Blackpool Council was awarded £10 million over a five year period for its HeadStart programme, as part of the Big Lottery Fund’s Fulfilling Lives programme. HeadStart is aimed at raising the resilience of young people aged 10 16 to prevent them developing mental ill health in the future. A range of initiatives address the needs of all of Blackpool’s 10 16 year-olds, with other initiatives aimed specifically at our target groups of young people who self harm, looked after children, and young people in transition from primary to secondary school. Blackpool’s HeadStart programme is centered around the Resilience Framework created by Hart, Blincow et al (see attached and www.boingboing.org.uk). Funding is being made available to services and organisations for the purposes of putting innovative digital ideas into practice regarding resilience in young people. The one off funding is intended to inspire applicants to develop digital solutions to enhance the engagement of Blackpool’s young people, parents and carers, as well as improving the quality of the support offer they provide. In order to avoid abortive work, we would suggest that potential applicants engage with us in order to understand what already exists for Blackpool’s young people. Keywords: Young People, Grant, Digital, Mental Health, Resilience, Innovation