Exploring Partnership Opportunities: Economic Inactivity Trailblazer Fund – Support for Women

This session will provide an overview of the North East Economic Inactivity Trailblazer Fund : Support for Women funding stream — a £925,000 opportunity aimed at tackling economic inactivity among women with long-term health conditions and complex challenges such as caring responsibilities, trauma histories, and low confidence.

We’ll create space for like-minded organisations to:

• Connect and share ideas
• Explore potential partnerships to delivering holistic, gender-informed, and trauma-aware support

Through this priority area, the Combined Authority expect to fund 5 – 8 projects with a minimum grant request of £100,000. It is expected that projects will range from regional to hyper-local and delivery must be completed by 31^st March 2026.

The fund presents a valuable opportunity, but feedback from women’s organisations highlights that barriers around timing, scale, and delivery timeframes make it difficult for smaller or grassroots groups to apply alone. Collaborative bids may offer a more accessible route to getting involved.

What to expect:

• Welcome and purpose
• Background and context – Erin, Director of Policy and Advocacy from Represent Women will share how the session came about, and what we’ve heard from the sector so far.
• Clarifying the opportunity – we’ll share an update from the North East Combined Authority (NECA), including:
  • How the funding will be allocated
  • Whether applications must be made in partnership
  • Whether individual organisations can express interest in being partnered
     

Facilitating connections

We’ll create space for attendees to:

• foster new connections and build on existing ones in relation to this funding opportunity;
• share ideas and areas of interest during the session (e.g. organisation name, area covered, project idea, contact details)
• gain access to a shared Google document which can be used post session to connect with other organisations.

We’re keen to support peer connection — this is about making it easier for organisations to explore joint working to maximise opportunities to apply for funding and help shape a more inclusive and impactful response to economic inactivity in the North East.

Can’t attend? We still want to hear from you!
Erin is happy to collect expressions of interest from organisations unable to attend the session. Please email her at: erin.parkerleonard@representwomenne.org.uk with a brief summary of your work and your interest in the fund.