These changes concern the City of Helsinki’s grant application forms for health and well-being promotion and social, health and rescue services, and resident participation. Our goal is to better promote the work of the associations and to make sure they and the City can demonstrate the results of the grants. The changes to the grant forms will apply to the impact assessment and reporting sections thereof.
Diversity considerations for grant applicants
The new forms will consider grant applicants by the size of the grant. Applicants of smaller grants will be asked to answer one basic question on the use of the grant. Correspondingly, applicants of larger grants will be asked to answer a larger number of questions. That is, we will try to consider the diversity of the applicants during the application process. We will also develop the grant reporting to correspond with the application form’s structure and format.
Distinct forms for the health and well-being promotion and social, health and rescue services will also be made available. These grant types will have their separate application forms in spring 2025.
Answer our questionnaire on new forms
We have planned these new forms through consulting with the associations and our goal is to have the new forms available in spring 2025. You will still have the opportunity to provide feedback and comments on the forms’ new questions as well as the response instructions through this questionnaire. The questionnaire is open until 3 June 2024.
About the new forms
The decision to prepare new forms is based on a policy decision by the Social Services, Health Care and Rescue Services Reform Sub-Committee of the City Board in September 2022. The Sub-Committee’s policy decision states that grant activities must pay particular attention to the public interest of the associations, the impact of their activities and their self-sufficiency.
Currently, applicants are asked to describe, in general, the intended use of the grant, without requiring more detailed targets for the activities. Grant reporting is voluntary and focused on submitting documents on the association’s financial status to the City of Helsinki.
The Participation Unit of the City Executive Office initiated a joint development project for grant impact in close cooperation with the associations in autumn 2023. Associations included in the joint
development have been from the fields of health and well-being promotion and social, health, and rescue services, as well as members of the Advisory Board for Organisations.
