Regranting

2025 COPE SUB-GRANTING CALL – GAME WITH MUM & DAD

Announcement of an open call for recipients of financial support

Objectives of this call

A primary COPE objective is to maintain and strengthen trust, love and bonding between children and their parents in prison while maximising direct support for children. COPE also aims to foster structural transformation within prisons to promote children’s rights and well-being throughout criminal justice systems; to promote child participation in and ownership over change-making; and to help reduce stigma for children by shifting attitudes towards parental incarceration among the general public. To bolster support for children while promoting this shift in attitudes, COPE works from a holistic cross-sectoral perspective, showcasing its outcomes and impact throughout the law enforcement and criminal justice spectrum — from police to judicial authorities, prison services, schools, media and communities — and bringing cross-sectoral stakeholders together to better coordinate holistic support. It works to identify and remedy systems gaps and improve support for children. These objectives are articulated in COPE’s Network Principles and endorsed by COPE members across Europe.

This regranting call, part of a 2025 Grant Agreement signed between COPE and the European Commission, aims to align actions and achieve a critical mass of COPE NGOs in at least five different EU Member States, particularly smaller grassroots organisations, some led by and serving communities that are especially marginalised, to further these objectives and to move the agenda forward. It will do this through a grant to organise 1 or more football (or other) games between children and their parents in prison in 2025 and to showcase the outcome of this event to cross-sectoral stakeholders detailed above. Full Members of COPE based in EU Member States are invited to submit their project proposal for Game with Mum & Dad (GWMD) to be organised within their country context. Participation will allow COPE members to take an active part in a broader GWMD project. Regrantees of the 2024 regranting scheme can apply for the 2025 regranting scheme, although preference will be given to COPE NGOs who did not participate in GWMD 2024; 2024 regrantees can apply for a maximum budget of 6,000 EUR, although exceptions may be made for more ambitious scheduled activities (e.g., organising 5 games or more) in which case maximum budget is 9,000 EUR.

More information on organising games with prison services and cross-sectoral showcasing events is available in the Guidance Note.

How to apply

The completed grant application to be submitted must include the following documents: 

• Completed Application Form, including signed Declaration of Honour to respect and fulfill EU values at the end of the Application Form

• Child Safeguarding Policy and completed Child Safeguarding Checklist
• CVs of staff responsible for managing and implementing the project

All documents must be completed in English and applications need to be sent in full prior to the deadline of Monday 5 May 2025 18:00 CET to regranting@networkcope.eu

Please include all documents in a single email.
Incomplete submissions will not be considered. 

Timeline

Action                                                                               Date

Call opens                                                                       4 March 2025

Information session                                                       20 March 2025, 3:00-4:30 pm CET

Application deadline                                                    5 May 2025, 18:00 CET

Call results published on COPE website                     22 May 2025

Project launch                                                                 26 May 2025

Selection Process

An Evaluation Committee will review all proposals submitted.

​​Selection criteria include:

• 20%: Child participation in project design, implementation and follow-up.
• 20%: Gender sensitivity, inclusion (accessibility for disabilities) and promotion of EU values.
• 15%: Creativity, including leveraging pro bono support for the project.
• 20%: Capacity for project implementation, including financial management.
• 10%: Grassroots focus (i.e., local action, bottom-up approach to decision-making).
• 15%: Impact and sustainability (event coverage, interaction with cross-sectoral duty-bearers esp. prison authorities, feedback, commitment of authorities to systematising games)

CONTACT

For further information about the call, please contact: regranting@networkcope.eu