I am really pleased to share details of the market engagement event for the upcoming recommissioning of the Organisational Resilience Support strand of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF).

The purpose of the RASASF (which began in 2011) is to fund sexual violence services which support child and adult victims to cope, recover, build resilience and as far as possible, move forward with their lives.

RASASF grant funding enables the MoJ to deliver the Government's manifesto commitment to provide more sustainable funding to rape and sexual abuse support services.

Specialist organisations use the funding to provide a range of free, tailored support to victims including counselling and therapeutic services, advocacy, outreach, and group activities.

The RASASF is a small but key part of the wider victims budget.

As set out at the market engagement event for the RASASF in November 2022, we plan to compete a separate organisational resilience support offer to be delivered to RASASF grantees.

The organisational resilience support funding strand will fund one or more organisations to offer tailored diagnostic and consultative support to RASASF grantees who have opted-in, providing bespoke support to build organisational resilience.

The strand will comprise £265k, from 1 September 2023 to 31 March 2025.

The fund will be open to voluntary sector organisations, with experience of supporting sexual violence charities, who are able to provide support to small charities across England and Wales.

Bids may be submitted by individual providers, consortia or partnerships.

The purpose of the funding is to provide diagnostic and consultative support to sexual violence charities who opt-in to build their capacity and capability.

This means providing support that is specifically tailored to individual organisations to best strengthen their resilience and sustainability.

The supplier event will provide an opportunity for us to hear directly from organisations with an interest in bidding, which will help us shape how we compete this funding.

Market engagement will be in two stages.

Initially, broad outlines of the fund will be sent to organisations for comment, and this will be followed by an event to discuss.

The session will be managed as an online event, and will take place from 14:30-16:00 on Wednesday 5th May 2023.

If you wish to attend, please email rapesupport@justice.gov.uk.

Brief description for commercial system (i) Inform the market of a prospective grant opportunity in connection with the procurement for the Organisational Resilience Funding Strand of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF); and (ii) gives notice of the MoJ's intention to request feedback that may be relevant to the procurement strategy that may be adopted by the MoJ.

The Authority plans to hold a Supplier Event on Wednesday 5th May 2023 between 14:30-16:00.

Suppliers interested in attending the event should confirm their interest by 17