The Society Integration Foundation (SIF) has announced an additional call for proposals under the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) measure “Support for New Approaches to the Provision of Community-Based Social Services”, providing organisations with an opportunity to receive funding for the development, piloting and scaling of innovative community-based social services.
Applications may be submitted until 28 September 2026 (inclusive).
The additional call follows the completion of a two-stage selection process in June 2026, which included the selection of social innovation project ideas and full project applications. A total of 30 projects were approved, with overall funding amounting to EUR 7,161,940.92.
As EUR 944,788.76 remains available for the implementation of social innovation projects, and following an invitation from the Ministry of Welfare, SIF has launched an additional call covering four priority thematic areas:
support measures for the provision of home-based social care services for people living in remote rural areas;
support measures to help informal carers remain in employment while caring for a family member;
integrated home-based social care services;
preventive measures in the field of sexual and reproductive health for children, young people and their legal representatives.
These priority areas have been identified based on the needs of Latvia's welfare sector, where new, more effective and sustainable solutions are required to further develop community-based social services.
The maximum funding available for a single project is up to EUR 300,000. Applications may be submitted by associations and foundations, commercial entities (including social enterprises), partnerships of such organisations, as well as state and local government institutions and other public bodies. Organisations whose projects have not previously been approved and have not signed a project implementation agreement under the measure are eligible to apply.
"The previous project selection demonstrated that Latvia has many organisations with the knowledge, experience and commitment to develop new solutions for social service delivery. This additional call creates an opportunity to implement even more initiatives that can improve people's quality of life and help address important social challenges. We encourage organisations to take advantage of this opportunity and submit high-quality project applications offering practical, sustainable and people-centred solutions," says Alda Sebre, Director of the Social Inclusion and Innovation Department at the Society Integration Foundation.
SIF encourages potential applicants to carefully review the conditions of the call and pay particular attention to ensuring that the proposed social innovation is directly linked to the social services sector and addresses one of the four priority thematic areas.
The programme aims not only to generate new ideas, but also to develop practical and sustainable solutions that improve the accessibility, quality and effectiveness of social services for people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Applicants are therefore encouraged to clearly define the social problem to be addressed, describe the proposed social innovation, explain its added value, and outline its expected impact on the target group.
To support potential applicants in preparing high-quality project proposals, SIF will organise an online information seminar on 13 August 2026 from 10:00 to 11:30. The seminar will provide information on the call conditions, evaluation process and application procedure, while participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions.
Further information about the additional call, the application documentation, the projects approved to date and other relevant information is available in the Social Innovation section of the SIF website.
For further enquiries, please contact SIF by e-mail at inovacija@sif.gov.lv.
This information has been prepared by the Society Integration Foundation within the framework of the ESF+ project “Support for New Approaches to the Provision of Community-Based Social Services”, which aims to promote social innovation in the field of social services by developing and piloting new or improved community-based social services that foster the social inclusion of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion and improve their quality of life.
For more information:
Sabīne Leingarde
Public Relations Specialist
Society Integration Foundation
E-mail: sabine.leingarde@sif.gov.lv
Phone no.: +37128355507
