The Leeds Community Foundation has announced the Addressing Mental Health Inequalities in Minority Ethnic Groups Grants Program.

Children and young people from minority ethnic groups are under-represented in mental health support services. They report a lack of trust in mental health support services, as well as barriers in accessing support for mental distress.

Some of the key areas they are interested in funding are:

• Building capacity of grassroots organisations to work in a ‘psychologically informed’ way (i.e. to take the psychological and emotional needs of people into account)
• Increasing awareness of mental health services and supporting people to overcome barriers – including reducing stigma and increasing trust
• Offering a safe, trusting space for people to ask for help and get support for their mental health.
• Using trusted relationships to help people to access mental health support from other services/professionals if they need it.

Projects should address one of the following:

• Building capacity
• Reducing stigma and increasing trust
• Access to early intervention for developing mental health issues

Funding Information

The minimum request is £5,000 over two years. The maximum is £20,000 over two years.

Eligibility Criteria

Community groups, charities, social enterprises or other charitable organisations from the third sector that:

• Have a constitution or other relevant governance document
• Have a management committee/board of directors/trustees of at least three unrelated people
• Unincorporated groups (not registered as a charity, CIO, CIC etc) can apply for a maximum grant of up to £5,000 only.
• Have a bank account under the name of the group with at least two unrelated signatories (if your organisation doesn’t have its own bank account, but does meet all of the other criteria, please contact them to discuss how they can work around this)
• Are based in or supporting people living in the Leeds Metropolitan District Area
• Have an income of less than £300,000 in the most recent financial year if registered or incorporated: as they are keen to fund grass-roots organisations who are not usually part of the mental health system. Unincorporated groups must not have an income exceeding £10,000 in the last financial year. Larger organisations may act as a partner organisation and receive some of the funds for example for supporting the smaller organisation with its governance, capacity, or evaluation: provided the smaller organisation is the main applicant.
• Applicants should be currently embedded and supporting local communities however applicants do not need to be an organisation that specifically provides mental health support to be eligible for this fund: instead they are looking to fund any kind of work that has an impact on the three priority areas above.

For more information, visit Leeds Community Foundation.