With funding from the Government, the Women’s Mental Health Peer Support grants programme is administered by Mind, the mental health charity, in partnership with Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk.
The programme responds to the needs of women experiencing disadvantage, particularly multiple disadvantage, who are frequently under-represented in services.
Work will be supported for a maximum of one year, and the funders expect to make between 80 and 90 awards ranging from £5,000 to £50,000 through the following two funding strands:
- Women’s peer support hubs to support five women’s organisations in creating ‘hubs’, four in England and one in Wales, to improve the capacity of individuals and community-based organisations to lead effective peer-support activity delivered for and by women.
- Peer support delivery initiatives based in the community, which will be facilitated by applying organisations and led by and for women with experience of multiple disadvantage.
Applications are invited from registered charities, Community Interest Companies (CIC), Charitable Incorporate Organisations (CIO), or companies limited by guarantee in England or Wales and with a track record of engaging with women who have experience of multiple disadvantage. Applicants for ‘hubs’ grants should be women’s organisations with specialist expertise of women with, or at risk of developing, mental-health problems and experiencing multiple disadvantage.
Who Can Apply
Registered charities, Community Interest Companies (CIC), Charitable Incorporate Organisations (CIO), or Company Limited by Guarantee in England or Wales are eligible to apply.
Partnerships, where the lead partner who will hold and administer the funds is a registered charity, Community Interest Company (CIC), Charitable Incorporate Organisation (CIO), or a Company Limited by Guarantee based in England or Wales may also apply.
The following additional eligibility criteria applies to each funding strand:
Peer support hub grants, applicants should:
- Be a women’s organisation (ie an organisation whose primary purpose is to work for the benefit of women and girls as reflected in its governing documents).
- Have a track record of engaging with women with experience of multiple disadvantage.
- Have a track record of partnership working across a geographical area or community of interest.
- Be committed to supporting peer-leadership opportunities for women and have ideas for how to engage women with lived experience across all elements of the Hub’s work.
- Have and will provide the skills and resources to plan, develop, deliver and manage the project against the intended outcomes.
Peer support delivery grants, applicants should:
Have a track record of engaging with women with experience of multiple disadvantage.
Be able to demonstrate the skills needed to facilitate effective peer support eg an understanding of the organisational support needed for an effective peer support project; an understanding of some of the challenges that might arise in the delivery of peer support and how these can be addressed.
Involve women experiencing, or at risk of developing, mental health problems in the design, delivery and management of the project.
Have and will provide the skills and resources to plan, develop, deliver and manage the project against the intended outcomes.
Be a women’s organisation, or be partners with one or more women’s organisations within the proposed project (not essential but desirable).
Restrictions
The following will not be funded:
- Requests for more than 25% of the applying organisation’s annual turnover.
- Retrospective costs.
- Costs not linked directly to the project (eg contributions to the organisation’s reserves, contributions to general appeals, funding shortfalls on existing projects, loan repayments, endowments).
- Staff time to develop and write applications and general fundraising work.
- Redundancy costs.
- Minibuses.
- Routine repairs and maintenance.
- General improvements to public areas, unless essential to the project.
- Personal equipment not essential to project delivery.
- Maintenance and office equipment not essential to project delivery.
- Activities for which there is a statutory responsibility to provide funding.
Eligible Expenditure
Grants are available to support voluntary organisations with costs associated with the facilitation and delivery of community-based, mental-health peer support activities that will benefit women experiencing multiple disadvantage in England and Wales.
Funding can support activities to establish:
- Women’s peer support hubs that will:
- Convene and deliver, in partnership with Mind, four capacity building workshops for grantees in strand one of the programme and others to grow local expertise in delivering women’s mental health peer support.
- Establish and support networks of women’s peer support practice.
- Become centres of expertise and knowledge on women’s peer support.
- Promote the value of women-led peer support to service providers and commissioners.
- Facilitate women-led peer support directly or indirectly eg by holding a community chest for independent user-led initiatives (providing this element is not compulsory for applicants).
- Peer support delivery initiatives based in the community, which will be facilitated by the applying organisations and led by and for women with experience of multiple disadvantage.
Eligible costs are:
- Staffing costs, including salaries of project workers employed solely for the project, pension and National Insurance contributions; staff and volunteer recruitment costs; fees for sessional workers; expenses for volunteers.
- Direct project costs, including travel expenses for staff and volunteers; staff and volunteer training; venue hire and meeting costs; other expenses relating to the activity and that will enable women to participate, for example, materials, refreshments, crèche and childcare costs.
- Communication costs, including market research, advertising, print costs for promotion/marketing; specific communications staffing expenses.
- Core costs, including a proportion of costs related to running the project such as management costs, building costs and office costs.
- Capital costs, including office equipment necessary for project delivery. (Costs exceeding 10% of total project cost will have to be justified as to why they are vital to the successful delivery of the project.)
How To Apply
The deadline for applications is 15 October 2018 (5pm). Application forms for both funding strands are available to complete and submit via Mind’s online application portal.
Organisations applying for funding for ‘Hubs’ that will facilitate direct or indirect peer support activity as well as providing the capacity building element must complete one small or large Peer Support Delivery application form as well as the ‘Hubs’ application form.
Applicants will be notified of the results of their applications by mid-December 2018.