During Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 Corra Foundation announces £1m Henry Duncan Grant funding for community-based mental health and wellbeing support.
This year’s Henry Duncan Grants programme will open on May 25 and the fund totalling £1m will have three strands:
- Organisation Grants – open to charities with an annual income up to £500,000 and a core focus on supporting people of any age who experience mental ill health. A maximum of £8,000 per year granted up to five years.
- Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Project Grants – open to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic led charities with annual income up to £500,000, delivering projects that support people of any age who experience mental ill health. A maximum £8,000 per year up to three years.
- Micro grants – open to small charities and voluntary groups with an annual income up to £50,000, supporting communities experiencing disadvantage to improve mental health and wellbeing by reducing isolation and loneliness. This includes Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and rural communities. One-off grants of a maximum £1,000.
It is estimated that around one in three people in Scotland experience mental ill health in any year. The health, economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are likely to increase people’s need for mental health support. The impacts aren’t spread equally across the population, with adults living in areas of poverty approximately twice as likely to have common mental health problems.
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities have been among those most impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. This is likely to affect people’s mental health, for example through fear and anxiety, experience of illness or loss of loved ones.
Corra also acknowledges the impact that racial injustice has on mental health and well-being. Research has shown that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities are disadvantaged when accessing mental health and well-being services, including the quality of care they receive. This is due to racism, structural and institutional inequalities, fear, stigma and discrimination.
For these reasons, Henry Duncan Grants 2021 includes a strand focused on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities. These are project grants, rather than core, reflecting the fact that much of the work done to support mental health among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities is delivered by organisations that do not have mental health as their primary focus. Corra believes diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is fundamental to its ten-year strategy. As a result, the team are working proactively to reach, and be accessible to diverse communities.
Henry Duncan Grants will open on 25 May – please keep an eye on the Corra Foundation website, or follow Corra on Twitter @CorraScot or Facebook for more information.
ENDS
Notes to editor:
- Corra Foundation exists to make a difference to the lives of people and communities. It works with others to encourage positive change, opportunity, fairness and growth of aspirations which improve quality of life. Corra wants to see a society in which people create positive change and enjoy fulfilling lives. In 2020 Corra launched a ten-year strategy. It is long term because making a different on the big challenges will take time. At its heart is the strong belief that when people find their voice, they unlock the power to make change happen. You can read the full strategy here: https://www.corra.scot/corra-strategy-2020-2030/
- Corra Foundation has over 35 years’ experience as one of Scotland’s leading grant-makers, distributing more than £159m through nearly 16,000 grants to charities.
- Each year Henry Duncan Grants provides around £1m to support grass roots charities. Around £100,000 of this is for micro grants.
- Corra recognises the importance of both project and core grants. While project grants are for up to three years, core grants are available for up to five years. This reflects the consistent message from charities that longer-term funding for core costs is important for sustainability and planning.
- Henry Duncan Grants focuses on a different theme each year (details available here https://www.corra.scot/grants/henry-duncan-grants/).
- Groups can only hold one grant at a time. This means that if a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic charity successfully applies for a three-year project grant this year, they will be able to apply again to Henry Duncan Grants in 2024 (if they are eligible). In 2024 the theme will be ‘supporting people experiencing inequality or discrimination’.
