Our Young Women’s Mental Health grant programme for 2023 is now open for applications! We’re looking for charities working to improve the mental health of young women (16-25) across Northern Ireland, the North West and North East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber. Below we give a short introduction to the programme.
We set up the young women’s mental health programme to help improve the mental health of women aged 16-25 in the UK in 2021. We’ve committed £5 million in funding over five years and are now entering the third year of this programme. Our grants go to organisations that increase young women’s access to high quality, age and gender specific mental health services.
Young women face a mental health crisis. It is well reported by researchers how vulnerable they are to mental health problems; 25% of young women experience mental health problems like depression and anxiety. Social inequalities exacerbate causes and symptoms of mental health issues. Agenda shared in their 2022 report, ‘Girls Speak‘:
- Girls and young women aged 16 to 24 report the highest rates of domestic abuse experienced by any age group.
- Studies suggest that rates of self-harm are highest amongst young Black women but they are less likely to receive support for this.
- Around 90% of all single parents are women. Half of all children in lone-parent families are now living in relative poverty.
Not forgetting that the 16-25 age bracket features many life challenges along with the transition from children to adult mental health services – leaving many young people unable to get help when they need it most. See previous articles for more information.
We are inviting charities that work to improve and support the mental health of young women through age, gender and trauma informed services. Here are some useful details to consider if you are interested in applying:
- You must be a UK registered charity, with a turnover from £100k to £1 million that has been operating for at least 3 years to be eligible.
- Your work or project must be located in North East or North West of England, Yorkshire and Humber or Northern Ireland to be eligible.
- Further eligibility criteria can be found in our Funding Guidelines.
- Successful applicants have clearly illustrated their age and gender specific approaches to mental health services for young women. You can learn more about these approaches in the Funding Guidelines and here.
- We have lots of examples of current grantees that you can review. Check out M13 and the Northern Ireland Youth Forum’s You can also read about the last set of grants awarded on our blog.
Next steps
If interested, please book a conversation with Sonja, our Grants Manager, between 15 May to 16 June. During this conversation, you can discuss your project and ask any questions. You will receive an immediate decision if you can submit a full application.
Fill in this short form from 15 May to book a conversation.