During our November Trustee meeting, we were delighted to award 11 grants for our Young Women’s Mental Health programme, coming to a total of £980,239. We have committed £5 million in funding over five years (2021-2026) to help improve the mental health of young women (16-25) across the UK. Below we share a bit about these new grantees and the focus of their three-year grants.
Connecting people and communities with art and art experiences, SICK! Productions in Manchester is successful diversity-led arts charity. Their programme – SMASH: Supporting Women and Girls in Manchester though Arts Based Social Prescribing – supports young women’s mental health. Activities include artist talks, cultural visits, creative making sessions and more. Our grant of £90,000 over three years will fund this project.
Healing Hearts & Minds is a 12-week long programme lead by youth development charity, NE Youth in North East England. The programme supports neurodiverse young women with their mental health through a co-produced, bespoke programme of activities. Our grant of £89,258 will fund the programme for three years.
Gorse Hill Studios is a thriving young people’s charity that provides youth work support and arts-based activities for disaffected young people. The studio would like to develop its young women’s work. They work with young women in a safe space to explore mental health challenges using expressive art and youth work processes. Our grant of £90,000 over three years will help embed this young women’s stream of work.
Refugee Women Connect supports women asylum seekers, refugees and their families, as well as survivors of modern day trafficking. Their new programme – the Sisterhood Youth Project – aims to provide young women experiencing the immigration system with a space in which they can access specialist, one-to-one mental health support and other wellbeing activities. Our grant of £84,629 over three years will fund this project.
On the left, a yoga Class and on the right a ESOL class run by Refugee Women Connect. Credit: Refugee Women Connect
Providing specialist trauma-informed services, The Birchall Trust supports people whose lives have been affected by sexual abuse and rape. ‘Empowered to achieve’ is Birchall’s new young women’s wellbeing service that will offer young women access to counselling, peer support and women only wellbeing activities. Our grant of £89,936.15 over three years will cover the salary costs of a member of staff to run the project and related project costs.
ARCH Teesside (ARCH) is working with partners Youth Focus North East and Middlesborough and Stock Mind to help better serve the mental health needs of young women in Teesside. As part of a new project Hope for the Future, they will employ a new member of staff to liaise with young women and co-produce services and activities that better meet their needs. Our grant of £90,000 over three years will go towards running this project and staffing costs.
Based in North West England, Women’s Community Matters is a ‘one-stop shop’ women’s centre offering holistic and wraparound services for women in need of practical and emotional support. Our grant of £90,000 over three years will enable Women Community Maters to employ a fulltime member of staff to focus on the mental health needs of young women within the centre and offer them a range of activities, groups and programmes.
Youth Federation is a charity that empowers, engages and enriches the lives of young people aged 8-25 across Cheshire, Halton, Warrington and Wirral. Their new programme aims to improve the mental health of young women through therapy, group support and awareness sessions with a new female mental health worker. Our grant of £90,000 over three years will cover new staff costs and the associated costs to expand their mental health services.
A young women’s workshop by NE Youth. Credit: NE Youth
Based in Gateshead, the Young Women’s Outreach Project supports the mental health of young women and mothers aged 11 to 19 with group work, one-to-one and specialist services. Their project, Wellbeing Warriors, helps young women get the support they need to improve the quality of their life and build confidence and self-esteem. Our grant of £86,416 over three years will support the project and additional staff costs.
Swan Women’s Centre supports and empowers women and teenage girls to improve their mental health and wellbeing. Swan wants to develop their young women’s mental health support services to include counselling, support groups, creative activities and befriending. Our grant of £90,000 over three years will allow them to employ more staff members to expand their support for young women.
EVA Women’s Aid is an award-winning charity with 35 years’ experience in delivering support services to victims of domestic abuse and/or sexual violence. EVA runs The Butterflies Project, which supports young women survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence with counselling, programme work and tailored support. Our grant of £90,000 over three years will fund the project and additional staff costs.
If you’d like to learn more about these grants or any of our grants, you can read more on Recent Grants Awarded. Visit Young Women’s Mental Health for more information on this grant programme.
Feature image of young women’s outdoor sports run by NE Youth. Photo credit: NE Youth.