Voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations have a vital role working alongside NHS colleagues to support anyone who has a mental health problem. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, demand for mental health services is increasing. To help VCS organisations based in England continue to provide mental health services – or provide additional support – organisations can apply for a Coronavirus Mental Health Response Fund (CMHRF) grant. This new grant funding is focused on supporting VCS mental health providers to respond to an anticipated increase in need as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic. The funding is available for registered charities to either:
- Scale up existing activity – for example, your organisation may manage a helpline or a forum that is experiencing an unprecedented amount of requests.
- Adapt existing activity – for example, you may have traditionally delivered all of your services in-person and now want to adapt them in order to continue meeting the needs of existing, or new, service users.
- Introduce new activity – you may want to introduce a new service that will meet the specific needs of your service users that arise due, in part, to the coronavirus crisis.
The £5 million governement fund will be administered by Mind and charities will be able to apply for grants of £20,000 or £50,000 for projects lasting up to 12 months.
How to apply
- You must be a registered charity (see below for funding for smaller groups).
- Applicants are invited to apply at any time.
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It’s a fast track assessment process, so applications will be assessed every two weeks and applicants will be informed of the outcome within a month of applying.
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Applications should take no longer than 60 minutes to complete.
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The fund will remain open for mental health voluntary sector organisations for as long as funds remain.
Further information
- More information and online application here.
- Detailed guidance notes available here.
- For funding support contact advice@rva.org.uk.
Support for smaller organisations and groups
As part of this funding programme, the National Survivor User Network (NSUN) will be administering a fund to support user-led organisations and smaller, unconstituted community organisations, who might not otherwise be eligible for a grant. Details will be available from Monday 20 April on the NSUN website. RVA will keep you posted with updates on this funding.