The charitable trust has committed £5m in funding over five years to 2026 which is allocated in yearly funding rounds. This year's funding round opened for applications on 15 May. The funding will be offered in grants to organisations that increase young women's access to age and gender specific mental health services.
What is the programme?
The young women's mental health programme, run by The Pilgrim Trust, operates once a year and offers grants to UK-based charities that increase young women's access to high-quality age and gender-specific mental health services. The Pilgrim Trust said that more than a quarter of young women experience mental health problems, and the programme aims to find effective ways to help those whose mental health needs may otherwise be overlooked.
How much is available?
The Pilgrim Trust has committed £5m in funding for 2021-26, and eligible organisations can apply for grants between £60,000 to £90,000, spread over three years. For this year's applicants, the funding will be delivered over the 2023-26 period. The funding can also be tailored to meet the needs of the project.
Who can benefit from it?
Organisations seeking to apply must directly engage with young women aged between 16 and 25 years old, offering age, gender and trauma-informed mental health services using a wrap-around programme of support. Organisations must also provide safe, women-only services or spaces that are accessible and welcoming to young women. Those with lived experience must also be involved in the design of the offered services through collaboration, and the service must be embedded in the community and offer culturally and community-sensitive services.
Who can apply?
Applicants must be a UK registered charity, must have an annual turnover of £100,000 to £1 million, and must have been operating for more than three years. To be eligible for the 2023 round, the organisation's work must be in either the North East or North West of England, Yorkshire and Humber, or Northern Ireland.
Applicants must also be willing to form a cohort with other grantees during the three-year grant period and have an impact that reaches beyond immediate beneficiaries of the work.
What is funded?
Organisations can apply for project delivery costs as well as core costs, such as contributions towards staff salaries and building overheads. It will not consider applications for retrospective costs of a project. Applicants are also encouraged to consider the costs associated with monitoring, evaluation, and advocacy activities, as well as the costs of sharing good practice through networking and convening groups.
What makes a strong bid?
Organisations that can demonstrate a strong track record of working with young women aged 16 to 25 and of delivering mental health services that are trauma-informed will be considered for funding. The programme also encourages bids that consider gender difference in mental health and the impact of wider social inequalities, offer age-appropriate services, and are integrated with other support options.
All grantees must be willing to work collaboratively as a cohort and build a peer-learning support community that helps them share experiences, challenges and best practice.
How to apply?
There is a two-step application process for the fund – applicants firstly need to book a conversation with the fund's grants manager through The Pilgrim Trust's website, after which they will receive an immediate decision on whether their project is eligible to apply. Applicants will then be expected to set out their application in full before 7 August and will be sent an application form to complete online. Applicants will be given a final decision before the end of November.
Funding roundup
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St Christopher's Fellowship has been awarded £330,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, to support young people to be work ready. This new funding will support young care leavers to learn the skills they need to find and keep employment, and work with businesses to encourage them to open their doors to young people who are care experienced.
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Organisations across England will be able to apply for funding of up to £10,000 to deliver Community Ambassador Programmes (CAPs) and mini CAPs for younger residents, through a £1.2m programme run by Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group. These 12-month programmes will offer five- to 20-year-olds the tools, resources and support to embark on a lifetime of social action in their communities.
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Youth charity the Jon Egging Trust (JET) has been appointed as a project partner in the UK Space Agency's major new £4.3m Space to Learn initiative. Space to Learn aims to inspire young people and improve access to STEM careers and space-related learning opportunities across the UK. JET's involvement will see the charity deliver more than 28,000 hours of space-related support to over 3,000 disadvantaged students as part of its existing STEM-inspired Blue Skies programmes.
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intandem, Scotland's national mentoring service for children and young people with care experience, has launched a Crowdfunder campaign, aiming to raise £10,000 to help children create lifelong memories this summer. The intandem programme is managed and facilitated by Inspiring Scotland.
