Grants bring together mental health and conservation

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 10 Oct 2008

A new grants scheme designed to promote mental health and regenerate the local environment has been launched by mental health charity Mind.

Ecominds, unveiled last week in West London, will distribute £7.5m over the next five years to 125 projects in England which involve people that both do and don’t have experience of mental health problems in local environmental projects.

“Ecominds marks the start of a new and exciting approach to tackling mental health stigma,” said Mind chief executive Paul Farmer (pictured second from left at the front).

Mind is currently accepting rolling applications for grants ranging in size from under £20,000 to between £150,000 and £250,000 – although there will only be five of the latter ‘flagship’ grants allocated. Each grant recipient will have up to three and a half years to achieve their project aims, although Mind expects that the majority of the smaller projects funded will last between one and two years.

Projects applying for grants must show how their activity will have both mental health and environmental aims and demonstrate thorough planning. Budgets for the projects cannot exceed £250,000.

The scheme is funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme and will be open to a range of organisations, including community groups, local business and schools so long as they can prove that they are involving local residents with mental health problems in the projects.

Groups are invited to submit applications to Mind which, after receiving between 25 and 30 applications, will have a panel consider the applications. The charity expects that the panel will meet three times a year.

Directory: Mind
Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

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