“Children and young people who have good mental health are more resilient, more likely to have positive relationships, are physically healthier, achieve more educationally and have better social outcomes.”*
In recognition of an unprecedented level of need for support for young people’s mental health in Surrey coming out of the Covid pandemic, the Community Foundation for Surrey set out to develop a new fund based on the following:
- Set up in response to a clear major increase in serious and critical incidents in young people’s mental health incidents in Surrey.
- Identified a need for step change in provision – short-term, small grant funding is not supporting sustainability of approach.
- Desire to grow and develop programmes that can evidence they are working.
- Stop the ‘post-code lottery’ – help should be available to all who need it in Surrey when and where they need it.
- We know the Community Foundation for Surrey has funded excellent provision by the Voluntary and Community Sector in specific local areas – which we aim to grow into cross-Surrey provision so that everyone can access support whenever they need it.
- We would like to support wrap-around support for long-term, that grows and develops as the needs of the young person and their family change over time – including organisations with differing expertise working together in partnership.
- We aim to fund joined-up thinking on a large-scale.
- CFS funding supports Community groups, charities and other members of the VCSE sector but not the public sector or private companies. See eligibility criteria.
- See attached for more info on funding criteria
We are delighted to have raised an initial £2M which sees us able to make our first funding award.
We now intend to continue to grow our fund for the future with the aim of generating a significant fund that will be able to award grants of this magnitude for many years into the future, ensuring that we are able to bring about a step-change improvement in the levels of support available for young people in Surrey.
If you are interested in applying for funding
Round 1 applications will be by invitation only.
We are currently undertaking a listening phase to inform the development of our fund – we would like to talk to organisations involved in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged up to 30 to find out what is working well and what challenges they are facing, if you would like to be involved in the consultation please contact Rebecca.Bowden@cfsurrey.org.uk.
In November 2022, we will open a fully open application process where any organisation can submit an Expression of Interest for our Round 2 Mental Health Scale-Up funding. At this stage we will have more information about key emerging issues and themes from our listening phase, which we will make available to all.
Donating to the Fund
If you are interested in making a donation to the Mental Health Scale-Up Fund and would like to discuss the available options with one of our Fund Development Managers, please email us at giving@cfsurrey.org.uk
Alternatively please go to our Donation page.
* Reference: Ref. Surrey Heartlands, Children and Young People Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Local Transformation Plan 2021-22)
