Empowering Communities for Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund - Arts, Culture and Heritage

Empowering Communities for Mental Health & Wellbeing

Arts, Culture and Heritage

About the Fund

This fund has been created by Norfolk County Council’s Public Health Department and is designed to support projects that use cultural and creative community-based approaches that can promote positive mental health and reach individuals who may not engage with clinical services.

Projects should focus on one or more of the following groups who are known to be experiencing heightened challenges to their mental health and wellbeing.

Middle-aged men (typically 35-55 years old)
People living in rural or coastal areas
Individuals with long-term mental health conditions
Veterans

Funded projects should:

Use arts, culture or heritage as the primary approach
Be non-clinical, inclusive, and trauma-informed
Be co-designed or shaped by people with lived experience of mental health challenges
Promote meaningful engagement, expression, connection, and hope
Support with managing life challenges, improving community mental health literacy, and building on existing community assets

Aims of the fund

Applicants must show they can address and report on the following objectives within the community using art, culture and heritage based activities:

Enhance protective factors such as social connection, belonging, and emotional expression through arts-based interventions
Engage residents of Norfolk at elevated risk or poor mental health in accessible, non clinical, and culturally appropriate settings
Reduce stigma and increase help-seeking behaviour through public-facing creative outputs.
Build cross-sector collaboration between public health, community, and cultural organisations.
Embed the voices and experiences of those with lived experience in the co-production, delivery, and evaluation of services.

Funding Available

Grants of up to £15,000 are available from a total fund of £240,000.

Organisations will have up to 18-months to plan and deliver projects, with all funded activities completed by 31st March 2027.

Who can apply?

The fund is open to voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations that meet Norfolk Community Foundation’s eligibility criteria. More information can be found on this here: NCF Guidance and Resources

In addition, applicants must:

Have a strong track record of delivering cultural and creative community-based projects to promote positive mental health.
Have appropriate systems and procedures in place to protect and care for the people and communities they support.
Be prepared to participate in a learning group after the first six months of activity. At the end of the funded project, and at other agreed milestones in delivery, funded projects will provide feedback, learning and impact regarding their project to Norfolk Community Foundation.
Be able to demonstrate measurable outcomes related to an improvement of wellbeing, and reporting is expected to be proportionate to the size of the project. This will be shared with Norfolk County Council’s Public Health Department and other partners.

Funding cannot be used to support Private sector or Statutory sector organisations. If your voluntary or community sector organisation is delivering a statutory service, this funding needs to be for any activity in addition to your current agreement.

How to apply

Please use the ‘Apply online’ link below to begin your application.

When to apply

The deadline for applications is 12noon on Wednesday 8th October 2025. We aim to confirm funding decisions by the end of November 2025.

Who can help

We welcome any organisation seeking to apply for this funding to make contact with Norfolk Community Foundation to discuss their application ahead of submitting it. Please phone 01603 623958 or email grants@norfolkfoundation.com.

This funding is made available by Norfolk County Council’s Public Health Department