This Strand will award grants to organisations that can show that they already provide mental health clinical support and treatment.

Eligible organisations can apply for a grant to invest in an increase in their capacity to meet additional needs in terms of both increased ask for help, and the increased complexity of those already receiving support.

This Strand will make a small number of grants to Armed Forces charities that can show that they can run a small grant programme which will make small grants to Service Associations, to enable them to develop supportive comradeship, connectiveness and engagement for their members

Applicants must have substantial experience in managing UK wide grant making programmes, and must have detailed knowledge of, and links to, either the Army, RAF or Navy with a UK spread of beneficiaries. They will also need to be able to show how they  will measure the impact of grants that they make.

Additional Documentation
Standard terms and conditions for Schedule 1 of External Delegated Grant Schemes
PRECEDENT DELEGATED GRANT SCHEME AGREEMENT

This Strand will make a small number of grants to Armed Forces charities who can show that they can develop and deliver UK wide volunteering programmes for veterans to enable veterans to give support to organisations who are aiming to welcome Afghan people.

Projects must deliver clear benefits directly to veterans, enabling them to support Afghan people as effectively as possible. Applications must be clearly able to show how veterans will benefit, and how they will be supported in their volunteering.

This Strand provides funding for regional and more localised projects that increase capacity in services and initiatives that offer support and comradeship, engagement and wellbeing efforts for those in the Armed Forces community impacted by events in Afghanistan.

Support must be particularly focused on veterans since 2000 or those who served in recent conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan and aimed at reaching veterans who may not already be engaged. This can include families of serving personnel, and of veterans. It can include families that have been bereaved. It can also include family members that care for veterans.

We expect demand for this Strand to be high. Please do read the specific Strand 4 guidance carefully.

We are not eligible for Strand 4 as we have received a grant under the Sustaining Support Afghanistan programme. Please can you confirm if we are eligible to apply under Strands 1,2 or 3?

You can apply under Strands 1. 2 or 3 if you have received a grant under the Sustaining Support Afghanistan programme. You should read the programme guidance for these strands carefully to ensure that you meet the eligibility criteria. Please remember that you can only apply under a single strand.

We are interested in applying for Strand 1, but we are not sure if we meet the programme criteria. We are a charity that has worked with Armed Forces communities, but our charitable objects does not specifically refer to this

To be eligible for this funding under Strand 1; as stated in the programme guidance, your organisation must be a registered charity that specifically supports Armed Forces communities, that has been registered for at least three years at the time of your application. Specifically supporting Armed Forces communities means that your charitable objectives clearly state that you support people from Armed Forces communities.

We are not currently part of the Contact group’s pilot programme pilot scheme for mental health charities, can we still apply under Strand 1?

It is preferable that applicants should be undergoing accreditation from the Contact Group’s pilot scheme for mental health charities; however it is still possible for an organisation that is not part of this process to apply; providing that they meet all other eligibility criteria.

No questions have been asked relating to the guidance for Strand 2. This will be updated if any queries are received.

No questions have been asked relating to the guidance for Strand 3. This will be updated if any queries are received.

We would like to apply for an enhanced grant under Strand 4.  Is £70,000 the maximum that we can apply for (a basic grant of £35,000 plus an enhanced element of £35,000)?

Yes. The total value of the application should be up to £70K, using both basic and enhanced elements. The project should also be able to stand alone at the basic level. We have given an example of this below

Request is for £35k for a part time project worker plus project delivery costs to run 40 sessions over a year

The enhanced bid would increase the hours of the project worker, and enable an additional 40 sessions to be run, meaning that 80 would be delivered in total

Please can you define who is a veteran under Strand 4? We are considering a project that would support people who served in the Afghanistan army

The Afghanistan Veterans Fund is focused on specifically supporting veterans that have served in HM Armed Forces; and have been impacted by events in Afghanistan, Iraq or other recent conflicts. Veterans are defined as  “anyone who has served for at least one day in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (Regular or Reserve), or Merchant Mariners who have seen duty on legally defined military operations.”

Strand 3 of the programme will support volunteering projects for veterans to enable veterans to give support to organisations who are aiming to welcome Afghan people.

We have not been a CIC for the required period; but have a good idea for a project; and are well placed to support veterans

The eligibility criteria within the programme guidance does state that a CIC must have been registered for a two year period, but that it is possible for an ineligible organisation to partner with an eligible organisation. The eligible organisation would need to submit the application. There is more information in the ‘working with delivery partners’ section of the programme guidance.