32 new grants awarded to support more men to engage in creative mental health

We are really pleased to announce 32 new grants, worth over £1.4 million, for organisations who want to increase the number of men taking part in creative mental health activities.

This open funding round followed our report, Creatively Minded Men, which concluded that research about the degree to which men participated was scarce, but what was clear was that men with mental health problems could benefit from taking part in the arts (and that the workforce involved in this area is overwhelmingly female).

We would like to thank everyone who put time into applying. This round of funding attracted an unprecedented 193 applications, with requests totalling c. £9 million, with many more high-quality bids than we were able to fund. We hope that learning from this programme will support the sector as a whole.

Read a blog by the Director of the Baring Foundation, David Cutler, about the funding decision-making here.

(Photo: Fabrica’s Men Who Make project. Photo by Phoebe Wingrove.)