PHA short term funding open for 2025

Community and voluntary groups are being encouraged to apply for grants to help improve mental health and emotional wellbeing in the community.

Applications for the Public Health Agency’s (PHA) ‘Making Life Better’ short-term funding grant programme opens on Monday 28 April.

Fiona Teague, Regional Lead for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing at PHA, said: “Community and voluntary organisations are most acutely aware of the issues that affect people on the ground and this short-term funding programme will give them the opportunity to address issues of mental health and emotional wellbeing specific to their communities.

“Over the last three years the PHA has invested over £4million in this scheme and more than 79,000 people have benefited from direct involvement in over 1,220 funded projects across Northern Ireland.”

“The PHA is keen to invest in programmes that will have a particular focus on using one or more of the ‘Take 5’ Steps to Wellbeing’. These are five simple steps that we can build into our daily lives to maintain and improve wellbeing – Connect, Be active, Keep learning, Give and Take Notice.

“We are encouraging applicants to work collaboratively to develop innovative projects and most importantly involve local communities in project design.”  

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The short-term funding programme provides the community and voluntary sector with the opportunity to access small, non-recurring funding which can be used to support health improvement in local communities.

Last year, Hillcrest Trust was awarded funding of £4,405 which allowed them to develop a project helping to use the Take 5 steps to wellbeing to address the needs of older people.

Claire McLaughlin from Hillcrest Trust, said: “This programme allowed our older residents to be active and to come together, make new friends and develop new relationships. It is about not only improving their physical health and their mental wellbeing, it's about building new relationships at a time in life when making those new connections can be difficult. The short-term funding project helped offer us this opportunity to help benefit the lives of those in our community.”

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The PHA has commissioned the Clear Project to facilitate this process in each Health and Social Care Trust area.

Sarah-Jane Goldring, Manager of the Clear Project, said: “Short-term funding plays a vital role in supporting positive project delivery within the community and has immediate impact. Programmes funded in the past have ranged from self-help and life skills initiatives supporting marginalised individuals or groups. The funding contributes to strong mental health and emotional wellbeing outcomes as well building and developing capacity at community grassroots level.”

Two types of awards are available under the programme:

• Award one: Funding of up to £1,000 for non-constituted and constituted non-profit taking community/ voluntary sector groups.

• Award two: Funding of between £1,001 and to a maximum of £5,000 for constituted, non-profit taking community/ voluntary sector groups.

Closing date for applications is 3pm on Friday 16 May 2025.

To apply for the short-term funding opportunities, visit https://dhcni.submit.com