Call for Support Projects: UCB Community Health Fund

Deadline: 30-Jun-23

The King Baudouin Foundation has announced an open call for the UCB Community Health Fund to support young people facing mental health challenges.

The fund is committed to creating positive changes in communities and will offer grants to non-profit and non-governmental organizations worldwide dedicated to improving the physical, social, and psychological well-being of young people aged 15 to 24 with mental disorders.

Amidst the global challenges of climate change, racism, inequality, and conflict, young people are increasingly vulnerable to mental health problems and heightened insecurity.

Areas of Impact

• Projects that promote, detect, protect and care for young people’s mental health, for example:
  • Prevention and promotion: Projects that aim to respond proactively to reducing adversities that are known to harm the mental health of young people.
  • Peer support: Projects that enable young people to support each other, based on their own experience, their own ambition, and with support and training from mental health and social care professionals.
• Projects that ensure availability of mental health and psychosocial support, for example:
  • Accessibility and destigmatizing mental health care: The landscape of psychological help and mental health services is complicated for many people to navigate, but even more so for young people. Young people need resources that are ‘comfortable’ and close to them to tell their story in confidence and find the help they need, whatever it may be (relationships, financial resources, housing, work, education, etc.).
• Projects that work towards building and implementing efficient mental health services for young people, for example:
  • Delivery platforms: Initiatives that combine various delivery platforms, such as digital media, health and social care setting, schools and educational settings, leisure facilities.
  • Capacity: Interventions that aim to build new / additional human resource capacity to deliver mental health and social care, for example among community workers or athletic coaches so that they can provide support.

Funding Information

• The UCB Community Health Fund will provide a total of EUR 2 million grants this year.
• The required amount needs to be between €30,000 and €50,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• The organization needs to be located within the countries where UCB has an office. They will only consider projects from those countries.
• The activities the organisation proposes need to take place in its home country.
• The activities need to address the issues of mental health of young people. Existing programs and services, as well as new projects and initiatives are welcome.
• The Call for Projects is intended for non-profit organizations only. Individuals, public bodies, hospitals, for profit and commercial organizations cannot apply for funding.
• The organizations need to be active outside of UCB’s therapeutic areas.
• Files can be submitted in French (Belgium, France and Suisse), in Dutch (Belgium and the Netherlands) and in English (all other countries).
• Research grants are explicitly excluded from this Call for Projects.

Criteria

The 5 following differentiating criteria will be taken into account by the selection committee members for selecting the best projects:

• The project targets mainly young people in the 15-24 age category;
• The project specifically addresses the needs of the most vulnerable communities including young people displaced due to conflicts, racial and ethnic minorities, refugees and asylum seekers, those with disabilities and certain health conditions, and those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged;
• The project has a potential for scaling/replication, i.e. reaching more young people;
• The project uses financial means efficiently; the outcome is proportional to the means invested;
• The project is co-created with the beneficiaries.

For more information, visit King Baudouin Foundation.