Mental Health Support for Asylum Seekers Fund 

The overarching aims of this project are to understand the current landscape of support for people seeking asylum who are experiencing poor mental health or illness and use this knowledge to design and test more effective, culturally and contextually attuned interventions. The project will focus on two main dimensions:

1) prevention and resilience to lessen the risk of developing mental illness, and

2) understanding and improving support pathways for people experiencing mental illness. 

The Mental Health Support for Asylum Seekers Fund is now open and running from Friday 30th May to Monday 30th June. Organisations with an annual income of less than £1,000,000 are eligible to apply for up to £12,000 for a project of up to 12 months

Since launching the funding call, we have received feedback from several organisations (of varying sizes) on the maximum eligible annual income for applicant organisations of £250,000. On reflection and in recognition of the multitude of organisations with significant expertise working in this space who would be excluded from applying, we have made the decision to increase the maximum annual income threshold to £1 million. This change is made in the interests of achieving the best outcomes for this cohort of residents.

We remain committed to supporting smaller organisations and will be putting procedures in place to ensure that they receive adequate consideration. The assessing panel will aim for an equitable distribution of funding, with a target of an even split between smaller and larger organisations.

Application Link

For further information and step-by-step guidance please follow the links below:

Application Guidance

Step-by-Step guidance

Throughout the application period, Thomas Shore will have bookable drop in sessions for any application questions. These are for specific questions and general guidance. There won’t be guidance on how best to answer subjective questions.

Sessions Booking Link

Mental Health Support for Asylum Seekers Fund is a participatory grant fund developed in partnership with the communities it aims to invest in. The overall goal of this fund is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of people seeking asylum living in hotels run by the Home Office. We believe that we can achieve this by increasing participation in group activities that are fun, develop skills, build social connections and increase knowledge about life in the UK. We also believe that this will improve people’s resilience and help them overcome challenges now and in the future. We are therefore funding organisations to run projects that deliver social and leisure activities and also facilitate peer support between participants.

If you have any questions please email phh@cityandhackneyph.hackney.gov.uk.