Grants database

Race on the Agenda (ROTA) works with communities impacted by systemic racism to help create policies and practices to tackle inequality.This grant will fund recruitment of a CEO to manage the team and focus on increasing visibility, developing partnerships and implementing a funding strategy for their main projects: housing, school exclusion, and higher education.

Mahogany Opera is supporting displaced independent Ukrainian company Hooligan Art Community to tour ​‘Bunker Cabaret’ across Britain in early 2023. This grant will match support from the British Council and other organisations to cover artists’ fees, expenses and production costs of the tour.

The Children’s Law Centre (CLC) is a national charity based in Belfast which empowers children and young people to advocate for their rights and protects these through free legal services, training and policy work. This grant will support young people and support staff to attend The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee, and preparatory/​follow up young people’s workshops. Funding will ensure young people from Northern Ireland will be represented alongside peers from England, Scotland and Wales.

Charity Finance Group (CFG) is a membership organisation that aims to support a financially confident, dynamic and trustworthy charity sector. CFG acts as a voice for the charity sector, advocating for a better operating environment. This grant will provide funding towards a part-time communications professional who will develop content to amplify the work of the group through the website, social media platforms and other exisiting outlets.

Centre for Mental Health takes the lead in challenging policies, systems and society, so that everyone can have better mental health. Since their previous strategy development process, the mental health policy landscape has changed considerably. This grant will fund work to refresh their strategy to reflect the changing mental health landscape and place the voices of their members, young people and parents/​carers at the centre.

Northern Ireland Youth Forum is a youth-led voluntary organisation delivering projects across Northern Ireland whilst also promoting youth voice in decision making. This grant will enable a group of four youth organisations with an exisiting digital relationship developed during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet in person and strengthen their networks.

The Play House’s Theatre in Education company will work in partnership with Dr Reza Gholami from Birmingham University and four primary schools to develop a drama-based approach to addressing complex issues of identity, belonging, inclusion and citizenship. They aim to support children, teachers and schools to develop their own ​‘Brummie’ identity and set of ​‘British Values’ which can be shared through drama and storytelling with the wider school community and an early years setting.

Fruitmarket is a free, public contemporary art gallery in Edinburgh. This grant will fund Creative Connections, a programme bringing together eight artists and primary schools on the periphery of the city, to work together on a three year artist residency programme. Inspired by Fruitmarket cross-artform programming, teachers and pupils develop art-making skills, build creative confidence whilst interrogating the ideas and processes behind art.

Skills 4 All is a community organisation providing under-served young people with opportunities to develop their curiosity, creativity and confidence through hands-on digital projects and workshops. This grant will fund Skills 4 All to work with a group of young people from communities which experience racism, from one Oldham secondary school, during a full school year. The project will enable them to capture the stories of their lived experience of the Covid-19 pandemic through three arts-based approaches: video storytelling, creative writing and photography. The project will aim to support and affirm self-worth, celebrate the young people’s identities as young Black and brown people, and empower their peers, friends and community through the telling and honouring of their stories.

Pegasus Opera Company provides opportunities for artists of global majority heritage and promotes opera to culturally diverse and underrepresented communities. This grant supports Pegasus, in partnership with two primary and one secondary school in Bedford, to co-create an alternative approach to the music curriculum; supporting teachers to deliver opportunities to sing, listen, compose and perform, by exploring this country’s musical history through the lens of diversity. The programme aims to support change not only within partner schools but beyond, influencing the wider sector in decolonising the music curriculum.

Northern Ballet is a major national professional touring dance company based in Leeds. Their repertoire of theatrical dance productions emphasises both storytelling as well as classical ballet. Their dance education work includes advanced training, intensive workshops, and weekly open access classes for children and adults. This grant will allow Northern Ballet to build on their existing schools work targeting children and young people experiencing systemic inequality; for this project they plan to target children and young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties in three specialist settings in Yorkshire.

Cumbria Development Education Centre is partnering with The Laal Collective and 10 Cumbrian west coast primary schools to explore global citizenship through a range of immersive and child-led arts-based approaches. The project will explore ideas about how, why and where people migrate and will develop students’ collaboration, empathy, resilience and creativity skills, as well as supporting teachers to embed the arts-based approaches in their pedagogy and curriculum.