We are delighted to share details of the projects awarded grants from the Edinburgh Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund.
AdvoCard: £19,125.91
To provide an outreach, community based mental health advocacy services in each of the four Edinburgh localities, particularly for people who are unable to attend appointments outwith their community, those who are socially isolated and typically under-represented.
Art and Spirituality CIC: £2,575
To support ethnic minority women in Gorgie-Dalry to access 3 creative workshops, 2 cooking classes and 2 outdoor yoga classes to address social isolation and reduce barriers to cultural participation.
Art in Healthcare: £13,680
To deliver and increase the capacity of the Room for Art programme.
Artlink Edinburgh and the Lothians: £10,330
To deliver arts workshops and events for people experiencing mental ill health across the city and at Ocean Terminal.
Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (Edinburgh Branch): £21,169.33
To develop a programme of activity to support Ukrainians living in Edinburgh to explore and manage their mental health through art therapy, outdoor education and community mobilisation.
Big Hearts Community Trust: £12,360
To further develop ‘Welcome Through Football’ which engages young adult (16-25) refugees to provide twice weekly football coaching, structured peer group and 1:1 wrap around support.
Bikes for Refugees (Scotland): £14,000
To provide free access to bikes for refugees to be able to access community services, reduce isolation and improve mental health and wellbeing.
Bipolar Edinburgh: £13,874.10
To support an additional peer practitioner for the bipolar peer support service in Edinburgh.
Bridgend Farmhouse: £7,890
To deliver the Peer Support Mental Health group for adults in the local community experiencing mental health issues and combat social isolation.
CAPS Independent Advocacy: £10,000
To provide individual advocacy services to members of the LGBTQI+ community in Edinburgh.
Care 4 Carers: £12,000
To support female unpaid carers to improve their health and wellbeing through access to outdoor and creative workshops.
Central Church: £8,750
To educate staff and community members on mental health by providing training opportunities to staff regarding mental health, trauma informed practice, and suicide prevention.
Community Foundation for Planetary Healing: £10,000
To deliver an outdoor wellbeing project to provide opportunities for people to connect with others and improve their mental health and wellbeing.
Corstorphine Community Centre: £20,263.19
To further develop the weekly lunch club and monthly tea dances for vulnerable and socially isolated people over the age of 60.
Corstorphine Connect Sight Loss: £3,511.58
To provide safe and accessible monthly social opportunities for people with sight loss in North West Edinburgh.
Corstorphine Dementia Project Ltd: £18,895.00
To provide a fortnightly evening Teatime Club with accessible transport, a free meal and with support staff to meet care needs to enable families to focus on socialising and spending time together.
Creative Electric: £10,056
To provide a programme of free workshops including visual art, creative writing and sound art for adults 16 +, particularly older adults, LGBTQIA adults and disabled/neurodivergent adults.
Cruse Scotland Bereavement Support: £6,180
To provide listening, peer support, advice and information for 60 people who are in the early stages of grief.
Dads Rock: £8,755
To deliver a weekly group for new dads with their babies in Gorgie.
Dr Bell’s Family Centre: £21,884.68
To work in partnership with Kin Collective to provide a variety of established and new supports for local parents/carers in Leith to improve their mental health and wellbeing, build connectedness and reduce social isolation.
Drylaw Telford Community Association: £15,701.32
To host weekly support and social activity groups for isolated older people aged over 60 living in Telford, Drylaw and Craigleith.
Edinburgh Agroecology Coop – Lauriston Farm: £11,000
To develop ‘Plot to Plate’ offering weekly sessions to bring people together to learn how to grow, prepare and cook fresh, local food through a community gardening session in addition to existing sessions.
Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust: £10,459.65
To deliver dementia friendly outdoor activities for isolated older people and their carers in North East and South East Edinburgh over 20 half day sessions.
Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC): £7,128
To provide 24 group trips—including activities— to woods and greenspaces for BME women experiencing depression.
Edinburgh City Mission: £12,875.08
To employ a Men’s Community Worker to build and strengthen relationships across two foodbank+ venues across the city each week.
Edinburgh Community Performing Arts: £10,020.20
To set up and deliver a free weekly creative movement and dance project for older people in the Drum Brae/Gyle are particularly for those with dementia, parkinson’s and/or restricted movement over 40 weeks.
Edinburgh Development Group: £12,000
To provide 1:1 support sessions to families of individuals with a learning disorder (16+).
Edinburgh Headway Group: £12,000
To deliver therapeutic arts sessions for people with an acquired brain injury.
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre: £21,214.82
To provide psycho education and health and wellbeing groups for survivors of sexual violence over the age of 18.
Edinburgh Remakery: £16,000
To deliver 40 Connecting Communities Clubs across the city to enable people to reduce social isolation while taking part in creative activities.
Edinburgh Young Carers: £10,000
To provide support to up to 15 young adult carers ages 20-25 in NE and SE Edinburgh through peer support, skills-based support, and information and advice.
Enable: £9,936.00
To deliver the Connecting Communities project in Edinburgh for up to 20 adults with learning disabilities creating a peer-support network which will take part in walking activities, social and cultural activities across the city.
Equal Futures: £7,000
To develop the Carers Circle programme to deliver support and connection to the family and carers of individuals with learning disabilities and autism in Edinburgh.
FAIR Ltd. (Family Advice Information Resource): £20,000
To employ a development worker to facilitate social groups, one-to-one advice and information services for people with a learning disability and their families.
Fantanka Diaspora: £10,000
To deliver a culturally sensitive mental health support programme for women and girls of African descent facing socioeconomic challenges in North West Edinburgh including art-based workshops, physical activities and safe and confidential spaces.
Finding Your Feet: £9,323
To offer a range of peer-led social, physical and emotional activities for amputees and those born with limb absence in Edinburgh.
Firsthand Lothian: £11,257
To provide support for parents/carers with children with additional support needs through one-to-one support, group health and wellbeing sessions, and a parent and carer support group.
Forth SPAN (Suicide Prevention Action Network): £2,575
To deliver a weekend wellbeing festival in Queensferry witha programme of events and activities to tackle loneliness and promote wellbeing.
Fountainbridge Canalside Community Trust: £10,730
To develop the Canalside Greenspace Group by providing a range of sessions throughout the week including evenings and weekends.
Fresh Start (Scotland): £15,243
To establish a support programme for individuals in addiction recovery through holistic support and practical skill building including gardening sessions, cooking workshops and volunteering opportunities.
Fruitmarket: £4,230.21
To deliver a new programme of 6 wellbeing workshops to support adults in Edinburgh who are in the process of recovery from ongoing mental health challenges.
get2gether: £16,550
To deliver Wellbeing Wednesday acitivities each month which includes walking, seated exercies, LGBT specific support and Men’s Mental Health activities.
Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre: £13,000
To upgrade the Goodtrees Community Garden to become a hub for wellness, connection and learning through a series of community building days.
Gracemount Mansion Development Trust: £39,865
To work in partnership with Transition Edinburgh South and Scran Academy to deliver nine community health and wellbeing events at Gracemount Mansion/Walled Garden between April 2025-September 2026.
Granton Community Gardeners: £9,989
To further develop the Women’s Outdoor Cooking Club and weekly free community lunches during garden drop-ins.
Grassmarket Community Project: £10,824
To provide a range of weekly structured creative activities including art classes, expressive writing sessions and music groups.
Health All Round: £20,600
To deliver ‘Art for Health’ a range of creative activities for people to expore their creativity, including a creative writing group with a particular focus on people experiencing lonliness/isolationl anxiety/depression; and long term conditions
Heart of Newhaven: £8,221.98
To offer a warm, welcoming and accessible space which can offer intergenerational cooking activities in collaboration with other organisations.
Held in our Hearts: £20,076.81
To provide peer support for families who have experienced baby loss.
Home-Start Edinburgh: £17,664
To provide volunteering and development opportunities to marginalised and vulnerable parents of young children to improve their mental health and self-esteem.
Inch Park Community Sports Club: £12,750
To continue and expand the activities of the wellbeing cafe including working with Edinburgh South Football Club, Omaze’s Den and Inch Park Crafties to run a range of activities for adults of all ages.
Jock Tamson’s Gairden: £7,585
To Offer a range of support to people who are socially isolated because of complex mental health and/or neurodiversity to take part in a range of horticultural and volunteering activities including developing peer support.
LEAP Sports Scotland: £10,000
To provide Trans Active, a physical activity and community building programme for transgender and non-binary people, aimed to address social isolation and poor mental health.
Leith Community Growers: £20,000
To develop a welcoming, inclusive hub for outdoor activities through provision of weekly open community gardening sessions.
LGBT Health and Wellbeing: £20,000
To expand and develop community-led, community-identified LGBT+ community groups.
LGBT Youth Scotland: £10,300
To provide bespoke LGBTQ+ mental health workshops and a new and improved 1:1 asset based coaching service, including supporting people to develop suicide safety plans.
Libertus Services: £10,000
To deliver carers groups and create new mental health drop-in services at Canalside and Gracemount.
LIFT (Low income Families Together): £19,359.20
To develop two new groups to provide support for families with their journey to employment.
Living Warriors Project: £1,060.90
To support adults with lived experience of surviving attempted suicide through monthly in-person peer support groups.
Media Education: £9,645
To provide a trauma informed, professionally supported filmmaking practice that enables 5 new, underrepresented lived experience collaborators from a global majority or migration experienced backgrounds to see themselves as, and engage with others as, artists and community leaders.
Muirhouse Housing Association: £5,273.60
To continue ‘Come Dine With Us’ a weekly in winter/fortnightly in summer, dinner social event with activities, a nutritious meal and cost of living support.
Music In the Community: £2,575
To deliver a series of events for up to 30 people to take part in music therapy activities.
Mwamba: £20,000
To continue and develop Conversation cafes, Cooking sessions, Trauma informed 1:1 support for the benefit of the BME community, focusing on women and young girls.
Networking Key Services Limited: £15,000
To deliver 12 financial literacy and mental health workshops to help improve mental wellbeing by reducing financial anxiety.
North Edinburgh Arts: £12,000
To provide a range of wellbeing and movement sessions for adults age 16+ including yoga, chair yoga and Movement for Grown Ups.
Partners in Advocacy (previously Edinburgh Carers Council): £11,929
To provide group and 1:1 peer support for unpaid carers with caring responsibility for individuals with mental illness, learning disability, autism, dementia, or acquired brain injury.
Pasda: £9,100
To provide a range of post-diagnostic support to parent-carers of adult family members with autism.
Passion4Fusion: £19,997.97
To provide culturally responsive mental health support for African men aged 25-65 living in deprived areas of Edinburgh, specifically those with refugee/asylum seeking background who have limited access to mainstream services.
PCOS Relief: £6,180
To provide group activities and support for ethnic minority women affected by Polycistic Ovary Syndrome to breakdown the taboo and improve access to support.
Pentlands Community Space: £7,018.91
To provide community sessions to support mental and physical health for 6 months for anyone in the community to get together, build social relationships and improve their health and wellbeing.
Pet and Companion (PEACE): £5,782
To continue providing canine therapy, expanding to deliver specifically to vulnerable women and people affected by homelessness.
Pilmeny Development Project: £17,589
To work collaboratively to develop mental health and wellbeing self care programmes and activities for older people; develop referral pathways for coordinated provision for older people in North Edinburgh; develop focussed trauma-enhanced mental health and wellbeing workshops for women.
Pilton Community Health Project: £19,169
To continue to develop the weekly learning and social activities for women through a Chat Cafe and Language Exchange, Breathing Room and Outdoor Women’s Cook Club.
Pilton Equalities Project: £18,500
To provide support to up to 70 individuals through one to one sessions and four weekly social groups which will include a nutritious meal and activities such as creative exercises, reminiscence workshops and physical activities.
Polish Family Support Centre: £13,870
To develop a community cafe support service for Polish individuals in Edinburgh.
Positive Help: £10,000
To provide city-wide access to community groups for marginalised individuals living with HIV or HepC in Edinburgh to promote mental health and reduce social isolation.
Providing Ongoing Ostomate Support Scotland: £5,000
To create supportive, safe and inclusive space for people who have an ostomy to access local peer support meet-ups, larger events and awareness raising. This includes a regular group meeting in Leith and establishing a new group in the South of Edinburgh.
Ps & Gs Church: £2,575
To provide community-building activities like art, music and board games during the weekly Saturday evening meal.
Recovery Coaching Scotland: £10,000
To deliver a training initiative in Niddrie and Craigmillar to recruit, train and support individuals with lived experience of substance abuse to leverage their experience to support others in a similar situation
Rowan Alba: £15,363
To collaboratively develop audio, video, visual and sensory material to support befriending volunteers in encouraging housebound individuals to join group activities and seek further support.
Saheliya: £19,303
To provide culturally informed weekly group sessions in participants first languages with the aim of reducing stigma surrounding mental health and additional support needs for BAME women.
Salvesen Mindroom Centre (Mindroom): £10,258
To provide tailored 1:1 support to neurodivergent young people aged 16-25.
Sandy’s Community Centre: £19,884.93
To continue to run and develop the cook club, art, parent and toddler and branching out groups.
Shakti Women’s Aid: £20,000
To run a weekly young women’s support group to provide trauma informed support to BME women up to 35 years old experiencing or fleeing domestic or honour-based abuse; and provide up to 5 sessions of crisis-intervention counselling per woman.
Shared Parenting Scotland: £6,810
To provide online learning and peer support to parents who have lost contact with their children to support their mental health and resilience.
Shore Psychology: £4,999.85
To support the development of a hub of support in Leith including through purchase of a client management system, contribution to building works and insurance.
Singergie: £3,000
To offer a free to attend weekly community choir in North Edinburgh with the aim of reducing social isolation and improve community connections
Sikh Sanjog: £20,000
To continue developing therapeutic support for Sikh and BAME women and further develop outreach for men.
Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland: £5,000
To develop peer support group activities to benefit adults with spina bifida and hydrocephalus (SBH) in Edinburgh to increase wellbeing and reduce social isolation.
Starcatchers Productions Ltd: £7,000
To improve accessibility of existing Starcatchers services including through providing translated information for those who do not have English as a first language.
Stepping Stones North Edinburgh: £16,873.26
To deliver support to women from pregnancy to early postnatal months providing one-to-one support and group work to help women have better experiences in pregnancy and early parenthood.
Sur Sangeet Sangam: £3,450
To develop a choir for South Asian women living in Edinburgh to meet twice a month which aims to build strong cultural ties while reducing social isolation and loneliness.
Survivors of Human Trafficking in Scotland: £18,176.57
To create opportunities for people affected by human trafficking to safely discuss their experiences, and to create a city-wide community response to human trafficking which prioritises mental health outcomes, providing advice for practitioners to increase capacity.
The Forget Me Note Project: £5,150
To introduce small group or one-to-one music therapy sessions for people living with dementia.
The Health Agency: £10,000
To expand the Willow Garden Project at Calder’s Community Garden by piloting more outdoor activities including creative and physical activities.
The Living Memory Association: £10,448
To begin running two new reminiscence group sessions, provide community transport, run a daily reminiscence drop in facility, and visit more housebound individuals to benefit older people in Edinburgh.
The Ripple: £20,092.39
To provide a range of specialised one-to one and group mental health services for people accessing The Ripple to improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing.
The Sorted Project: £20,000
To continue providing training and qualification opportunities to individuals in Edinburgh with complex health needs surrounding mental health and substance dependency, and contribute towards funding a new training boat.
The Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland: £6,380
To provide sports-based reminiscence and physical activity programmes to older people connected to St. Columba’s Hospice to increase wellbeing and reduce isolation.
Thistle Health and Wellbeing: £20,000
To further develop Connecting Craigmillar activities through consultation with local community members.
U-evolve: £20,000
To provide mental health and wellbeing support to young people in Edinburgh aged 16-21 through 1:1 support, group workshops, and community outings.
Waverley Care: £5,150.00
To provide a range of peer support for gay and bisexual men living with HIV in Edinburgh to tackle loneliness and islation resulting from the negative effects of stigma and lack of awareness of HIV.
You’re Never Too Old: £1,909.62
To provide two half-day activity sessions each week to older adults in Craigmount.
