The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership are leading a programme to improve mental health support and services for families in pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life.
As part of this offer, a new pilot Maternal Mental Health Service will begin in April (see diagram).
To ensure that there is a strong network of voluntary community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations available to help deliver this service, a grant award scheme has been established.
Grants to Grow aims to build the capacity of the VCSE sector to support parents facing challenges relating to the maternity experience, including:
- Recurrent miscarriage
- Tokophobia (fear of childbirth)
- Trauma associated with childbirth
- Still birth and infant death
- Pre-term delivery requiring neonatal intensive care support
We are looking across Greater Manchester for existing groups who would like to extend their peer-to-peer offer and become more financially sustainable via a one-off development grant.
Through a supported application process, you will be helped to identify your organisational requirements and then matched to the resources, advice or training you need.
You might be:
- An unfunded band of volunteers reaching out to parents or parents-to-be who are struggling
- A small charity or established network providing peer-to-peer support to families with particular challenges
- A significant local player in the maternal mental health field who would like to expand your workforce
Grants and support will be tailored to each organisation, and can cover anything from help with getting constituted to training, business development advice, renting premises, upgrading IT or employing new staff.
To be considered for an award, organisations must:
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Operate exclusively or primarily within Greater Manchester
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Be a VCSE group, network or organisation, whether formal or informal
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Support parents and families at risk of poor mental health due to the maternity experience (either as their sole purpose, or via a dedicated programme)
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Have experience of working in partnership with the statutory sector, or a willingness to do so
If your organisation is eligible, please get in touch with Hannah Berry email hannah.berry@gmcvo.org.uk or call 07726 888521 by 15th March for an informal chat to explore how Grants to Grow could benefit your work.
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