Closing the young women’s mental health gap

Issue:
Young people
 • 
Women
 • 
Health
 • 
Activities:
Influencing policy or practice
 • 
Pooled funding
 • 
Information-sharing
 • 
Peer learning
 • 
Co-ordinating funding
 • 
Location:
UK-wide
Stage:
Emerging opportunity

Aims and activities

Aims and questions

Aims and activities

The Pilgrim Trust set up the Young Women’s Mental Health programme to help improve the mental health of women aged 16-25 in the UK. We’ve committed £5million in funding over five years (2021-2026). Our grants go to organisations that increase young women’s access to high-quality, age- and gender-specific mental health services.

Our First Year Evaluation Report has recently been published, showing the positive impact of the programme so far in improving young women’s mental health and evidencing why taking an age- and gender-specific approach better addresses the complex, intersectional needs of young women.

We are looking to collaborate with funders that are interested in closing the young women’s mental health gap and increasing young women’s access to gender- and age-appropriate mental health support.

Whether through pooling/co-ordinating funding or influencing policy and practice, we are open to conversations about coordinating funders' efforts. We believe working with funders across the young women, mental health and young people’s sectors will increase the reach and impact of the programme and be of benefit to our grantees and the wider sector. 

How to get involved

We are looking for funders that are interested in any of the following.

Increasing the overall amount of funding available: We are looking for collaboration opportunities to increase the funding available, increase the longevity of the programme and/or enable us to increase the number of locations the programme is open to.

Influencing wider mental health policy at a regional/national level: Working with funders with more specialist skills and experience in influencing wider policy changes at a regional/national level would help increase the impact of the programme and the excellent work of our grantees.

Influencing wider practice within the young women’s and mental health sectors: We are building an evidence base to show the importance of taking age- and gender-specific approaches to young women’s mental health provision. We want to encourage funders and their grantees working in similar sectors to us - youth support, mental health and young women’s health – to use this intersectional approach within their practice/work.  

Funders interested in exploring collaboration can contact Sue Bowers at The Pilgrim Trust.

Who's involved

Who was involved

Who was involved

The Pilgrim Trust

Centre for Mental Health (Evaluators)

Sam Anderson (Peer Support Learning Facilitator)

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