health

NHS countdown - minus 7

So - we’ve one week left before radical ‘free-market’ changes take place in our NHS. Be prepared, be very prepared. You may think that this isn’t something that’s going to affect us - but it is. You, me and everyone we know that lives in the UK.

Dr Clare Gerada, Chair of the RCGP, gave a talk to the British Medical Association on 21st March, which I hope to be able to link you to next week. In her paper, Stand up and be counted - before it is too late, and of which I’m quoting, she reminds us that no-one voted for NHS privatisation and it’s not in the coalition agreement.

She describes a health service that in 2010, was functioning so well that for the first time in her lifetime it was not an election issue. An NHS that has provided what no other country in the world has achieved at the same cost: universal health care in the form of equal access to comprehensive care irrespective of personal income, at a cost to us the tax payer at many billions of pounds less than other comparable health services. A health service that bound us together as a society.

Lord Ara Darzi said “The NHS is the greatest expression of social solidarity found anywhere in the world: it is as much a social movement as it is a health system. It is not just that we stand together but what we stand for: fairness, empathy and compassion. It is for these reasons that we all care so deeply about its future; and it is why I stand ready to contribute to ongoing efforts to invest in and improve the NHS, in any way I can.”

Ed Hall

This comment about being a social movement is one that gets to the heart of things for me. It’s a comment I’ve heard before from the people I respect - from clinicians; from public health workers; from artists; from free-thinkers and yes, from politicians.

In our manifesto for arts and health Lord Howarth talked about individual and collective integrity, of trust and arduousness, of self-expression - about politics being predicated on our values. Mike White at the Centre for Medical Humanities talked about nurturing a better and fairer society and Gary Christienson of the Society for Arts in Healthcare of how artists help amplify our human nature. Ruth Passman at the Department of Health talked about how the manifesto itself, brought about hope to health, strengthening our resolve in creatively challenging dehumanising or 'warehousing' models of care which can so easily corrode self expression and remove meaning from life. Jami Bladel of KickStart Arts perhaps, hits the nail on the head, describing this small p political manifesto as: ‘at once bleak and hopeful, a troubled text searching for answers, asking questions and promising nothing if we don't start working (creatively) together. It is a starting point. It faces us towards the global revolution we simply cant afford not to have.’

In my latest paper, Inequalities, the Arts and Public Health: Towards an International Conversation I share something of my aspiration for us being part of an arts and public health movement - something that embraces big thinking, but critically brings diverse partners together. From the 1st April, things are set to change fundamentally and as all the confused elements of a dispersed NHS mutate into whatever form emerges from the swamp, arts and culture could shine out like a beacon, offering all sorts of innovation - or else, fade miserably into obscurity.

So, its time to galvanise - but beware: the simpering arts and health bean-counters, blind to any notion of cultural value and driven by singular, market-based justification of their approach to arts, culture and health - are waiting in the wings. Their offer - an insipid prescription for reducing arts and culture to some cost effective, bland panacea. Of course there’s room to explore these ‘efficiency’ questions, but beware again: if we go down this route, we may well end up like our fractured NHS, seeing a dominance of the happy, well-educated, middle-classes accessing what they can already easily afford. If the evidence of your weights and measures are based on cultural placebos for the wealthy worried well, you’ll miss the true value of the arts. Poet, Simon Armitage on the manifesto again, rounds things off for me - It reminds me of something that I've always believed in: that art gives us worth as humans, no matter who we are. And as a consequence makes us more humane.

A Job Opportunity

Lead Artist: Animating the Odeon, Chester

Deadline: April 15, 2013

Cheshire West and Chester Council are currently looking to appoint an artist to lead on a social engagement project in the old Odeon cinema in Chester.

The Odeon has been selected as the site for a new Theatre and Library in Chester and the Council are initiating a programme of work in two of the old shop units which are part of the building, in order to begin the process of bringing the building back to life and into people's imaginations. The ethos behind the project is to mark the process of change as the building transforms into a city centre theatre; to interact with its previous identity as a cinema and subsequently to its present form as a derelict building.

Cheshire West and Chester Council wish to commission a lead artist to have an overarching view of this project in the Odeon Units over an eighteen month period, and coordinate a programme of activity within the units. The artist will work with the Arts and Festivals team and their partner organisations in developing a strategic, thematic approach for a programme of art commissions / interventions / projects / displays etc within the units.

The programme of activity should consider the place, the people, the surrounding environment, history, partner cultural activity and more.

Project Budget: There is an artist fee of £6000 + VAT. This is inclusive of expenses, travel and subsistence costs. The artist will work on a self-employed basis.

Estimated budget of £4500 + VAT is available for a number of commissions and projects during the 18 month project.

Timescale: Project start date is May 2013 running until the end November 2014.

Longer term aims: Cheshire West and Chester Council hope that the projects will be a source of research material that may inform any future public artworks that are commissioned as part of the new theatre.

Closing date: Monday 15th April 2013. For a full artist brief please contact artswest@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

Two funding opportunities

BBC Children in Need Major Grants over £10,000

Next application deadline: 15 May 2013

Grants for not-for-profit organisations that are working with disadvantaged children and young people who are 18 years old and younger living in the UK. BBC Children in Need’s focus is firmly on children and young people experiencing disadvantage. They fund organisations working to combat this disadvantage and to make a real difference to children and young people's lives. Funding is available to organisations that are supporting children and young people of 18 years and under who are experiencing disadvantage through:

· Illness, distress, abuse or neglect.

· Any kind of disability.

· Behavioural or psychological difficulties.

· Living in poverty or situations of deprivation.

Organisations must be working to combat this disadvantage and to make a real difference to children and young people's lives. Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008dk4b/features/cin-grants-main-index

Time to Change Grants (England)

The Mental Health charity, Time to Change has announced that its grants programme will re-open for applications on the 6th March 2013.Through the programme, grants of up to £100,000 are available to constituted not for profit organisations for projects that bring people with and without mental health problems together to challenge discrimination in their communities. Time to Change plan to fund approximately 75 projects between 2012 and 2015.

The closing date for applications will be 2pm on the 30th April 2013. Read more at http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/grants

Just a big fat thank you for visiting again...C.P.

Food Reward Friday

This week's luck winner(s)... pastries!!

...dementia, creative australia and funding

Dementia and Imagination : connecting communities and developing well-being through socially engaged visual arts practice.

There is no cure for dementia, so attempts to maintain quality of life and well-being are crucial. In less than 20 years nearly a million people will be living with dementia. This will increase to 1.7 million people by 2051, and 1 in 5 people over 80 will have dementia by 2021 (Dementia UK, 2007). Dementia is now firmly on the international public and policy agenda, bringing opportunities for change on a wider scale for those living with the condition (Alzheimer‟s Society, 2012) and the communities in which they live. Changing awareness and understanding about dementia and enabling people to “live well‟ is central to the National Dementia Strategy (DoH, 2009).

Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) is a partner in an exciting £1.2 million dementia and visual arts research project. We are part of a collaborative group that has been awarded a large grant in the Cultures, Health & Well-Being theme, one of five Connected Communities Programme themes which share funding in excess of £7m.

Thanks to Darren Browett for this image

The Connected Communities Programme is designed to help us understand the changing nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life. It is jointly funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.

Led by Bangor University’s Dementia Services Development Centre, the three-year project receives £1.2 million researching how taking part in visual arts can contribute to the health and well-being of people with dementia. This new research, due to commence in July, explores how dementia supportive communities might benefit from creative activities. Dr Gill Windle, from the Dementia Services Development Centre explains: "The project is about using a range of visual arts to challenging people's negative attitudes and to reconnect people with dementia back into their communities. We'll be researching how this works and how groups of people spread and share ideas, and measuring and tracking any resulting change in attitudes and perceptions about people with dementia."

Announcing the Awards, Rt Hon. David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, commented: “This capital investment in the Connected Community projects will lead to the development of new ways to engage communities in creating, interpreting and using arts and humanities research data. This will leave a sustainable resource and legacy for future research and for communities.”

Thanks to Alice Thwaite at Equal Arts

The three year project brings together social sciences researchers specialising in dementia, gerontology, psychology and economics with researchers in the visual arts, cultural policy and museum studies.

I’m thrilled to be part of the research team and my area of focus will be very much focused on the arts and particularly, the artist as researcher. Artists in their own right, will be a core element of the way we interrogate the impact part of interventions. Over the next few months we’ll be developing a web presence for this work and before that’s up and running, I’ll share updates via this blog.

This is an exciting and important piece of research and I look forward to working with the team.

Other news coming in...

Westminster City Council has confirmed that it will cut all arts funding in the London borough by 2014/15. Soho Theatre and English National Ballet are among the groups set to lose funding under the plans, which will see the £350,000 the council currently spends on ‘commissioned community arts projects’ reduced to £192,00 in 2013/14 and cut completely in 2014/15.

Soho Theatre’s young people’s programmes, English National Ballet’s older people’s schemes and community and youth arts services from Paddington Arts, Dream Arts and Streetwise Opera will all be affected, along with around ten other initiatives led by arts groups. The decision to axe 100% of funding in Westminster follows a similar 100% cut by Somerset County Council, while plans to axe arts funding completely in Newcastle were reduced to 50% cuts, following local protests. Click on the image above for more details.

The Free World

I understand that the President of the ‘Free World’ is off to Israel this week. He’s having dinner with the first black Miss Israel apparently. I wonder if he’ll be attending the Arch of Arts in Health Conference in Haifa? Sounds like a match made in heaven, and what a photo opportunity eh? Click on Mickey to know more.

Creative Australia

This week saw the launch of the Australian Governments Cultural Policy, Creative Australia. It’s an interesting development and one that’s been received with mixed responses. Arts Access Australia comment: "The release of the Government’s Creative Australia policy yesterday has left artists with disability and arts and disability organisations lacking certainty about how the one in five Australians with disability will be empowered to contribute to arts and culture as audiences, artists, employees and arts leaders."

Whilst we’ve had black smoke and a murky greyish-white smoke from the Vatican, the arts/health community in Australia hasn’t commented on the policy document publicly yet. So, whilst I’m not on the ground in Aus and haven’t digested the entirety of the document, there are some interesting references to the arts and health which reflect the groundswell of activity over there - not least the powerful advocacy delivered by the Annual Arts of Good Health and Wellbeing International Conferences. This years of course, taking place in Sydney between 12th and 13th of November.

So with my outsider eye, here are some interesting passages.

Arts-led recovery projects have also demonstrated the powerful role arts and culture, and cultural workers, play in bringing communities together, breaking down social isolation and contributing to place-making, particularly following a community crisis or natural disaster. As Australia is recognised as one of the most multicultural countries in the world, government-funded initiatives like Harmony Day and A Taste of Harmony provide all Australians with the opportunity to celebrate our great cultural diversity. Further, evidence is mounting about the application of arts-led approaches in health settings to reduce isolation and aid recovery and rehabilitation.

The Australian Government will:

Develop an Arts and Health Framework with state and territory governments to recognise the health benefits of arts and culture and to provide an agenda for activity.

You can read the full document by clicking on that beautiful continent.

Happy or Rich?

This remarkable little Steven Fry monologue turned up in my inbox this week. Normally I wouldn’t be the first one to sing his praises, primarily because of his omnipresence on the TV and wireless and his occaisional smugness, but - it has to be said, many of his observations here are so astute and compelling, they are worth your time, over a coffee perhaps?

A short comment on SEX -

or Meet the Fokkens

Without sharing names, another email that landed with me this week illustrated a mix of attitudes to sex and older people. It all related to this trailer for a documentary about Louise and Martine Fokkens who are twin sisters and sex workers in Amsterdam. Our attitudes to even discussing sex, are always a bit repressed - our ability to discuss prostitution sensibly, seems near impossible - but then, do we ever really discuss sex in relation to age? I think not. So here’s a trailer for something that could be intelligent, or could be sensationalist but at the very least, is a part of a much needed discussion. So here’s a trailer that has swearing and references to sex in it: you’ve been warned.

Funding to Tackle Climate Change

(UK / Worldwide)

Artists Project Earth (APE) which funds projects that tackle the effects of climate change has announced that its next funding round is now open for applications. Applications are welcomed from organisations working to:

• Prevent the causes of climate change

• Defend communities and ecosystems against the impacts of climate change

• Support and build resilience for communities affected by natural disasters.

• Grants usually range from £500 up to £20,000.

The closing date for applications is the 31st March 2013. Read more at:

http://www.apeuk.org/apply-funding

Carnegie UK Trust Launches Test Town (UK)

The Carnegie UK Trust has announced the launch of a new £10,000 competition for young people to help rejuvenate town centres. ‘TestTown’ is a new competition for young people throughout the UK aged between 16 and 25 to put forward their own ground-breaking ideas to redesign the future UK high street. The top 10 finalist teams with the most exciting ideas will be shortlisted in April with the climax of the competition taking place across three days in Dunfermline, Scotland this June. The 10 teams will take over vacant town centre space and trade with real consumers. The winners, who do the best job of turning their ideas into reality, will walk away with £10,000 to take their idea to market for real. The closing date for applications is the 3rd May 2013. Read more at http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/news---events/latest/trust-launches-test-town

Tesco Charity Trust: Large Grants Programme (UK)

The Tesco Charity Trust has announced that its large grants programme is open for applications. The Trust gives grants ranging between £4,000 and £25,000 to charities working in the areas of:

• Children’s welfare and education

• Elderly people’s welfare

• Adults and children with disabilities.

The funding is available to charities working on an international, national or regional basis in areas where Tesco have a presence. Applications for funding are considered three times a year and the next closing date for applications is the 24th May 2013. Read more at: http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=121#ref_tescocharitytrust

Thank you as ever for visiting the blog...do call again! C.P.

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... fried Coke!

Atherosclerosis in Ancient Mummies Revisited

Many of you are already aware of the recent study that examined atherosclerosis in 137 ancient mummies from four different cultures (1). Investigators used computed tomography (CT; a form of X-ray) to examine artery calcification in mummies from ancient Egypt, Peru, Puebloans, and arctic Unangan hunter-gatherers. Artery calcification is the accumulation of calcium in the vessel wall, and it is a marker of severe atherosclerosis. Where there is calcification, the artery wall is thickened and extensively damaged. Not surprisingly, this is a risk factor for heart attack. Pockets of calcification are typical as people age.

I'm not going to re-hash the paper in detail because that has been done elsewhere. However, I do want to make a few key points about the study and its interpretation. First, all groups had atherosclerosis to a similar degree, and it increased with advancing age. This suggests that atherosclerosis may be part of the human condition, and not a modern disease. Although it's interesting to have this confirmed in ancient mummies, we already knew this from cardiac autopsy data in a variety of non-industrial cultures (2, 3, 4, 5).

...you're just not perfect

News in this week - Australia tops the health league and dear old Albion scrapes along the bottom, with largely preventable diseases increasingly contributing to premature deaths. Cheery stuff eh? Too many cans of processed meat in the diet - too much booze - too many fags still being puffed on and of course, not enough exercise. So stroke, heart disease and lung cancer still figure highly in our mortality rates. The only snag is, that whilst its easy to spot all the ‘bad’ things that people do - it’s far harder to help people change ingrained behaviour, especially if its comforting...and even more so, when the vested interests of the market, push the stuff down our throats anyway. Just think about the corporates who sponsored the Olympics and Paralympics - fizzy drinks (you know who), Big Fat Burgers (you know who) and the oil polluting, toxic hydro-carbon emitting industries that mediate our stupefied relationship with physical exercise. Then of course there’s the increasing belief (well-marketed) that we need medication for everything - a pill to normalise the ups and downs of everyday life, to help us lose weight, to do better academically - hey, you can have that battery of diagnostic tests too - maybe have some preemptive surgery that might not be entirely necessary. And at the top of this well-peddled pile of pseudo-scientific pathological nonsense is the fact that you’re just not perfect. Your teeth are the wrong colour and misshapen, you’re loosing hair, your face is getting lined - your body just isn’t the right shape. What chance have we got eh? How can we achieve this perfect healthy aspiration?

Kate Pickett and Danny Dorling in Against the organisation of misery? suggest that, “what is missing is the political courage to deal with the root causes of those social determinants. Why people smoke, rather than trying to get them to stop. Why people eat too much, commit violence, trust each other less, invest more money in their children’s education; rather than trying to understand the social inequalities that stand in their way.”

This would seem to be a window of opportunity for artists, educationalists, health and social reformers and policy makers who are concerned with public health and who believe addressing inequalities is central to human wellbeing - and have the vision and tenacity to think differently. Lets think about our arts/health work as part of a public health movement and re-imagine the way that our family doctors, public health specialists and teachers might work more closely with artists and cultural organisations to think differently - and not about apportioning blame, but addressing systemic inequalities and the insidious psychological impact of modern advertising: our health is political - art is political too.

So, this week it came to pass that Hugo Chavez died. I’m not politically astute enough to know the details of his political impact on the people of Venezuela, but I’ve been moved to see the huge outpouring of grief from people. I would be interested to hear your views on Chavez, particularly if you are from Venezuela. With the Arch of Arts and Health conference about to take place in Israel in a week’s time, it’s curious too, to note that one of its key-notes has fallen off the agenda! Presidente (sorry, I mean executive director) of the newly re-branded Global Alliance for Arts and Health^TM, (and proud sponsor of the conference) appears to have vanished and the GAFAAH (sounds a bit like the Gaffer, or maybe GAF for short) has an interim director, to whom we wish the best of luck.

New Job Opportunity

Closer to home, and in touch with its community, it seems that Pioneer Projects are looking to appoint a new manager. I advertise this position on the blog because Pioneer Projects are an exemplary organisation. They are an arts and health charity which uses creative activity to improve individual and community health, tackle social exclusion and reduce health inequalities using arts-based approaches. They are looking for a manager and offer a salary: £28,636 pro rata for 21 hours per week (Working Time Equivalent = £16,587). Location: High Bentham, North Yorkshire. For further information and an application pack please contact: Julie Vass, Administrator, Looking Well Studios, High Bentham, Lancaster, LA2 7HN or download from our website www.pioneerprojects.org.uk

Email: office@pioneerprojects.org.uk Telephone: 015242 62672

Closing Date for applications: 12 noon, 5th April 2013.

Interviews will take place Friday 19th April 2013 at Looking Well Studios,

High Bentham, Lancaster, LA2 7HG

Now, here's something to ponder...

Cultural Value Project

A very important new funding stream was announced this week, and I urge you to have a look over this and see if you are eligible to apply. If you can’t, perhaps resolve it and think about ways you can. Think - multi-disciplinarity and partnerships. Click on the multiplication sign in a double circle below, for details. Here’s a little about the call.

In launching this two-year Cultural Value Project, the AHRC wishes to make a major contribution to how we think about the value of arts and culture to individuals and to society. Recent years have seen many attempts to capture that value in straightforward ways, not least in order to make the case to governments for public funding, but none have commanded widespread confidence. The AHRC decided that something more ambitious was needed. Areas of interest include: REFLECTIVE INDIVIDUALS AND ENGAGED CITIZENS - URBAN REGENERATION AND COMMUNITY DYNAMICS - ECONOMIC BENEFITS - UNDERSTANDING IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS - IMPROVEMENTS TO HEALTH AND WELLBEING.

Thank you as ever for popping onto the blog...C.P.

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... Yoplait Go-Gurt!

Does the Mediterranean Diet Reduce Cardiovascular Risk?

By now, most of you have probably heard about the recent study on the "Mediterranean diet" (1), a diet that was designed by diet-heart researchers and is based loosely on the traditional diet of Crete and certain other Mediterranean regions. The popular press has been enthusiastically reporting this trial as long-awaited proof that the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular events-- by a full 30 percent over a 4.8-year period. I wish I could share their enthusiasm for the study.

Read more »

EXTRA - EXTRA - READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

What about this for a headline eh? From the oh so hallowed BBC none the less! - and in a week where there’s also been coverage of arts/health in the Guardian online. You can form your own opinions of both these articles, (click on the photo of an art session below for the BBC story, and the picture of the 'Angel' below for the Guardian) but I do worry about the almost biblical claim of the BBC header. Of course engaging with the arts - and with broader culture - is going to have an impact on people in health crisis: sometimes profound and sometimes subtle, but I can’t believe we’re still having to evidence the bleeding obvious. Now apparently the ‘Top Brass’ are at it too!

But then I’m reminded that so much of what we are interested in, just isn’t about sickness and morbidity, it’s about culture and the arts being part of the way we live our lives and in particular, what it opens up to those of us who maybe haven't had acces to it, or thought the arts were an irrelevance. Interesting too, to read of my own conversion to the impact of giant spiders and dancing elephants on society?!

This week saw the death of Stéphane Hessel (95), sometime resistance fighter, diplomat and free-thinker. At 93 Hessel wrote Indignez-vous! Time for Outrage! - which is largely seen as the pamphlet that informed the Occupy Wall Street movement and wider global protests epitomised by Los Indignados. Ah the power of the Pamphleteer...wouldn't Hessel have made the perfect keynote speaker, say - at an arts/health conference, in a land torn apart by inequalities and that controls dissent by brutal oppression? Time for Outrage indeed...

Although we sometimes crave the attention that the big media outlets bring (and fear it too), it is these pamplets, manifesto’s and blogs that resonate with me. So whilst the press control and sometimes distort our opinions, we should perhaps relish the subjective perspectives of individuals who know what they are talking about because of their wealth of experinece and passion - yes, passion! I’m consitently impressed by Mike White and don’t mind admitting to being a bit of an acolyte. He has a neat turn of phrase and in this, his most recent blog posting, takes us on a pogniant personal journey. Click on this alternative image of the Angel of the North to read his blog posting.

And for those of you who want more on the BBC article, here's the outline.

"Nine-year-old leukaemia patient Ryan is in no doubt. "It makes you feel like you can do anything really," he says of the art therapy classes he enjoys, thanks to a US charity. The American military has also long embraced art therapy, using it as a core treatment to help veterans recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. Now top brass are leading research to find out why this kind of treatment works. Jane O'Brien reports that mounting clinical evidence of art's medical benefits could bring new and exciting ways to harness its power."http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21579762

...and here's the Guardian article outline by Tim Smedley too.

"Banksy, Gormley or Hirst: is public art good for the nation's wellbeing?

From statues to grafitti, what impact does public art have, if any? And could it even have an effect on our health and wellbeing? Banksy, Gormley or Hirst: is public art good for the nation's wellbeing? From statues to grafitti, what impact does public art have, if any? And could it even have an effect on our health and wellbeing?" http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/banksy-gormley-hirst-public-art-wellbeing

...and for a moments pause, some music

Funding and Research Opportunities

Foyle Foundation Small Grants Programme

The Foyle Foundation's - Small Grants Scheme is looking to help small charities operating in the areas of the arts and learning, with an annual turnover of less than £100,000 per year. If this sounds familiar, you can apply for funding of between £1,000 and £10,000. The Foyle Foundation is one of the largest grant making trusts in the UK providing grants that help to make the arts more accessible by developing new audiences, supporting tours, festivals and arts educational projects; encouraging new work and supporting young and emerging artists; and that address special educational needs and learning difficulties. Larger organisations can apply for funding through the Foyle Foundations Arts and Learning Main Grants Programmes. There is no deadline and applications can be submitted at any time. For more information,or call the Foyle Foundation on 020 7430 9119 http://www.foylefoundation.org.uk/small-grants-scheme/

Support for Projects Working with Disadvantaged Young People, Offenders & Ex-offenders (UK)

The Worshipful Company of Weavers has announced that its Benevolent Fund is open to applications. The Fund is available to small registered charities and seeks to support projects working:

With disadvantaged young people aged from 5 to 30 years of age

To ensure they are given every possible chance to meet their full potential and to participate fully in society

Projects that addresses the social and economic problems faced by offenders, and ex-offenders and their families, and provide them with support, life skills training and a way back into education, training and/or employment.

Grants available are of up to £15,000. The Charitable Grants Committee meets in February, June and October of each year to consider applications. Read more at: http://www.weavers.org.uk/charitable-grants/grant-application-guidelines

British Academy Small Research Grants (UK)

The British Academy, the UK’s national body for the humanities and social sciences, has announced that its Small Research Grant scheme is open for applications. Under the Small Research Grants programme grants of between £500 and £10,000 over two years are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. The closing date for applications is the 10th April 2013. Read more at: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srg.cfm

Time to Change Grants (England)

The Mental Health charity, Time to Change has announced that its grants programme will re-open for applications on the 6th March 2013. Through the programme, grants of up to £100,000 are available to constituted not for profit organisations for projects that bring people with and without mental health problems together to challenge discrimination in their communities. Time to Change plan to fund approximately 75 projects between 2012 The closing date for applications will be 2pm on the 30th April 2013. Read more at 2015.

http://time-to-change.org.uk/grants

Hey Ho