Expressions of Interest have now closed, all applicants will be notified regarding shortlisting by the 24th of May.
Expression of Interest
Information Pack
Full Application
Information Pack
Our Approach
to Mental Health & Wellbeing
Discovery Grants are a two-year grant to support testing and developing preventative approaches that support mental health and the conditions for wellbeing with community to learn what works, what doesn't and how it could be scalable, self-making, or sustainable.
Our hope is that through resourcing Discovery partners we will be supporting them to:
Create more and different ways for people’s mental health and wellbeing to be supported that are holistic, person-centred, and compassionate.
Contribute to a shift in the narrative and discourse around mental health to one that is strength-based, informed by community voice, and values lived experience.
Envision, test, and implement new approaches that shift us from response to prevention by addressing the root causes and determinants that contribute to mental ill health and poor wellbeing in communities.
Each Discovery Grant is to the value of $120,000 p.a. for two years with an additional $5,000 to support the development of tools or evaluation frameworks to inform ongoing learning for the purpose of reflection and adaptation. During the grant period you will also have the support and partnership of the Foundation and wider network. The grant is open for anyone to apply, with three partners selected each round.
I’ve never worked on a project where I feel like we’ve been able to do the best possible job ... because it wasn’t limited by what we said we would do 12 months ago before we had learnt what we were supposed to be doing. It’s been quite extraordinary.
This is a two stage application process. For the first stage; expressions of interest open 4 March and close 5pm Monday 15 April. All applicants will be notified of the outcome by 24 May. Of the first stage applicants, 8-10 will be invited to provide a full application alongside interested Spark Partners, due 5pm 22 July. Three Discovery Partners will be selected and the grant period will commence from September.
Who do you fund?
Discovery Grants are open to the public and we support values and purpose-aligned organisations that partner and work with community within South Australia. You can learn more about Who and What We Fund under the About Section on the website.
What types of ideas do you fund?
Discovery Grants are designed to support strength-based, preventative approaches for better mental health & wellbeing in South Australia.
Ideas that demonstrate a consideration of social and and cultural determinants of health, community capability building or alternate options and approaches will be prioritised. You can read more about our approach to mental health & wellbeing in our narrative.
Does it have to be a new idea?
Discovery Grants are not intended to be ongoing funding for existing programs or services as they are designed to create space to test an idea on a small scale and refine it with community. However, the foundations of your idea might be a spin-off or adaptation of an existing program or be informed by previous engagement with your community.
Do you fund research?
Discovery Grants can be used to support aligned research where its intention is to support impact wanted by and created with the community in partnership or 'doing with' rather than 'doing to'. We encourage researchers to engage with the Foundation and their University's development office before proceeding to application.
What methods can I use to test my idea?
How you choose to test and develop your idea with community is up to you and should be informed by your context as well as your existing relationship and ways of working with community. We will look to understand how your approach and method will enable you to test, learn, iterate, and adapt throughout the grant period as well as the ways community are included and contributing across different stages of the project. Some example methods include: participatory research, prototyping, service-design research, and co-development.
Please note, Discovery Grants aren’t intended for implementing pilots as traditionally this methodology only supports community feedback after trialling an already developed idea, instead they are aimed at prototyping an idea and adapting it as you go based on what you are hearing and learning.
Could the experience or size of an organisation be a barrier to receiving a Discovery Grant?
We don’t give preference to larger or more established organisations. Our decisions are informed by the work itself; importantly the intentions, partnership with and involvement of community, as well as alignment to Discovery in how the work will be carried out.
The Village Foundation
The Equality Project
Seeds of Affinity and the University of South Australia
Multicultural Men's Group
Meet our 2022 Discovery Partners
The Village Foundation - Village Community
Promoting community perinatal mental wellbeing through technology, education, and mentorship.
The Village Foundation will continue their journey of addressing isolation and improving the wellbeing of parents through preventative supports that centre around connection. Co-developed with a network of parents, healthcare professionals, and people with lived experience, the Village Community, in partnership with UniSA, will bring together three avenues for support: Village Life - access to relevant support and information via online and facilitated learning, Village Connect - connection through an App for parents and a self-monitoring mood tool, and Village Mentoring - the opportunity to engage in providing and receiving face to face mentoring support from experienced peers.
Meet our 2022 Discovery Partners
The Village Foundation - Village Community
Promoting community perinatal mental wellbeing through technology, education, and mentorship.
The Village Foundation will continue their journey of addressing isolation and improving the wellbeing of parents through preventative supports that centre around connection. Co-developed with a network of parents, healthcare professionals, and people with lived experience, the Village Community, in partnership with UniSA, will bring together three avenues for support: Village Life - access to relevant support and information via online and facilitated learning, Village Connect - connection through an App for parents and a self-monitoring mood tool, and Village Mentoring - the opportunity to engage in providing and receiving face to face mentoring support from experienced peers.
The Equality Project - Rainbow Connection
To create a Rainbow Connection, The Equality Project will look to leverage existing networks and create new points of connection for LGBTQIA+ people in both metropolitan and regional, rural, and remote South Australia. They will explore and test ways to increase connection, resourcing, and support networks, building on local peer leader networks & systems as well as connecting up networks for broader learning and influence. The purpose and perspective of the work will be from the viewpoint of understanding what is needed to reduce isolation and improve mental and physical health outcomes for the queer community.
Seeds of Affinity & UniSA - Pathways for Women
Co-designing a technology-based-solution to improve the health and mental wellbeing of formerly incarcerated women.
This partnership will develop and bring to life a Messenger chatbot to support women with lived-prison-experience navigate release from prison in compassionate and supportive ways. ‘Lindabot’ will be workshopped and prototyped in collaboration with women who have been or are currently experiencing incarceration and will be supported by Seeds of Affinity. It is envisioned that through the co-development process understanding will emerge of how new avenues could be developed for formerly incarcerated women to determine their own support needs for the critical transition post release.
MCCSA - Multicultural Men’s Mental Health Community Connectors Program
MCCSA, through the Multicultural Men’s Group, will partner with four Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) community groups to explore what mental health and wellbeing means for their communities. The men’s community groups will be supported to explore their own priorities, challenges, opportunities, and strengths that can be built on or leveraged to create opportunities for connection and support. Through this journey MCCSA will engage stakeholders and an advisory to support the development of identified resources and opportunities to improve cultural awareness and training of mental health providers more broadly.