The SNG #iwill Fund 2.0 – Wellbeing Champions Programme Grants 

Applications for our Wellbeing Champions Programme are now closed.

 A nine month project for community organisations to engage at least 15 10-20 year olds to become Wellbeing Champions. Wellbeing Champions will be upskilled to learn how to look after their own mental health and wellbeing, support their peers through listening and signposting and raising awareness and advocating in their communities. 

The young wellbeing champions will also be taught about youth social action and will lead on creating, developing and delivering their own youth social action project linked to mental health and wellbeing.

Youth led activities that produce a benefit for communities as a result of the action, and for young people, as a result of taking part in the social action. 

Youth social action can be flexible in delivery and must involve at least one of three core mechanisms that improve the skills, well-being or increasing knowledge of others and sense of belonging of a young person. These are:

• Young people have a safe yet challenging space in which to develop practical, vocational and socio-emotional skills.
• Young people take self-directed action which gives them a sense of purpose that contributes to their well-being, self-concept and/or self-efficacy.
• Young people have the opportunity to engage with different communities, increasing their knowledge of others and their sense of belonging.

Eligibility criteria:

To apply for this funding, your organisation must be one of the following:

• A registered charity
• A constituted community group
• A community interest company (CIC)
• A charitable organisation
• A local public body
• A UK-based housing association (preferably smaller organisations with limited capacity)

Please note: We cannot fund schools, colleges, or universities directly.

To be eligible for the SNG #iwill Fund, your organisation must:

• Be able to recruit young people and deliver a youth social action project between 1 September 2025 and 31 May 2026
• Have the capacity to meet all reporting requirements
• Successfully complete due diligence checks with the required documentation

Your organisation is not eligible if:

• It has received £332,000 or more in public funding over the past three years

It intends to use the grant for any ineligible costs (see the Information Pack [pdf, 1.17MB]  for full details)

Project eligibility

To be eligible for funding, projects must:

• Run between 1 September 2025 and 31 May 2026
• Cost no more than £10,000
  • If applying for the full amount, your project must engage at least 15 young people in social action activities
• Be youth-led—young people should have a say in shaping and leading the project
• Create new opportunities for youth social action
• Help young people build skills, confidence, and realise their potential

The map on our Thriving communities page shows where the homes we manage are located.

• Staff costs – budget for staffing, including full-time staff, part-time staff, sessional staff and other related expenses, for example for a volunteer coordinator.
• Development and capacity-building cost – budget to help build capacity and sustainability of your organization, e.g., staff/volunteer training.
• Volunteer costs – budget for reimbursements of expenses, e.g., telephone calls, travel and meals.
• Activity costs – budget for resources to facilitate a project/activity (which are not already included as part of equipment, volunteer or staffing costs), e.g., catering, insurance.
• Skills development/training, which help young people to be ‘social action ready’.

• Statutory services.
• Activities promoting religious or party-political activity.
• Capital costs/large equipment costs.
• Individual sponsorship.
• Activities generating private profit.
• Ongoing costs of existing youth work – projects must create new opportunities for youth social action.

The #iwill Fund is a £66 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), created to give young people access to high-quality social action opportunities.

It brings together funders from across sectors who are committed to embedding meaningful youth social action into young people’s lives—supporting the goals of the #iwill campaign to make youth social action a normal part of growing up.

Young people help shape how the funding is used, ensuring their voices are at the heart of the programme.

SNG is proud to be a match funder, awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund through the SNG #iwill Fund.

Find out more about the #iwill Fund .