WCVA will be managing a £450k investment from the Arts Council of Wales' Lottery funds and are now looking to work in an expanded way with artists and health and care organisations in Wales to respond to Covid-19 - not just the Health Boards but also Trusts, social care settings and nonprofits with an interest in any of the above three areas.  All details on the Y Lab website.

There are three key health needs arising out of the pandemic that we believe creativity can help to meet, which are:

• supporting the health and care workforce;
• building the resilience of people with mental or physical health challenges; and/or
• improving the health of marginalised, underrepresented or at-risk groups of people

There are two distinct but related strands of HARP:

·The Seed (R&D) strand (Dec 2020 - Apr 2021) - building on the HARP Sprint and the 100 Day Challenge, this strand is for generating new Covid-safe arts and health initiatives that meet health challenges within the HARP priorities.  This strand offers seed funding with quite involved support, collaboration and learning for 4-5 teams.

·The Nourish (scale and sustain) strand (Jan-Dec 2021) - for 8-10 more formed ideas and partnerships within the HARP priorities, with a focus on growing and embedding innovations within health systems. The grants here are larger, with less involved (but still vital) elements of learning and collaboration to meet key system goals beyond just impact on participants.

Expressions of Interest are invited first, by 23 Nov. There are briefing events on 11 & 13 Nov, and a new e-mail address for enquiries - artsandhealth(at)nesta.org.uk.