Sozosei Foundation

Grants will be awarded in support of evidence-based programs and innovative (untested) approaches with the potential to disrupt the current practice of criminalizing mental illness and accelerate access to community-based mental health care.

Priority will be given to proposals in the following areas: 988 implementations, operations, communications, and other activities related to responses to mental health emergencies that increase access to care in communities; scaling efforts to increase access to community-based mental health care so that people with mental illness do not enter the criminal legal system; increasing the number of psychiatrists in the United States, with a focus on psychiatrists from BIPOC communities; supporting education and organizing around enforcing the Mental Health Parity Act and ensuring parity in health plans not covered by the Act itself (please note that the foundation does not support lobbying or political campaigns); and arts and communications to increase access to mental health care outside of the criminal legal system. The foundation will also consider proposals outside of these categories that are creative and have potentially scalable approaches to decriminalizing mental illness.

Statements of Interest are due by May 18, 2022. Selected applicants will be invited to submit full proposals due by July 6, 2022.