The Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant

The Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Mid-America Arts Alliance
Amount: US $10,000 - US $25,000
Last Updated: December 05, 2025

Summary

The Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant aims to enhance the well-being of military service members, veterans, and their families through non-clinical arts engagement programs. Funded by the Mid-America Arts Alliance, grants of $10,000 to $25,000 support diverse artistic activities in various settings. Projects should foster creative expression, social connectedness, resilience, and independence, ultimately empowering military-connected individuals to thrive through art and community involvement.

Overview

Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network began in 2012 as an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and is managed in partnership with Americans for the Arts, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, and Mid-America Arts Alliance. Creative Forces seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military service members and veterans exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers, by increasing knowledge of and access to clinical creative arts therapies and community arts engagement. Since 2017, Creative Forces has invested in community arts engagement projects in order to advance understanding of the benefits and impacts for military-connected populations who have been exposed to trauma. These Creative Forces Community Engagement Grants are intended to support non-clinical arts engagement programs taking place in healthcare, community, or virtual settings. Creative Forces-supported community programs have involved a range of arts activities, including visual, written, and performing arts offered through single events, drop-in programs, and ongoing engagement led by artists in residence, teaching artists, or creative arts therapists. Matching grant awards of $10,000–$25,000 will be awarded to approximately 35 applicants to support projects that engage targeted military-connected individuals through experiences of art or art-making. M-AAA encourages applications from a variety of eligible organizations, e.g., with small, medium, or large budgets, and from rural to urban communities. Applications may be submitted in one of the two tiers, emerging and advanced (see descriptions below), as designated by the applicant and further substantiated by M-AAA staff. Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant Program projects should engage military-connected individuals through experiences of art or art-making with one or more of the following participant outcomes in mind: Creative Expression: Participants have a better understanding of themselves and others by creating or engaging with art.Social Connectedness: Participants have supportive relationships in their life and a sense of belonging to a community.Resilience: Participants feel they can rebound from stress, unexpected events, or life’s challenges.Independence and successful adaptation to civilian life: Participants have both an individual and shared sense of purpose, as well a positive self-worth, that supports adapting and readjusting to civilian life. This grant program also seeks to advance the capacity of the applicant and its partner(s) in one or more of the following ways: Networked Organization: Grantees build networks and partnerships that support the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs for participants leading to stronger outcomes for participants.Strengthened Capacity: Grantees build their capacity to design, implement, and evaluate programs that meet the need of participantsIncreased Value of the Arts: Grantee partnerships and activities lead to an increased understanding of the value and impact of the arts across local participating networks and communities. GRANT TIERS Funding amount and grant period of support will be determined based upon one of two tiers designated by the applicant and further substantiated as appropriate by M-AAA staff. Emerging Grant The emerging grant tier is for the development and implementation of new or emerging nonclinical arts engagement programs for military-connected populations or for small organizations providing non-clinical arts engagement opportunities for military-connected populations. This baseline tier allows for projects that work toward one or more of the following: Identifying needs in the local military-connected community, Establishing partnerships,Establishing referral/recommendation processes,Building an understanding of military culture,Building community and military understanding of the value of arts engagement,Building organizational capacity for effective implementation of future programming,Planning for post-grant sustainability of a project, andImplementation of a non-clinical arts engagement project for a military-connected population. Maximum grant amount is $10,000 for a project that must be completed within the course of one year. Advanced Grant The advanced grant tier provides support to organizations for established non-clinical arts engagement projects for military-connected populations. Applicants in this tier must provide:Details on the implementation of the project that can be utilized to construct a logic model during the grant period of performance. The logic model elements include a Goal Statement, Inputs/Resources, Activities, Products/Outputs, Outcomes, and Assumptions/Rationale. Technical Assistance on the development of a logic model and theory of change will be provided by Creative Forces and M-AAA during the grant period of performance.Evidence of military cultural competency demonstrated by either the applicant or key partner (for example previous successful military programming, formal partnerships with military or veteran-connected service organizations, military background of key staff or consultants, documented training, etc.).Demonstrate an understanding of how the project activities are aligned with and will support the desired participant and organizational aims and outcomes.

Eligibility

We've imported the main document for this grant to give you an overview. You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. The Applicant Organization must: Be a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)3, U.S. organization, a unit of state or local government, or a federally recognized tribal community or tribe located in the U.S. (including the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories as well as the Native nations that share that geography); have either a minimum of three years’ experience: programming for/with military communities or presenting/producing arts-based projects; have completed a three-year history of programming prior to the application deadline. Programming is not required to have taken place during consecutive years. If your programming was affected or suspended due to COVID-19, you may reference 2020 or 2021 programming that was canceled or reimagined due to the pandemic. Virtual programming, planning, and COVID-19 recovery activities are considered to be programming. You may also choose to list arts programming from a recent year other than 2020 or 2021. For the purpose of defining eligibility, “three-year history” refers to when an organization began its programming and not when it incorporated or received nonprofit, tax-exempt status; compensate all professional artists or supporting professional personnel at no less than the prevailing minimum compensation in accordance with Part 505 of Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). apply directly on their own behalf. Applications through a fiscal sponsor/agent are not allowed; have a unique entity identifier (UEI), created in the System for Award Management [SAM.gov],be in good standing with M-AAA, the NEA, and all other federal agencies, with no delinquent reports and/or grant documents; commit to M-AAA’s Grantee Assurance of Compliance and Federal Suspension and Disbarment Policy; and agree to acknowledge M-AAA and the NEA in all programs and press materials related to the project if funded.The project must include at least one partner who provides resources to help advance or support the project. Partner types include but are not limited to:Arts organizations of any discipline Individuals: artists or non-artists Department of Defense facilities/Veterans Affairs clinics/Vet Centers/other Non-profit organizationsUniversity/College For-profit organizations Social service organizations Veteran/military assistance agencies or organizations Website/technology organizationThe project must serve at least one of the following populations within the military-connected community:Active-duty service members from any branch of the military Guardsmen and/or Reservists Veterans Military-connected family members Military Caregivers (family, residential and clinical) and/or Health care workers serving military-connected populationsThe project must have a budget that reflects a 1:1 dollar-for-dollar match for the grant amount requested. This may be a combination of cash or in-kind contributions so all funding, procured or pending, should be included in the budget. Federal and other M-AAA grant funding procured or pending for the project must be included in the budget. Federal funding cannot be used to meet the 1:1 match requirement. Indirect costs, debt repayment, trusts, endowment funds, or investments, fundraising activities, lobbying, capital outlay including construction projects, purchase or renovation of facilities, and expenses associated with the project’s opening or closing (e.g., receptions) are not allowable expenses in the project budget.  The project must be accessible to people with disabilities. Funded activities must be held in a physically or virtually accessible venue and program access and effective communication must be provided for participants and audience members with disabilities. The NEA has resources to assist organizations in making accommodations. Visit the NEA website for more information.

Ineligibility

The following types of organizations are not eligible to apply: Organizations whose primary purpose is to channel resources (financial, human, or other) to an affiliated organization if the affiliated organization submits its own application. This prohibition applies even if each organization has its own 501(c)3 status. For example, the “Friends of ABC Museum” may not apply if the ABC Museum applies. Furthermore, academic departments of colleges and universities are not eligible to apply, but the department’s parent institution is eligible, and  State and jurisdictional arts agencies (SAAs) and Regional Arts Organizations (RAOs) are not eligible to apply or serve as partners in Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant Program projects. The following types of project activities and/or expenses are not eligible for consideration:Primary data collection or research based on participant experiences which require an Institutional Review Board (IRB). LobbyingSub-granting or re-grantingFacility construction, purchases, or renovationReceptions, parties, or galasCourses in degree-granting institutionsCommercial or for-profit enterprisesGifts, awards, or prizes