Culture Helps Solidarity — Open Call for Individual Grants, Fifth round, 25 August – 8 September 2026

Culture Helps Solidarity supports arts and culture professionals from Ukraine to sustain creativity, resilience, and community connection during and after the war. Running until 2028, the project combines three grant schemes – individual grants, thematic project grants, and collaboration grants – with a rich programme of mentoring, learning, and peer exchange. The project is co-funded through the Creative Europe programme and implemented by the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), an independent foundation fostering European belonging through culture; together with Insha Osvita (Kyiv), a Ukrainian NGO and professional learning community developing educational and cultural programmes; zusa (Berlin), an international NGO fostering collaboration and collective learning for social and cultural change; and the VETERANKA Movement (Kyiv), Ukraine’s leading community of women veterans advocating for women’s rights, leadership, and reintegration.

The Individual Grants provide direct, flexible support to cultural professionals in and from Ukraine who are working – often voluntarily – with displaced people and refugees, veterans and vulnerable communities, in Ukraine or in any of the Creative Europe (CE) countries (which include the 27 EU member-states and more countries participating in Creative Europe).

These personal care grants are designed to offer quick and accessible assistance for strengthening the personal wellbeing, resilience and mental health of cultural professionals and creatives, enabling them to continue their crucial cultural, community-based work in extremely challenging circumstances. These grants are not designed to cover costs related to project delivery or implementation.

This is the fifth call in the series of rolling application rounds, opening approximately every six weeks. Across the 2026-2028 project period, we anticipate 10–14 such cycles. In each cycle, approximately 7 to 10 grants of up to EUR 1,200 will be disbursed.

Who is it for?

This call seeks to support individual professionals in need for individual wellbeing care who work in arts, culture or community-based cultural activities and:

support displaced Ukrainians, both inside Ukraine and across Creative Europe countries;
play a meaningful and publicly relevant role for maintaining cultural production, artistic creation or community life in Ukraine or in Creative Europe countries;
work with veterans and vulnerable groups;
seek urgent personal wellbeing support that will enable them to continue their work, creative practice, and engagement with their communities;
have been personally affected by war, displacement, and/or traumatic working conditions.

What do we offer?

We offer up to €1,200 (including taxes if applicable) per individual, disbursed as a one-off contribution. The grant may be used strictly for personal mental health and wellbeing support and may not be directed to third parties, to project implementation or organisational costs.

Eligible activities include:

Psychotherapy or psychological counselling;
Trauma-informed coaching or emotional (group) support sessions;
Restorative care or rehabilitation stays (e.g., sanatorium treatment, wellness programmes, retreats);
Visit to cultural institutions and events (tickets to museums, theatres, cinemas, concerts, etc.);
Participation in master classes or workshops (art therapy) and materials for participation in them, if necessary;
Other justified wellbeing-oriented services that directly support the applicant’s resilience.

The grant may not be used for:

psychiatric consultations or medical mental–health treatment (including any expenses that involve medical care, diagnosis);
purchase of medication or medical devices (even if prescribed by a doctor);
purchase of material assets (tools, household items, equipment, etc., consumables for work, etc.);
payment of rent for premises (residential or commercial, non-residential);
tuition fees, other training costs (formal or informal);
invasive interventions (surgical operations, cosmetic procedures, dental interventions, etc.);
streaming platform subscriptions;
consultations with doctors of alternative medical practice;
strictly humanitarian needs or cost-of-living support.

Eligibility criteria:

Individual grants are strictly dedicated to individuals, who:

are aged 18 and above;
reside in Ukraine or have fled from Ukraine to one of the Creative Europe countries (which include the 27 EU member states and more countries participating in Creative Europe);
artists, cultural managers, or activists and volunteers working with displaced persons in Ukraine, or with displaced persons and refugees from Ukraine in one of the Creative Europe countries, veterans and vulnerable groups;
submit a complete application form in either Ukrainian or English language.

Selection criteria and process:

Relevance of professional context – Does the applicant demonstrate a convincing role within their artistic, cultural, or cultural-community environment, and clearly explain the relevance of their engagement through artistic practice, cultural production, and/or culture-based community initiatives?
Personal wellbeing relevance – Is the requested support clearly related to maintaining or strengthening the applicant’s personal wellbeing and resilience at this stage of their life and work?
Public and community impact – Is the applicant able to convincingly demonstrate how sustaining their own wellbeing and resilience would support their continued contribution to arts, culture, and/or culture-based community life, generating benefits for the communities, audiences, or cultural environments with which they engage?
Coherence and feasibility of the planned use of funds – Are the requested activities realistic and eligible to the purpose of supporting the applicant’s wellbeing.

Following an eligibility check, applications will be assessed by external advisors who are familiar with the cultural sector and the current context in Ukraine. Final decisions will be made by the consortium partners, who review the recommendations to ensure consistency and budgetary balance. 7 to 10 applications will be awarded per round.

Timeline:

25 August 2026 fifth call for proposals open
27 August 2026 info session
8 September 2026 call closed
Beginning of October 2026 proposals assessed and selected
12 October 2026 sixth call for proposals open

How to apply?

The submission deadline for proposals is Tuesday, 8th of September 2026, 13:00 Amsterdam time/ 14:00 Kyiv time.

You can find more information and useful application tips, and complete the application form, including the budget section via this link: https://culture-of-solidarity-fund.grantplatform.com/ .

We are organizing an hour of online info session on the 27th of August at 15:00 Amsterdam time / 16:00 Kyiv time where participants can enter into a Q&A session with the partners regarding the application process and criteria. You can register via this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/d1OY1MFDTey6zBLCJdBqYw

Important information:

The upcoming application rounds will each be open for two weeks, followed by a three/four-weeks assessment period. To ensure high-quality assessment and an effective allocation of support, each round can accommodate up to 200 applications. Should this limit be reached before the deadline, submissions for that round will be closed.

Please note that demand is high and competition is strong. We therefore encourage you to take the time to prepare a high-quality application that stands out in a highly competitive selection process.

Should you have further questions, please contact us at chs@culturalfoundation.eu.

The “Culture Helps Solidarity / Культура допомагає: Солідарність” is a project co-funded by the EU Creative Europe Programme and implemented by the European Cultural Foundation (NL), Insha Osvita (UA), zusa (DE) and VETERANKA Movement (UA).