Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant
Forecasted
Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant supports organizations offering non-clinical arts activities for military-connected communities to strengthen well-being, resilience, and social connection.
Funder: Mid-America Arts Alliance
Due Dates (Anticipated): January 2027 (Application submission)
Funding Amounts: Emerging: up to $10,000 | Advanced: $10,000–$25,000 | One-year projects with a 1:1 match
Summary: Supports non-clinical arts engagement for military-connected communities to strengthen well-being, resilience, social connection, and adaptation to civilian life.
Key Information: Applicants need three years of arts or military-community programming and must apply without a fiscal sponsor.
Description
The Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant is a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) program administered in partnership with Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA). It supports non-clinical arts engagement in healthcare, community, and virtual settings, aiming to improve health, well-being, and quality of life for military-connected individuals exposed to trauma, their families, and caregivers.
Projects can involve visual, written, performing, and other creative disciplines through instruction, art-making, residencies, performances, exhibitions, recordings, recurring drop-in programs, or single events. Desired participant outcomes include creative expression, social connectedness, resilience, and successful adaptation to civilian life. The program also seeks stronger organizational partnerships, capacity to deliver and evaluate military-community programming, and greater understanding of the arts’ value within participating communities.
