Grace Dear Trust

The Grace Dear Trust, a Surrey-based charitable incorporated organisation established in November 2017 by the Dear family after the suicide of Grace Dear at age 27, is devoted to preventing suicide among young people by transforming mental health support, awareness, and safeguarding for children and adolescents. Born from Grace's struggles with depression and anxiety from age 13, amid stigma and inadequate early intervention, the trust's core mission ensures no young person suffers in silence. Guided by values of compassion, prevention, community collaboration, openness, and the belief that “it’s ok not to be ok,” it promotes a theory of change centred on early intervention, peer support, resilience-building, and normalising mental health conversations in schools and communities.

It prioritises funding preventative mental health initiatives, including school-based seminars, workshops, guest speakers tackling stigma and self-care, on-site professional counsellors, professional networks, and awareness campaigns. Primary beneficiaries are school-aged children, young adults, families, and school staff, with a strong focus on empowering educational settings as first responders through grassroots partnerships rather than isolated efforts.

Eligible applicants are UK-registered charities, community groups, and academic institutions (primarily schools) operating in Surrey, especially Elmbridge and surrounding areas, with preference for small to medium grassroots organisations showing high mission alignment in youth mental health prevention. Unsolicited applications are not accepted; interested parties must email to discuss potential partnerships on a rolling basis, with no fixed deadlines. Typical grant amounts are unspecified but project-specific, drawn from annual expenditures around £135,000 across select partners. Exclusions include crisis relief, emergency aid, or activities outside youth preventative mental health; its distinctive lived-experience origin, hyper-local school focus, and relational, invitation-only model set it apart for charities delivering stigma-reducing, school-embedded interventions.