National Creative Forces® Community Engagement grant
The primary aim of the National Creative Forces® Community Engagement grant program is to enhance the health, well-being, and quality of life for military-connected individuals who have experienced trauma. The program achieves this by funding arts initiatives that encourage creativity, build social connections, improve resilience, and help smooth the transition to civilian life.
Deadline to Apply | January 15th, 2026
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 45 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 lives 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 support 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 military-connected participants, leading to stronger outcomes for participants.
- Strengthened Capacity: Grantees build their capacity to design, implement, and evaluate programs that meet the needs of military-connected participants.
- Increased 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.
