Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network (Community Arts Engagement Grant Program)

Overview

Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.  
 
The mission of Creative Forces is to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations 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. An organization may submit only one proposal under this program solicitation. 
 
Program Description 
Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network (Creative Forces) is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (Agency or NEA) in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA). The mission of Creative Forces is to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations 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. The initiative has three components: 
 
1.    Clinical. Since 2012, Creative Forces has placed creative arts therapies at the core of patient-centered care at military medical and Veteran Health Administration facilities, including telehealth delivery of care for patients in rural and remote areas. In clinical settings, creative arts therapists provide art, music, dance/movement therapies for military patients and veterans, as well as support for community-based arts engagement activities to promote health and wellbeing for patients, staff and their families.  
 
2.    Community. Since 2017, Creative Forces has invested in community-based arts engagement activities in order to advance understanding of their benefits and impacts for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma. In 2021, the NEA announced the Creative Forces Community Engagement Grants to support emerging and established community-based arts engagement projects.  
 
3.    Capacity. Creative Forces invests in capacity-building efforts, including the development of toolkits, training materials, and other resources to support promising practices in serving military and veteran populations.   
 
In addition, Creative Forces invests in research on the impacts and benefits –physical, social, and emotional– of these innovative practices. Visit the Creative Forces’ National Resource Center (NRC) to learn more and to read research and evaluation related to Creative Forces. 
  
Purpose of Program 
The purpose of this Program Solicitation is to select an organization (Cooperator) to support the Community component of Creative Forces through the implementation and administration of the Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant Program.  
 
The Grant Program is a competitive grant program that seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers through community-based arts engagement activities. In brief, the Cooperator will:  

• In close coordination with the NEA Project Director, update and publish guidelines for the Grant Program.  
• Receive and adjudicate grant applications to select approximately 30 to 50 subawards per program cycle.  
• Manage the award process and administration of the subawards.
  - Provide technical assistance focused on program-level capacity building and data collection to subrecipients.  
• With oversight from the Office of Research & Analysis (ORA), administer a Data Collection Plan for the Grant Program.   
• Support the development of Creative Forces content informed by activities of the Grant Program.  
• In close coordination with the NEA Project Director and the NEA’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA), develop and execute a communications plan for the Grant Program.  
• Develop and maintain program information relevant to potential applicants and subrecipients of the Grant Program. 

Details for each of these program elements can be found under Detailed Requirements section of the full program description.

An organization may submit only one proposal under this program solicitation. 
 
While you may also apply to the NEA through the Partnership Agreements guidelines, the request must be for a distinctly different project. No project costs or staff time may overlap with activities executed as part of other federal awards, including other NEA grants and cooperative agreements. 
 
An organization may not receive more than one NEA award for the same costs/activities during the same or an overlapping period of performance. The organization must establish and maintain effective internal controls over the award to ensure no line items or funding associated with this subgranting program overlap with any other NEA grant program or source, and provide reasonable assurance that it is managing the award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the award. 

Type of Award: Cooperative Agreement. 

Cooperative Agreement Amount 
The NEA expects to award one Cooperative Agreement of up to $1,750,000, contingent upon the availability of funds. This Cooperative Agreement requires a nonfederal cost share equal to the amount of federal funds awarded as subawards. Cost share funds cannot include funds from any NEA or other federal sources. 

Period of Performance 
This Cooperative Agreement will begin on or after July 1, 2025, and may extend for up to 39 months.