Introducing Ember Fellowships: Targeted Impact & Storytelling Support
Nov 12, 2025
Ember’s global call-out 2024 drew over 1,800 applications, and interviews with 900+ community-based mental health initiatives (CBMHIs) worldwide gave us rich insight into the journeys and challenges of these organisations.
Among them, we found a distinct group: CBMHIs with strong teams, robust structures, and clear visions for the future. They need focused support in very specific areas, such as capturing their impact or telling their stories in creative and compelling ways.
SOLUTION
Our answer? Ember Fellowships — six-month, high-touch programmes offering targeted support where it matters most in their organisational journey: impact and storytelling. Each Fellowship provides a stipend, tailored mentorship, and collaboration with Ember’s Creative and Impact teams to co-create tangible outputs.
This isn’t our full mentorship model. Instead, it’s customised, short-term support designed to strengthen visibility, impact, and confidence, helping CBMHIs unlock their next stage.
This approach reflects Ember’s values — adapting our model to respond directly to the evolving needs of the global mental health landscape. By listening closely to CBMHIs, Ember has designed support that goes beyond one-size-fits-all approach. The Fellowships provide the right push at the right time — helping organisations amplify their voices, evidence their impact, and step confidently into their next stage.
And as we’ve seen through years of partnership, the ability to capture impact and communicate stories is integral to an organisation’s sustainability. High-quality outputs — whether a photo essay, theory of change, branding package, website, pitch document, or research piece — not only showcase a community-based mental health initiatives work but also strengthen organisational credibility, widen their sphere of influence, and position them stronger for strategic opportunities.
IMPACT FELLOWSHIP
CBMHIs capture and collect data but lack the right resources to measure and communicate their impact. The Impact Fellowship aims to support CBMHIs to capture and articulate their impact: strengthening accountability, credibility, and fundraising potential. The recipients of Ember's 2025 Impact Fellowship are:
DeStigma
DeStigma, Ukraine is a non-governmental organisation providing psychosocial support to people with mental health conditions and their families in the Lviv Region of Ukraine. Through a community-based centre for social rehabilitation and psychotherapy, Destigma’s mission is to fight stigma and promote access to mental healthcare away from institutions, including for individuals and communities affected by war and displacement.
Impact challenge: As they approached six years since their founding, DeStigma wanted to make their work and its impact more visible – to donors, community members, and especially partners and stakeholders across the Lviv region. While the team had been documenting client journeys and the activities they delivered in the community, these insights had not previously been synthesised and shared. This was an opportunity to share their story: who they are, what they have achieved, and how others can join them in building an inclusive society where people with mental health conditions can live with dignity and realise their full potential.
How we worked together: Ember supported DeStigma in developing an Impact Report that captures their journey and achievements. We began by mapping their model, then worked with the team to compile existing data, capture stories from clients and staff, and showcase their work through photography. To bring the report to life, we partnered with a designer to create a visual identity for the publication and develop new branding materials for DeStigma. The report will be shared on the occasion of DeStigma’s anniversary and again around World Mental Health Day 2026, providing them an opportunity to showcase their journey, raise awareness of their work, and engage with local partners, donors, and community members.
Design and Visual Identity by: Gabi Froden
REDIGE
REDIGE (Red por la Igualdad de Género; Network for Gender Equality), Mexico is a network for promoting mental and emotional wellbeing among women activists, human rights defenders, and survivors of violence in Mexico. Through intensive workshops and support groups, REDIGE aims to promote collective care and provide practical tools for those on the frontlines of efforts to fight for justice and eradicate gender-based violence.
Impact challenge: REDIGE experienced challenges articulating its model and communicating the scale of its impact in numerical terms. Although the organisation had collected survey data and testimonies since it began implementing its activities, these tools did not fully capture the relevance and depth of its interventions for social justice activists in urgent need of appropriate self-care tools, or the lasting value of the networks it had built. This made it difficult for REDIGE to communicate the significance of its work to external supporters and funders.
How we worked together: Ember supported REDIGE to rethink its approach to capturing and communicating impact. We reviewed its existing impact measurement processes and tools and supported the development of a new data collection strategy, including consolidating its surveys and ensuring information is collected at relevant points in time and is directly linked to the aims of its work. We also partnered with a director and illustrator to produce a film that communicates why REDIGE’s work is needed, highlights key aspects of its model, and shows how its workshops have strengthened individuals and networks working for truth and justice in Mexico, in a context of hundreds of thousands of missing people and widespread gender-based violence.
Directed by: Reiff Gaskell
The Garderenes Initiative
The Garderenes Initiative, Ghana is a non-governmental organisation committed to safeguarding the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents in Ghana. Founded in 2024, the organisation delivers clinical and community-based programmes through partnerships with hospitals, schools, and professional bodies—providing education, advocacy, screenings, and family support. Its work empowers young people and caregivers through mental health services, mentorship, and capacity-building initiatives.
Impact challenge: The Garderenes had developed a rich and comprehensive model organically but lacked a clear strategy for capturing its impact. Although the team used tools to collect data for clinical purposes, there was a need to develop indicators that could also track progress at a programme level. A clear framework was needed to guide the further development of their data collection methods and, ultimately, enable them to better capture and communicate their impact.
How we worked together: Ember worked with the Garderenes to develop a Theory of Change that mapped their different activities, the outcomes they aim to achieve, and how their work contributes to improving the mental health of young people in Ghana, particularly children with disabilities. We also supported them to develop an indicator framework and identify their data collection needs. Together, this provided a clear framework and strategy for measuring and capturing their impact.
STORYTELLING FELLOWSHIP
CBMHI founders and teams hold powerful narratives, but many lack the resources to capture them. The Storytelling Fellowship aims to support organisations unlock untapped narratives, co-create creative outputs, and showcase their stories to funders and wider audiences. The recipients of Ember's 2025 Storytelling Fellowship are:
Jan Sahas Social Empowerment Society (JSSES), India
Jan Sahas Social Empowerment Society (JSSES), India is a grassroots organisation in Madhya Pradesh, India, re-imagining mental health care with marginalised communities through a community-led model that integrates systemic change, social support, and community care. Combining barefoot and professional counsellors, JSSES addresses the intersections of caste, gender, livelihood, and migration to build sustainable ecosystems of care.
Storytelling challenge: JSSES wanted to make its community-based work and qualitative impact more visible, while presenting its holistic model clearly and cohesively to global funders. It was important that the story reflected the organisation on its own terms, foregrounding its field workers, day-to-day relationships with communities, and work across interconnected issues without making the model appear fragmented.
How we worked together: Ember commissioned a local creative partner to produce a short film capturing who JSSES is, how its community-centred model works, and the impact it is creating across gender-based violence prevention, women’s empowerment, child protection, migration, mental health and livelihoods. The film was designed for use across funder communications, pitches, the website and social media.
Film by: ReRooted Films
Chhahari Nepal for Mental Health, Nepal
Chhahari Nepal for Mental Health, based in Lalitpur, Nepal, is a grassroots organisation committed to supporting individuals and their carers with lived experience of mental illness, many of whom face profound stigma, homelessness, or abandonment. Through sustained outreach, active listening, and the integration of creative and therapeutic modalities, the organisation builds trust and advances person-centred, rights-based recovery. Its work prioritises human rights advocacy, social reintegration, and community empowerment, enabling individuals to restore meaningful connections with their families, peer networks, and broader communities.
Storytelling challenge: Chhahari’s impact is often visible through meaningful changes in everyday life, such as clients reconnecting with their families, returning to work or education, and becoming more independent. However, these qualitative outcomes can be difficult to communicate to funders. The team wanted to explain how its holistic social model goes beyond medical care, while conveying the dignity, value and capabilities of people experiencing mental health challenges.
How we worked together: Ember worked with Chhahari to develop a strategic pitch deck that brings together the mental health context in Nepal, the organisation’s journey, its holistic model, evidence and impact, and its long-term vision. The deck helps Chhahari communicate why its approach works more clearly to funders and potential partners.