The fifth edition of the Support. Don’t Punish campaign’s Initiatives Programme focuses on sustaining and enhancing momentum built by campaign partners at the local and national level — including through their involvement in prior editions of the Programme.
By focusing on organisations that have previously been awarded by the Programme, we seek to more effectively navigate a challenging funding environment, and to help consolidate achievements, strengthen leadership, and ensure that existing progress is leveraged for continued growth.
The 2025 edition of the Initiatives Programme will award USD 4,500 to four projects for activities to be implemented between October 2025 and June 2026. Local partners are free to design proposals that are strategic, creative and collaborative — with work plans that culminate with commemorations for the 2026 Support. Don’t Punish Global Day of Action.
Map of Initiatives Programme awardees (2019-2024)
The Initiatives Programme is possible thanks to the invaluable support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which enables our global campaign to promote harm reduction, protection from police violence and other rights abuses, and grassroots mobilisation.
What we are looking for
We will receive applications for initiatives that:
- Build on prior work to consolidate achievements and further develop momentum;
- Concretely contribute to advancing drug policy reform and harm reduction — identifying specific challenges and responding to them strategically, creatively and collaboratively.
- Amplify the voices and leadership of communities disproportionately affected by punitive drug policies (e.g. people who use drugs, farmers of crops deemed illicit, youth, racialised communities, Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+ people, among others);
- Inspire meaningful change in attitudes, policies or practices — through advocacy, cultural action, community mobilisation, or other forms of organising.
How to apply
Applications should be submitted via the Call for Expressions of Interest, available here, by Monday, 22 September 2025 (noon – UK time).
Please keep responses concise and specific.
Timeframes
- 26 August 2025 – Launch of the Call for Expressions of Interest
- 22 September 2025 – Deadline to apply
- 22–26 September 2025 – Review of applications
- 3 October 2025 – Notification of results
- 6–10 October 2025 – Period for drafting terms of reference and disbursement
- October 2025 – June 2026 – Implementation of initiatives, culminating in activities for the 2026 Global Day of Action (26 June)
- July 2026 – Period for feedback, accountability and reflection
