Resource Organizations
Backline has vetted organizations across the country to create a national network of care providers that support the music industry by providing access to healthcare, financial assistance, treatment options, and more.
You may be qualified to receive free services through these programs. If you’re not sure, connect with a Case Manager and we’ll help you find the best options for you.
Mental Health & Wellness For The Music Industry
Healthcare
Jeremy Wilson Foundation (Oregon & Clark County, WA)
The Jeremy Wilson Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit musicians’ service organization dedicated to providing emergency financial assistance in times of medical crisis and to improving the overall well-being of individual musicians and their families.
Denton Music and Arts Collaborative (Denton, TX)
Denton music and arts collaborative (DMAC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. DMAC works to preserve, promote, and continue the unique and culturally significant musical and artistic heritage of Denton by providing vital healthcare subsidies for local artists and musicians.
Midwest Music Foundation (Kansas City, MO)
The Midwest Music Foundation (MMF) is an educational arts organization that unites performer and audience and fills a health care gap for Kansas City area musicians.
NO Musicians Clinic (New Orleans, LA)
Founded by a coalition of music advocates on May 1, 1998, the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic (NOMC) became the 1st comprehensive medical clinic for musicians, performing artists, and cultural workers in the United States.
Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare (Seattle, WA)
SMASH (Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping our music community healthy and thriving by providing health education, advocacy, and access to preventative healthcare to Seattle area working musicians.
HAAM (Health Alliance for Austin Musicians) (Austin, TX)
HAAM provides access to affordable healthcare for Austin’s low-income, working musicians, with a focus on prevention and wellness.
Blues Foundation- HART Fund (Memphis, TN)
The Blues Foundation established the HART Fund (Handy Artists Relief Trust) for Blues musicians and their families in financial need due to a broad range of health concerns. The Fund provides for acute, chronic and preventive medical and dental care as well as funeral and burial expenses. Throughout the year at various events the HART Fund provides free health screenings for musicians, with services including but not limited to checking blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, prostate cancer, Hep C, anemia, thyroid, kidney and liver testing via blood work.
The Actors Fund (New York, NY)
The Actors Fund fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan.
Jazz Foundation of America (New York, NY)
For 28 years, the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) has been keeping jazz, blues, roots, R&B and soul alive by helping the musicians who have played with everyone from Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday to Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones. Our social work services provide housing assistance, pro bono medical care, and emergency financial support to musicians in crisis
Music Health Alliance (Nashville, TN)
Music Health Alliance’s mission is to Heal the Music by providing access to healthcare through services that PROTECT, DIRECT & CONNECT music professionals with medical and financial solutions.
Musician Treatment Foundation (Austin, TX)
The Musician Treatment Foundation (MTF) assists in providing surgical and nonsurgical care for the shoulder, elbow, and hand injuries of uninsured and underinsured professional musicians so they can maintain their livelihoods and keep the music playing for us all. MTF is dedicated to fostering a world that cares for its injured musicians regardless of their ability to pay.
Gulf Coast Musicians Medical Fund (Pensacola, FL)
Gulf Coast Musicians Medical Fund provides medical cost assistance for our Brother and Sister Gulf Coast musicians and songwriters in our community, which includes Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. GCMMF serves those musicians and songwriters in need of medical care, including initial office visit costs, initial prescription costs, and education on treatment and diagnosis through counseling from Pastors, Counselors or Licensed Professionals. We are a 501 (c) Christian based charity committed to improving the health and medical care of the musicians and songwriters, and helping to offset the cost of minor health issues that if left untreated, could unnecessarily develop into a major health issue.
Financial Assistance
Sweet Relief (Fullerton, CA)
Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.
MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares’ services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality. MusiCares also focuses the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly influence the health and welfare of the music community.
The Heaven Foundation (Brewer, Maine)
The mission of The Haven Foundation is to offer interim financial assistance to freelance professionals in the arts who face crises. The Foundation’s reach is the United States, and its awards are granted with a view to helping individuals overcome temporary adversity and return to full-time work.
The Jazz Foundation (New York, NY)
Changes in the music industry have left many behind including underground legends, session players and even the big names themselves. When age, illness, or disaster threatens a long career, many have nowhere to turn. These musicians have been saving us with their music our entire lives. These are dignified people who never think to ask for help. Our lifesaving programs turn despair into hope.
Max’s Kansas City Project (Kingston, NY)
We are dedicated to providing emergency funding and resources to financially distressed individuals in the creative and performing arts for housing, medical and legal aid. One time grants are awarded ranging from $500-$1000. Special consideration is given, but not limited to, Max’s Kansas City’s extended family, (those who worked at Max’s or were Max’s patrons).
We are also committed to empowering teens through the arts with a focus on substance abuse and suicide prevention by mentoring and motivating them to make healthy choices, offering an ongoing process to aid them in building the personal skills needed to inspire them to lead healthy, productive lives. Our FEARLESS YOUTH Program is characterized by a positive skills building approach, introducing teens to the creative arts as an outlet to meet the challenges of life in constructive ways, mentoring them and raising awareness on the dangers and consequences of substance abuse and addiction.
Musician’s Foundation (New York, NY)
Musicians Foundation is formed to foster the interests and advance the condition and social welfare of professional musicians and to provide voluntary aid and assistance to professional musicians and their families in case of need. (Est. 1914)
Atlanta Musican Emergency Relief Fund (Atlanta, GA)
Create fund-raising opportunities and solicit donations in order to maintain a cash deposit reserve to be used for donations to musicians or to like-minded organizations.
Red Dirt Relief Fund (Oklahoma)
To provide a safety net of critical assistance for Oklahoma music people in times of need.
Grants for entertainment technologists.
Substance Abuse
MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares’ services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality. MusiCares also focuses the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly influence the health and welfare of the music community.
Send Me A Friend (New Orleans, LA)
Our mission is to support musicians and creative professionals who face unique challenges while in early recovery and on the road to a new way of life.
Wellness
Integrating the science of sport and the performing arts for the mutual benefit of both.
Equilibrium is an organized focused on improving holistic health and wellness in the music industry.
We are committed to supporting the brain health and mental wellness of music communities everywhere.
Road Dog Health & Wellness, LLC – Holistic Solutions For Pros On The Go
Specializing in applied herbalism and nutrition to support and fit the way we live.
Optimized Touring provides health and wellness services for the touring community, across Nutrition, Fitness, Stress, Sleep, Hydration and Habit Development, as well as providing personalized 1:1 health coaching from integrative health coaches for clients of all backgrounds.
Sound Nutrition was thoughtfully developed by registered dietitian, yoga teacher, and integrative health expert Emmaline Rasmussen. Emmaline holds a degree in integrative medicine from Georgetown University and utilizes a holistic approach to support artists and creative professionals in enjoying long, productive careers in the music industry. Having toured herself and experienced first-hand the challenges of life on the road, Emmaline simplifies wellness on- and off-tour by making healthy food readily available and supporting artists and crew through comprehensive wellness programming.
Mental Health Resources For The Music Industry
SIMS Foundation (Austin, TX)
The SIMS Foundation provides mental health and substance use recovery services and supports for musicians, music industry professionals, and their dependent family members. Through education, community partnerships, and accessible managed care, SIMS seeks to destigmatize and reduce mental health and substance use issues, while supporting and enhancing the wellbeing of the music community at large.
Porters Call (Franklin, TN)
When an artist comes to our door, we welcome them and guide them to the help they need.
Nuci’s Space (Athens, GA)
Our mission is to prevent suicide. With a focus on musicians, Nuçi’s Space advocates for and helps to alleviate the suffering for those living with a brain illness and fights to end the stigma of mental illness.
Music Industry Therapists & Coaches (US & UK)
MITC is a collective of therapists, counsellors and coaches who are all ex-music business, with an abundance of experience of working within and around the industry in various roles across all sectors. We understand that the working conditions of the music industry can exacerbate preexisting psychological difficulties as well as sow the seeds for new challenges, and we offer access to high quality therapy from registered and experienced therapists who also have an in-depth inside understanding of how the industry works.
Sound Mind Live (New York, NY)
Our mission is to end the stigma that surrounds mental health and mental illness through the power of music.
Tour Health Research Initiative (Philadelphia, PA)
We’re collecting information through a research-based, online inquiry into the details that are affecting our physical and mental health as artists and touring professionals.
The Roadie Clinic (Niles, Michigan)
The Clinic is committed to providing a safe space for roadies and their families to heal while off the road, and to advocate for – and empower them to obtain – a healthy work environment while on the road. Their vision is “Healthy road life. Healthy home life.”
General Mental Health Organizations
Black Mental Health Alliance for Education & Consultation, Inc.
To develop, promote and sponsor trusted culturally-relevant educational forums, trainings and referral services that support the health and well-being of Black people and vulnerable communities.
To Write Love On Her Arms (Melbourne, FL)
To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.
Open Path Psychotherapy Collective is a non-profit nationwide network of mental health professionals dedicated to providing in-office and online mental health care—at a steeply reduced rate—to individuals, couples, children, and families in need.
Scars Foundation (Beverley Hills, CA)
Founded by Godsmack, The Scars Foundation helps raise awareness of mental health issues by providing resources and tools to educate and empower people on a global level that struggle with these burdens.
NAMI National (Arlington, VA)
NAMI provides advocacy, education, support and public awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives.
Silence the Shame (Atlanta, Georgia)
Founded by music industry veteran Shanti Das, Silence The Shame empowers and educates communities on mental health and wellness through community conversations, wellness trainings, compelling content, and outreach programs.
Same Here Alliance (New York)
The charter Celebrity Alliance launched with a formal rally with over 300 supporters in attendance on November 14th, 2017, in New York City. There, The Alliance introduced their “#SameHere” Movement, uniting the world through one ASL sign language hand gesture (you see depicted in their logos and profile pictures) that communicates – no matter where we live, or what our background or our accolades, we all go through life’s inevitable challenges, and we should have a society where it is openly acceptable to talk about those challenges, thus: “#SameHere!” Video. Find out more about the origin story which led to The Alliance’s usage of #SameHere.
International Mental Health Organizations
Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Music Minds Matter is Help Musicians’ dedicated mental health support line and service for the whole UK music community.
Music Support’s mission is to provide help and support to peers who work in music and live events affected by mental ill-health and/or addiction and to promote early intervention through support services, education, and workshops.
Help Musicians is a charity for professional musicians of all genres, both in work and in retirement. They help at times of crisis, but also at times of opportunity, giving people the support they need at the crucial stages that could make or break their career.
Formed in 2010 with one simple but important goal in mind: to ensure that the people who make up the Canadian music business never face times of crisis alone. Created by the industry, for the industry, they deliver life-saving emergency financial services and professional counseling that offer much-needed hope to those in need.
Canadian Mental Health Association (Canada)
A nationwide organization that promotes mental health and supports people recovering from mental illness.
Food
The national organization works with artists, promoters, management and venues nationwide to donate unused backstage meals to community organizations that feed the homeless, hungry and food insecure. Musically Fed identifies the opportunities, procures the resources, and coordinates all aspects of food handling, transport, and distribution. Our daily goal is to make it easy for promoters and performers to leave each city they visit with a lasting positive impact.
Optimized Touring provides health and wellness services for the touring community, across Nutrition, Fitness, Stress, Sleep, Hydration and Habit Development, as well as providing personalized 1:1 health coaching from integrative health coaches for clients of all backgrounds.
Sound Nutrition was thoughtfully developed by registered dietitian, yoga teacher, and integrative health expert Emmaline Rasmussen. Emmaline holds a degree in integrative medicine from Georgetown University and utilizes a holistic approach to support artists and creative professionals in enjoying long, productive careers in the music industry. Having toured herself and experienced first-hand the challenges of life on the road, Emmaline simplifies wellness on- and off-tour by making healthy food readily available and supporting artists and crew through comprehensive wellness programming.