CREation Community Grants Program

CREation is a multi-level funding program that will support strengths-based, community-focused and youth-led projects taking place in communities across Canada. Grassroot youth groups/collectives (comprised of 3+ Indigenous youth ages 15-29) are eligible to apply for funding to support community programs and projects, while receiving innovative mentorship, training and capacity-building opportunities. Funding of up to $25,000 will be provided to projects/groups that seek to create impactful community change and increase the wellness, resiliency and engagement of Indigenous youth. 

This program aims to support Indigenous youth to take ownership over the wellness of their peers and community. Providing funding for Indigenous youth to mobilize is an act of reconciliation, as much as the work that they will do for their communities is reconciliation. 

Project Focus Areas

Successful projects will fall within the following areas:

Assessment and Feasibility Studies

Projects will focus on assessing community and youth needs, doing feasibility projects and engaging community in consultation.

Arts and Culture

Projects that increase access to arts, art-based workshops, cultural knowledge, traditions and ceremony

Innovation and Change

Projects will support youth groups in accessing capacity-building, knowledge mobilization and funding resources. Projects will focus on innovating healthcare systems, developing solutions to infrastructure and resource challenges (such as access to clean water and sustainable food sources) and increasing access to technology.

Intergenerational Relationship Building

Projects will engage multiple age groups and should help to enhance the sense of community (i.e. projects where youth participate in programs with Elders, families, adults, etc).

Resiliency Building

Projects will focus on organizational development in Indigenous agencies. The intention of this focus area is to increase leadership, governance, capacity and opportunity for Indigenous organizations to impact communities and systems. Projects can include organizational enhancements (i.e. training, website development, strategic plan development, consulting projects, purchase of supplies, etc).

Youth and Community Wellness

Projects will focus on enhancing community wellness and can include one-off events or long-term programs and any type of programming related to wellness (i.e. workshops, teachings, gatherings).

Eligibility

CREation will prioritize funding grassroots youth groups consisting of a minimum of 3 youth of which at least 2 identify as Indigenous. 

Please note: for the purpose of this program CRE defines Indigenous as status and non-status First Nation, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada, living both on and off reserve.

Eligible groups and projects include:

• Unincorporated/grassroots youth groups and collectives
• Small, incorporated youth groups (note: CRE defines a small organization as groups that have 1-8 full time employees and an operating budget of less than $500,000)
• Youth Councils

Ineligible groups and projects:

• Individuals
• Projects that are not youth-led (or where the majority of leadership is 30+)
• Non-Indigenous organizations
• Projects taking place outside of Canada
• For profit corporations

Ineligible Expenses

CRE will NOT fund projects that are political in nature, or that involve distributing substances (i.e. alcohol, non-traditional tobacco, marijuana, illicit substances, etc).

Review Process

CRE will be evaluating applications through an internal review circle of 6 evaluators. All members will have experience running programs and initiatives, overseeing projects and offering community supports. 

Capacity Building

All funded groups will be required to take part in online training/skills development workshops on managing, facilitating, evaluating, and reporting on programs. There will be orientation sessions for all new grantees. All grantees will be assigned a CRE staff member and will have individual meetings with this staff member throughout the project. 

Reporting and Evaluation

Grantees will be asked to report twice on their projects. 

Midterm Check In (4-5 months into project): Grantees will meet digitally with a CREation staff to talk through challenges and successes. Grantees will share updates on budget spending, completed activities and youth reach. 

Final Report (2 months after project completion): Grantees will submit a budget report and an evaluation report. Grantees will receive a copy of the evaluation report within the first month of their project start date.

Financial Oversight and Trusteeship

Successful applicants over age 18 do not require an external funding administrator and, if successful, will receive the grant funds directly.

Successful applicants aged 15-17 will require a local non-profit or trusted community member over age 18 to serve as their grant trustee. This trustee may be someone the applicants are already familiar with or CRE can support in connecting them with a willing organization or community member as well as with creating a trustee agreement that ensures youth will be supported. 

Release of Funds

CRE does not issue cheques. Funding will be sent to grantees via a Plooto bank transfer/direct deposit. Grantees will receive funds within two weeks of submitting a signed funding agreement.

Timelines

Stages	Summer Application Period	Winter Application Period
Applications Open	July 6th, 2020	December 1st, 2020
Application Deadline	August 14th, 2020	January 15th, 2021
Decisions Released	September 14th, 2020	February 12th, 2021
Project Start Date	October 1st, 2020	March 1st, 2021
Project End Date	June 30th, 2021	November 30th, 2021
Final Report Due	August 28th, 2021	January 31st, 2022

Unless otherwise noted, all deadlines are 6:00pm CST

Questions

CRE encourages applicants to reach out if they have any questions. Please email creation@canadianroots,ca to speak to a member of the team.