Indigenous Youth Roots Small Project Funding Program

Deadline: 30-Nov-23

The Indigenous Youth Roots is seeking applications for the Small Project Funding Program to create impactful community change and increase the wellness, resiliency and engagement of Indigenous youth.

Projects must be led by 3+ Indigenous youth (ages 15-29) who are meaningfully involved in project guidance, planning, implementation and/or evaluation.

Funding Stream Priorities

There is a priority in this stream to support:
- Indigenous grassroots groups and collectives
- Previous grantees who have only held grants in the Youth Empowerment Stream (Sprout and Blossom)
- Groups that have some experience running programming and projects, but are looking to scale to a new level or try something new

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).

Funding Information

The Small Funding Stream will provide funding of up to $15,000.

Eligibility Criteria

Creation will prioritize funding grassroots youth groups consisting of a minimum of 3 Indigenous youth.
Please note: for the purpose of this program IYR defines Indigenous as status and non-status First Nation, Inuit, and MÈtis peoples in Canada, living both on and off reserve.
Eligible groups and projects include:
- Unincorporated/grassroots youth groups and collectives
- Incorporated youth groups
- 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 and businesses
- Groups that have an organizational budget of over $1,000,000

For more information, visit Indigenous Youth Roots.