Government of Canada: Seeking Proposals for Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities

Deadline: 6 March 2018

The Government of Canada is currently accepting national project proposals from organizations interested in receiving financial assistance from the Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities (OF).

Through funding for organizations, the OF program helps persons with disabilities prepare for, obtain, and maintain employment or self-employment to increase their economic participation and independence. The OF program offers a range of activities that can be tailored to meet the individual needs of persons with disabilities.

The objective of this CFP is to invite eligible organizations to submit a proposal that supports persons with disabilities in preparing for, obtaining and maintaining employment or becoming self-employed, thereby increasing their economic participation and independence. This supports the Government of Canada’s overarching goals of promoting skills development, labour market participation and inclusiveness as well as ensuring labour market efficiency.

Streams

Eligible organizations can submit a proposal under one or both of the following two streams:

Skills and Employment
- Proposals under the Skills and Employment stream include all activities involving participants (i.e. persons with disabilities) and activities to help employers prepare the workplace for the integration of persons with disabilities.
Working with Employers
- Proposals under the Working with Employers stream include activities aiming to raise the profile of persons with disabilities within the employer community and to help employers prepare the workplace for the integration of persons with disabilities.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible Recipients
- Eligible recipients for the OF are:
  - not-for-profit organizations;
  - for-profit organizations;
  - municipal governments;
  - Indigenous organizations (including band councils, tribal councils and self-government entities);
  - provincial and territorial governments, institutions, agencies and Crown Corporations.
- In addition, for the Skills and Employment stream, the recipient’s role must be one of the following:
  - an employer that directly provides work placements within its own organization;
  - an OF Community Coordinator (OF-CC). An OF-CC is a contribution recipient that receives ESDC/Service Canada contributions and further disburses portions of the funding to third parties for activities that meet the objectives of the OF program.
Eligible Participants
- Eligible participants must meet all of the following conditions:
  - self-identify as having a permanent physical or mental disability that restricts his or her ability to perform daily activities;
  - be Canadian citizens, permanent residents or persons who have been granted refugee status in Canada;
  - be legally entitled to work according to the relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulations;
  - not be eligible for assistance under Employment Insurance (EI) employment benefits or any similar programs that are the subject of agreements with provinces, territories or organizations entered into pursuant to Section 63 of the EI Act (unless approved by a departmental official);
  - require assistance to prepare for, obtain and keep employment or self-employment.