Deadline: 02-May-24
The Indigenous Youth Roots is currently accepting applications for the Youth and Community Wellness Grants to support strengths-based, community-focused and youth-led projects taking place in communities across Canada.
The focus of this stream is to fund projects that center around engaging youth in programming that focuses on wellness, health and the land. Projects must be led by two or more Indigenous youth aged 15-29. Youth leaders (grantees) will receive innovative mentorship, training, and capacity-building opportunities throughout the project. Project must take place on one of the following communities:
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Montreal, Quebec
- Halifax, Nova Scotia
- Toronto, Ontario
- Kitchener and/or Waterloo Region, Ontario
Funding Priorities
- There is a priority in this stream to support:
- Projects that are focused on land, health and wellness
- New and emerging Indigenous youth-led grassroots groups and collectives
- New groups who have never run a project before
- Groups who have never received funding from Creaton before
Project Focus Areas
- Projects should focus on providing land and wellness-based programming for Indigenous youth. Successful projects will fall within the following areas:
- Community Gardens and Food Knowledge Programming
- Projects that focus on increasing Indigenous youth’s access to foods, knowledge about traditional and healthy foods and building skills around planting, growing and harvesting. Projects in this focus area can include: community gardens, initiatives to start family gardens, workshops about cooking, harvesting and preserving etc.
- Climate Action and Land Advocacy
- Projects will engage youth in initiatives related to climate action and justice, as well as to increase their knowledge of environmental protection, advocacy, and the responsibilities as Indigenous people to the land. Projects in this focus area could include climate action workshops, teaching circles, session on how to support environmental initiatives, water walks, advocacy initiatives, and other activities.
- Land-based Programming
- Projects will engage youth in participating in programming on the land. These can include overnight camps or workshop series. Projects will work to increase youth’s connection to the land and knowledge of food and land teachings. Projects in this focus area can include: medicine walks, ceremony, foraging activities, water-based projects (such as water walks), recreational land-based recreation activities (e.g., canoeing), language camps, traditional hunting and fishing and other activities.
- Community Gardens and Food Knowledge Programming
Funding Information
- The Youth and Community Wellness Grants, supported by Manulife funding Stream will provide small grants ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 to Indigenous youth-led initiatives.
Eligibility Criteria
- Funding in this stream will only fund grassroots Indigenous youth groups consisting of a minimum of 2 youth.
- Please note: for the purpose of this program, IYR defines Indigenous as status and non-status First Nations, Inuit, and MÈtis peoples in Canada, living both on and off reserve.
- Eligible groups and projects include:
- Unincorporated/grassroots youth groups/collectives/councils comprised primarily of Indigenous youth
- Projects run by incorporated groups/registered charities with strong youth leadership
- Projects must serve primarily serve Indigenous youth
- Projects must work to increase youth access to health, wellness and/or the land
Ineligible
- Individuals and/or projects that are not led by 2+ Indigenous youth
- Projects that are not youth-led (or where the majority of leadership is 30+)
- Non-Indigenous groups and organizations
- Projects taking place outside of Canada
- For profit corporations
- Projects not focused on increasing youth access to health, wellness and/or the land
- Projects not occurring in Toronto, Kitchener, Waterloo, Montreal, Halifax or Vancouver
For more information, visit Indigenous Youth Roots.