Deadline: 6-Jan-22
The Canadian Roots Exchange (CRE) is offering grants through its Shared Struggle and Solidarity Stream Grants Program to strengthen solidarity between BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) youth and provide relationship-building opportunities.
CREation is a multi-level funding program that supports strengths-based, community-focused and youth-led projects taking place in communities across Canada. Grassroot youth groups/collectives (comprised of 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.
The focus of this funding stream is to bring together BIPOC youth. Successful projects must bring together Indigenous youth from Canada (First Nation, Inuit, Metis and Afro-Indigenous youth) and Black and/or POC youth.
A minimum of three youth must be identified at the application phase as project leaders ( however, projects can have 4+ leaders if needed). In addition, two youth of the group leaders must be Indigenous to Canada. Projects need to focus on representing the identities held by the youth leaders.
Project Focus Areas
The intention between this streams is to provide youth opportunities to collectively grow, create, heal and cause change. Successful projects will fall under one or more of the following areas:
- Sharing Knowledge and Culture
- Projects that focus on building community between diverse groups through the sharing of knowledge and culture as a pathway to relationship building. Activities should be focused on both groups sharing their culture and community. Activities could include the following activities: storytelling, dance workshops, cooking workshops, feasts and gatherings, arts workshops, recreation/games and other activities.
- Learning History and Lived Realities
- Projects will bring together youth to learn about each other’s history, lived reality, barriers and resilience. This can take the form of sharing circles, speaker series, gatherings, workshops/sessions, etc. The focus in this area is on helping youth to understand each other better and to build an understanding of the differences and similarities between groups.
- Reclaiming and Rebuilding
- Projects will focus on giving youth the tools to address systemic and community barriers they face through skill building sessions and programming around mobilization, organizing and advocacy. Activities can include spaces where youth learn skills around lifting each other’s voices, building allyship, advocating for change, bringing together community and collectively visioning a more equitable future landscape.
- Changing Systems
- Projects will focus on creating system-level and community-level change, including creating safe(r) pathways in system navigation, disruption and dismantling oppressive systems and taking tangible steps toward making organizations and community spaces more accessible to BIPOC youth. Examples of a Changing System Project could include bringing youth together to create better pathways in accessing employment or education services; providing training and advocacy around equitable health care access, etc.
Funding Information
- 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 youth.
- Projects in this stream will need to engage at least two groups, one of which must be Indigenous. Projects can be up to 12 months in length. Projects must be led by 3-4 youth that represent the communities they will be working with.
Eligibility Criteria
- CREation will only fund projects with a minimum of 3 youth leaders.
- Please note: for the purpose of this program, CRE defines Indigenous as status and non-status First Nations, Inuit, and Métis 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
- 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)
- Projects must focus on bringing together two diverse groups, one of which must be Indigenous
- Project leadership must have at least 2 Indigenous youth, and be representative of the communities the project is bringing together.
Ineligible
Ineligible groups and projects:
- Individuals
- Projects that are not youth-led (or where the majority of leadership is 30+)
- Projects taking place outside of Canada
- For profit corporations
For more information, visit https://canadianroots.ca/programs/creation/