Canadian Roots: Land and Food Sovereignty Stream (Canada)

Deadline: 30-Nov-22

The Canadian Roots is announcing its Land and Food Sovereignty Funding Stream under the CREation community grants program to increase opportunities to participate in land-based programming, learn about food and medicines and engage with knowledge keepers.

Projects in this stream need to be Indigenous-led and youth-focused, although community-focused and intergenerational activities can be run. The intention of launching this program in Fall 2022 is so that the grant can support a full-year project in 2023 that covers a full growing season, and provide opportunities for multi-seasonal opportunities to engage with and on the land.

CREation is a multi-level funding program that will support strengths-based, community-focused and youth-led projects taking place in communities across Canada. Grassroots and incorporated youth groups/collectives are eligible to apply for funding to support community programs and projects while receiving innovative mentorship, training and capacity-building opportunities. Projects must be led by 3+ Indigenous youth (ages 15-29) who are meaningfully involved in project guidance, planning, implementation and/or evaluation.

Funding Information

$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.

Funding Stream Priorities

There is a priority in this stream to support:

Indigenous grassroots groups and collectives.
Groups that have experience running programming and projects, but are looking to scale to a new level or try something new.
Projects that have an appropriate scale and scope for the funding provided (i.e., engagement numbers and frequency make sense for the funding requested).
Projects that are multi-dimensional (i.e., are doing more than just one thing, and are looking to improve wellness overall).

Project Focus Areas

Successful projects will fall within the following areas:

Community Gardens and Food Knowledge Programming
- Projects that focus on increasing 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.
Digital Land Connections
- Projects will support youth to access food and land teachings in the digital space. This can include online social media campaigns, videos, digital workshops, etc. Projects can be focused on sharing knowledge, but also on preserving knowledge from Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
Land-based Camps and 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.
Sustainable Food Systems
- Projects will focus on revitalizing traditional food systems, including increasing the knowledge of community around preservation and re-emergence. Project can include activities such as improving soil health, mapping territory to identify risk factors (such as chemical run off, invasive species), learning the stories of food, planting projects, and protecting water ecosystems (wild rice revitalization, etc.).

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 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.