CREation Medium Project Funding (Canada)

Deadline: 31-Mar-23

The Canadian Roots Exchange (CREation) through its Medium Project Funding is providing grants to Indigenous youth-led projects and groups non-profits that seek 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.

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.

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 in 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:
- 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

Medium Funding Stream – $30,000 grants

Eligibility Criteria

Funding in this stream 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
- 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