Land and Food Sovereignty Funding Stream

Deadline: 30-Nov-23

The Indigenous Youth Roots is currently accepting applications for the Land and Food Sovereignty Funding Stream 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.

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.).

Funding Information

Funding of up to $25,000 will be provided.

Eligibility Criteria

Creation will prioritize funding grassroots youth groups consisting of a minimum of 3 Indigenous youth.
Eligible groups and projects include:
- Unincorporated/grassroots youth groups and collectives
- Small, incorporated youth groups (note: IYR defines a small organization as groups that have 1-8 full time employees and an operating budget of less than $500,000)
- Youth Councils
Please note: for the purpose of this program IYR defines Indigenous as status and non-status First Nation, Inuit, and MÈtis peoples in Canada, living both on and off reserve.