Deadline: 27-Oct-22
Applications are now open for the Ontario Autism Program: workforce capacity fund to give grants to service providers and community organizations to help address challenges and transition to delivering service within the needs-based program.
The Ontario Autism Program (OAP) Workforce Capacity Fund is a time-limited, application-based grant program that supports capacity building projects led by children’s service providers and their partners.
The vision of the fund is to grow and develop the autism workforce delivering OAP services so that families in the OAP can access and/or purchase the services they need, where and when they need them.
Objectives
The fund has three broad objectives:
- Staff: build, retain and grow the OAP clinical workforce
- Organizations: increase the skills and knowledge of service provider organizations to deliver OAP services, including core clinical services, and/or to operate within a fee-for-service market
- Delivery models: strengthen service delivery models and approaches to improve service access for families
Streams
The workforce capacity fund provides grants in two funding streams:
- Service provider expansion stream: provides direct financial support to help children’s service providers expand their internal capacity to deliver OAP core clinical services to more children. This stream will provide 12-month grants ranging from $25,000 to $200,000 in value.
- Sector innovation stream: supports capacity-building projects that can lead to system-wide change and innovation at the community, regional or provincial level. This stream will provide 12-month grants ranging from $25,000 to $300,000 in value.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications for the Service Provider Expansion Stream will be accepted from children’s service providers (public and private) who intend to provide any OAP core clinical service (e.g., applied behaviour analysis, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and/or mental health services) in 2023-24 and beyond. For the Expansion Stream, applications will be accepted from single organizations, as well as joint applications from organizations that wish to partner in order to maximize the impact of the grant funding.
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Applications for the Sector Innovation Stream will be accepted from groups of organizations/collaboratives. Individual organizations cannot apply to the Innovation Stream without a broader group of partner organizations. The following organizations are eligible to apply for funding:
- Children’s service providers (public and private)
- Indigenous-led organizations including those who serve off-reserve populations (an Indigenous-led organization is an organization that serves an Indigenous community and whose governance reflects the composition of that community)
- Higher education and training institutions, in partnership with children’s service providers
- Professional associations and regulatory colleges, in partnership with children’s service providers
- Not-for-profit organizations and community groups, in partnership with children’s service provider(s)
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The ministry will prioritize applications that are focused on:
- building core clinical service capacity in northern, rural, and remote communities
- increasing capacity to serve Indigenous and/or francophone families in the OAP
For more information, visit Government of Ontario.
For more information, visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontario-autism-program-workforce-capacity-fund