Areas Of Impact
Search Grantee Programs
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PLAY VIDEO"It's All About Us"
North Hastings Community Integration Association, Bancroft
This program engages and educates young women with the goal of violence prevention. The eight-week group sessions will be facilitated to support marginalized women, especially those with disabilities and/or who are living in a rural area. To increase accessibility, transportation to and from the program will be available to those in need.
Grant amount: $12,689
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEO"The Way Out" Work Therapy Program for Survivors of Trauma and/or Abuse
The Castlegar and District Community Services Society
Castlegar, BCThis work-reintegration program aims to help participants build self-confidence and independence after experiences of trauma and/or abuse. In a therapeutic environment, participants develop strategies for adapting to new work placements, and building on their strengths at their own pace. The program seeks to provide barrier-free services to women, 2SLGBTQ+, and non-binary clients.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEO« Moi » le meilleur outil vers la réussite !
PasserElle, Montréal
This funding supports 11 second-stage housing apartments and associated supports for women survivors of domestic violence. These services cater primarily to newcomers and immigrant women who have been isolated, controlled by their former spouses, or are otherwise unfamiliar with the Quebec system. A guidance counsellor works with participants to navigate their settlement, and develop their sense of independence. Through workshops and individual support, women receive support to rebuild their lives.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEO10 Carden Shared Space (10C) & City of Guelph
Nourish Women’s Enterprise Fund
The Nourish Women’s Enterprise Fund will work at the grassroots level in tandem with Nourish by 10C, a kitchen that helps to support women from diverse socio-economic backgrounds in Guelph and Wellington County to develop local food ventures designed to create social outcomes and economic opportunities. The Nourish Women’s Enterprise Fund will provide customized one-to-one project support, kitchen and community facilities and micro-investments to support women in their social/food sector enterprises. 10C believes that this grassroots applied support will be foundational in helping women design, seed, and grow socially sustainable projects, and will provide a strong base to warrant further investment. The Nourish Women’s Enterprise Fund, will empower women to make use of small loans, create social credit through repayment and extend the benefits of their enterprises into community.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEO720 Bruce Women's Community Project
The Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario – La Société Elizabeth Fry du nord-est de l’Ontario
Sudbury, OntarioThe 720 Bruce Women’s Community Project is designed to support women living in a low-income building to build a weekly peer-led women’s group. The project will address gender-based violence and provide an opportunity for women, Two-Spirit, trans and non binary individuals to develop a sense of community, strengthen confidence, and reduce isolation. A series of art-based activities will address gender-based violence and build the knowledge and skills of participants. Participants may choose to receive free Peer Support training to provide appropriate and safe peer support to others in the building.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOACE
Action Jeunesse de l’Ouest-de-l’Île, Sainte-Geneviève
ACE aims to engage and educate young people about healthy relationships through school-based workshops, community events and increased public awareness. The project uses a variety of media to help girls recognize signs of unhealthy relationships and domestic violence, as well as ways to be resilient. Staff maintain strong community partnerships to make any necessary referrals for relevant services.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOAcross Languages
Across Languages Translation and Interpretation Service
London, OntarioAcross Language aims to reduce the isolation of newcomer women and their children when accessing services to deal with abuse or violence. The program will recruit and train community interpreters for onsite and remote requests. It will also work to raise awareness among service providers about pandemic impacts on newcomer and refugee clients.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Economic Development, Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOAcross Languages Translation and Interpretation Service (AL)
InterSight: Community Interpreters Providing Access to Services Via Video As If All Women Are English Speakers
With a dual purpose for social impact, AL plans to expand existing remote interpretation programming by engaging community partners to better serve refugee/newcomer clients. AL has piloted over-the-phone interpretation services through RIO- Remote Interpretation Ontario- with two other non-profit organizations. This pilot was valuable and has convinced AL to build a stronger community plan with a focus on increasing sustainability, anchoring AL’s value proposition, and expanding it to include InterSight, a video option, as a socially responsible alternative in the sector. InterSight would offer immigrant women a level playing field with regards to accessing violence against women services. By providing face-to-face (remote) interpretation services, any woman facing language barriers could walk in, call in, or contact online one of the community partners and communicate clearly and comprehensively as if they are English speakers. Communication is so much more than the spoken word and the visual queues that are lost with telephone interpretation will be safeguarded for women who often find themselves in crisis and seek immediate help and support. InterSight is a service that is intended to save lives
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOAddressing Food Insecurity Within the Le Jalon House Project
Le Mûrier Inc.
Montréal, QuebecThis project engages women living at the Le Jalon house and proposes to implement a three-step learning program on food security. The first step is to establish a 10-week individual home learning workshop facilitated by a volunteer cook. The second step aims to organize a food club in which participants can explore the existing services within the community. The third step will focus on support to implement work-placement programs in the food sector. The project aims to address isolation, social alienation of women at risk of homelessness and to offer workplace integration opportunities.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOAlice House
Alice House
Dartmouth, Nova ScotiaWith programs and services shifting online, Alice House will provide all women living in their safe housing with Wi-Fi and laptops so that residents can continue to access support virtually. This funding will help reduce barriers for women and marginalized communities to access counselling, programs, and other services.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOAll About Kindness Loan Program
Jessie’s – The June Callwood Centre for Women and Families, Toronto, Ontario
The All About Kindness Loan Program provides women who have experienced violence or abuse with access to a specialized doula during their pregnancy, labour, birth and post-partum period. The doula service aims to provide much-needed support to women at a time when they are vulnerable and more likely to return to abusive partners. This program also aims to reduce the risk of post-partum PTSD, mood disorders, and triggering of previous abuse.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Loan FundsGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOAlliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne (AFFC)
AFFC Social Enterprise – Childcare and respite services for caregivers
The AFFC is a feminist organization dedicated to raising awareness of Francophone and Acadian women in their communities, while defending the rights of women in the Canadian Francophonie to live and thrive in French. In order to develop a social finance initiative, the organization will do a market study to validate the profitability of a social enterprise that provides French-language childcare services for parents at conferences in the Ottawa area, as well as French-language respite services for caregivers. This new social enterprise will serve the needs of the community, the women employed, while generating income for AFFC to continue its mission.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOAnderson House Children's Program
Anderson House, Charlottetown
The children’s program at Anderson House helps participants heal from the trauma of family violence, and provides mothers the tools they need to support their children during these difficult times. Public programming for youth on healthy relationships and violence prevention will also be delivered through this program. This grant will allow PEI Family Violence Prevention Services (FVPS) to continue offering a much-needed service to clients with children. It will also ensure that PEI FVPS remains a resource for youth programming in the community.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:Prince Edward IslandProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOAnderson House Children's Program
PEI Family Violence Prevention Services Inc.
Charlottetown, PEIThe Children’s Program at Anderson House is designed to help children of all ages to heal from the trauma of family violence and provide mothers with the tools they need to support their children during these difficult times. Public programming for youth on healthy relationships and violence prevention is also delivered.
Location:Prince Edward IslandProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOANKORS
ANKORS
Nelson, BCANKORS is creating a weekly drop-in service for women, trans, non-binary, and Two Spirit people involved in sex work. Drop-in services will include access to food, clothing, facilities for washing, self-care, health and harm-reduction supplies, community building, educational resources and referral support.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOAnti-Trafficking Coalition & Strategy
YWCA Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia
YWCA Halifax will lead a coalition of organizations to prevent sex trafficking of young women in Nova Scotia. The coalition is made up of representatives from government, community organizations serving women and youth, and survivors of sex trafficking. Together, these groups will address how to prevent sex trafficking, intervene appropriately, and provide support for young women in rebuilding their lives. This will lead to capacity building and more coordination between first responders and service providers. The coalition aims to establish long-term strategies, including prevention programs for at-risk communities, crisis and longer-term housing, counselling and mental health services, advocacy and awareness, and policy development.
Grant amount: $255,170 over 5 yearsLocation:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Sexual Exploitation, Systemic Change, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOArt Starts
OwnIt Jr.
Toronto, ONOwnIt Jr. gives marginalized girls a safe space to connect, share, and explore their potential in an environment where they can communicate honestly about issues that are important to them and develop leadership and life skills through art making in multiple disciplines. Through a variety of artistic explorations with professional artists and mentors, OwnIt Jr. will provide vulnerable girls with opportunities for empowerment, overcoming barriers and stereotypes, personal growth and healthy creative outlets for expression led by strong, responsive, adult female mentors. The program will also partner with our existing OwnIt program for older teen girls to facilitate the development of mentorships and support systems between the pre-teen girls and the young women in their neighbourhoods.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:MentorshipGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOArtista: Imago Theatre's Free Theatre Mentorship Program
Imago Theatre
Montréal, QuebecArtista empowers women aged 16-21 old to tell their own stories, and supports them to bring these stories to the stage. This 15-week, annual program is composed of 15 young participants, three professional artist mentors, and two program directors. Artista participants, mentors, and program directors meet weekly between January and May to share food, engage in discussion, explore storytelling techniques, and collaborate to create theatre, culminating in a public presentation of learning and original work. All activities build independence and confidence in artistic craftsmanship, and offer insight into the diverse facets of Montreal’s theatre industry. Artista’s emerging artists become part of a growing, intergenerational network of artists who support each other throughout their careers, whatever those may be.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:MentorshipGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOAspire
Anderson House, Charlottetown
Using a holistic approach based on the principles of empowerment and strength, this program aims to provide women with the tools and resources needed to break the cycle of violence. Each woman in the program works with a mentor to develop an action plan for improving the quality of her life and achieving self-sufficiency. The action plan addresses issues including risk assessment and safety planning, housing, health and mental health, social assistance benefits, education and training, career development and employment, legal and financial issues. Timelines are tailored to each woman and support groups take place weekly for 8 weeks.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:Prince Edward IslandProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOBattlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre
Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre, North Battleford
These funds enable a counsellor to travel to rural communities in the Centre’s service area, where a safe and confidential space has been identified for meeting with survivors of gender-based violence. This helps reduce transportation barriers for survivors, and eliminates the need for up to 1.5 hours of travel time to reach the Centre.
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOBeauséjour Family Crisis Resource Centre Inc.
Supervised Access and Exchange Centre of Southeast New Brunswick
Shediac, New BrunswickThe Beauséjour Family Crisis Resource Centre works to eliminate family violence and other societal problems through intervention, prevention, and education. This project enables the Centre to create a feasibility analysis and business plan for a social enterprise that provides a safe space for victims of family violence and to have supervised visits and exchanges with abusive former partners/spouses. The goal is to reduce the risk of future violence. Located in Shediac, the access centre will serve families across southeast New Brunswick. The long-term vision for the organization is to launch Access Centres across New Brunswick.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOBeyond Peer Support: Reconceptualizing a Community Empowerment Model for Im/migrant Sex Workers Who Experience Violence
Supporting Women’s Alternatives Network (SWAN Vancouver) Society
Vancouver, BCThis program will build capacity and empower im/migrant women who do sex work to move out of violence and into confidence and leadership via peer-led initiatives. With participants as leaders, women will empower their communities and facilitate sustainable paths to leadership and resistance to address gender-based violence in their personal and professional lives.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOBeyond Trauma Program Delivery
Elizabeth Fry Society Mainland Nova Scotia, Dartmouth
Through its work with women, the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia has observed that many clients struggle with PTSD, substance abuse, and self-harm, often related to experiences of violence, including childhood physical or sexual abuse. This project provides tangible support to women who are marginalized and institutionalized, through the “Beyond Trauma” program. It will offer programming, supports, and resources to help women rebuild their lives after trauma – services that are otherwise difficult to access, and frequently limited to urban areas.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:NunavutProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOBig Hill Haven
Big Hill Haven, Cochrane
Big Hill Haven shelter is committed to creating safer spaces where women and girls can escape gender-based violence and have access to shelter, support, risk assessment, safety planning, advocacy, education and referrals. It also works to challenge attitudes and behaviours that contribute to gender inequality and gender-based violence.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Grant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOBlack Peer Education Network
Black Women in Motion
Toronto, OntarioThis project is dedicated to creating healthy and safe learning spaces for Black youth to dismantle and challenge rape culture and sexual violence within the Black community. It will work with teens across the gender spectrum who are Black or of African descent (including but not limited to Afro-Caribbean, Black-Indigenous and/or Afro-Latinx).
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOBlooming House Women's Shelter
Blooming House Women’s Shelter
Charlottetown, PEIThis funding enables Blooming House to increase hours for the Resource Coordinator to provide essential support to current and past residents as they continue moving forward on their path to independence. Blooming House will also provide additional employee training, as well as free and accessible transportation for residents.
Location:Prince Edward IslandProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOBraiding Sweetgrass: Culturally Informed Trauma Counselling for Indigenous Survivors of Sexualized Violence
PEI Rape & Sexual Assault Centre Inc.
Charlottetown, PEIThis program responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, “to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders where requested by Aboriginal patients,” and to address increased demand for culturally safe trauma therapy for Indigenous women, youth, and 2SLGBTQ+ survivors of sexualized violence. The aim is to pilot this program at the PEI Rape and Sexual Assault Centre urban locations with off-reserve survivors, and to add on-site healing/counselling services for survivors on Lennox Island and Abegweit Mi’kmaq Reserves in partnership with the Aboriginal Women’s Association PEI; and facilitate relationship- and capacity-building between both organizations through sharing knowledge, expertise, and skills.
Location:Prince Edward IslandProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOBrain Injury Association Waterloo-Wellington
Brain Injury Association Waterloo-Wellington
BIAWW IPV-Brain link provides free seminars for those who work with or come into contact with women struggling with the effects of a brain injury (BI) as a result of intimate partner violence (IPV). These seminars provide much-needed awareness about symptoms, manifestations and tools/techniques that lead to a more supportive and positive interaction with an IPV victim during a vulnerable time. This information is beneficial to frontline workers, first responders, friends, family, survivors, and community organizations.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOBridges for Women Society
Market Readiness Investigation
Women affected by trauma can access the support and training they need to become employed through Bridges for Women Society. The organization has delivered these services for 35+ years, and this project aims to explore and implement innovative approaches to online programming – ultimately enabling the organization to better serve women.Grant amount: $50,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOBridging Hope with Indigenous Healing
Hope Resource Centre, Westlock, Alberta
Hope Resource Centre is the only service provider in the Westlock area that offers activities for the Indigenous community. The Bridging Hope program provides culturally sensitive outreach, advocacy and navigation supports to women and children. The program seeks to address barriers including poverty and affordable housing, which can hinder women’s access to services like court support, legal aid, and mental health support. Culturally sensitive services are critical in reducing the marginalization of women this community.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOBuilding Bonds
Alice Housing, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Building Bonds offers support to women and their children who have left domestic violence, in order to reduce the likelihood they will return to abusive relationships. As well, the program helps women to navigate parenting with their abusive ex-partner, and to create a safe home environment for their children.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOBuilding Capacity and Support Groups for Healing from Trauma in South Slave Region
Kátl’odeeche First Nation, Hay River
This project will establish a culturally safe group for women in the Kátł’odeeche First Nation community, where participants can build on their strengths, and heal from trauma and addiction. It will include a series of workshops for women who have experienced violence and trauma, based on a culturally adapted version of Dr. Stephanie Covington’s “Beyond Trauma” program. Through training and mentorship, this project also aims to build the capacity for women in the community to support other women who have experienced trauma.
Grant amount: $12,328
Location:Northwest TerritoriesProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOBuilding Girls Leadership
Multicultural Family Resource Society
Edmonton, AlbertaBuilding Girls Leadership builds on the success and lessons learned from the existing Girls Club program for ages 9-13. This is a pilot leadership project for girls ages 14-18 who are Girls Club alumnae. This program which builds their capacity to lead the development of Girls Club activities. The participants will help guide the program, and they have identified their interest in addressing topics like discrimination response, building confidence in their identity, and supporting others in their community.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOCalgary Immigrant Women’s Association
Information Commons
The Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association will assess the feasibility and market for launching an “Information Commons” as a social enterprise. This online learning centre will boost the capacity of interested organizations to work with newcomer women and support their gender-specific settlement and integration needs. It will also provide toolkits, program designs, best practices/approaches, assessments, and curriculums that have a cross-cultural, gender-specific lens. Resources focus on areas including health literacy, digital literacy, and cross-cultural parenting.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOCanvas Arts Action Programs (CANVAS)
CANVAS online shop and Arts-based product development
CANVAS’s mission is to prevent gender-based and sexual violence, homophobia, and transphobia. They provide life-saving arts-based workshops, consultations and educational programs focused on 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion, consent, healthy relationships, and gender equity. They also run an online shop that sells educational posters, pins, and poetry chapbooks created by in-house artists and program participants. CANVAS plans to adapt and expand the shop, reinvesting its revenue in its mission of increasing 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion and consent education for youth.
Grant amount: $74,607
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOCape Breton Centre for Craft & Design
Cultural Leadership Equity Program
This program is developing cultural leadership hubs to help support and meet the unique needs of women in rural Cape Breton-Unama’ki, in Mi’kmaq and settler communities across the island. In each hub, a cultural leader will coordinate mentorship of women in culture-based skills and small business development while forming a supportive community. Leaders will be guided by an advisory team with expertise to prepare the program, and the social enterprises it nurtures, for investment readiness.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOCareer Connections Program for Women
iSisters Technology Mentoring, Ottawa
This funding allows the Career Connections Program to expand to three local organizations, where it will provide computer and confidence-building skills, resume and job application support, interview skills, and social media for business purposes.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Economic DevelopmentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOcaterToronto and Foodshare Toronto
caterToronto Investment Readiness Preparation
caterToronto is a women-led non profit that addresses systemic issues in the food industry and works to advance food sovereignty, food security, and food justice. They focus on producing self-led food solutions for communities and sustained support for BIPOC and newcomer women launching food businesses. caterToronto, in partnership with Foodshare Toronto, plans to increase their capacity to diversify their revenue, create a more sustainable business model, and create a strategy for social financing and investment.
Grant amount: $74,916
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOCEASE: The Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation
CEASE: The Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation
Edmonton, AlbertaCEASE is piloting an opportunity for up to 25 women to improve their credit status through micro-lending. Participants will learn how to apply for, and repay, loans from financial institutions or micro-lending organizations, through various financial literacy, matched savings, and bursary programs. Participants also learn debt-reduction and management strategies.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Loan Funds, Sexual ExploitationGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOChange the Stats
Inuvik Youth Centre Society, Inuvik
Change the Stats provides girls who are at risk of experiencing gendered violence with a weekly support and action group. In a workshop, the group will explore concepts around violence and abuse, as well as plan monthly actions or events to educate the community or increase access to support for girls experiencing violence/abuse. Each month, the group will work on an art/media project about gendered violence, invite an elder to share their experiences, and engage in cultural activities together.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:Northwest TerritoriesProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOChildren's Homelessness Intervention Project (CHIP)
Welcome Centre Shelter for Women & Families
Windsor, OntarioThe Children’s Homelessness Intervention Project will support hundreds of women-led families and their children who are experiencing homelessness and facing multiple barriers and forms of violence. Through the provision of holistic on-site supports, the Centre will provide counselling, safe space, and recreation to children, while also working one-on-one and in group settings with mothers in shelter. Support to mothers and caregivers will include child-care, advocacy, safety planning, emotional support, transition planning, and support towards finding and maintaining safe housing within the community.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOCircles of Care - Circles of Courage
CMHA – Cowichan Valley & Malahat First Nation
Duncan, British ColumbiaThe Circles of Care-Circles of Courage program offers a safe, respectful, engaging group for girl-identifying members of the Malahat Nation on Vancouver Island. In this environment, girls age 9-13 learn the critical skills they need for resilience, as well as the tools and resources available to them when they face challenges.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, LeadershipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOCity for All Women Initiative (CAWI) and Nepean, Osgoode, Rideau Community Centre (NORCC)
Upskilling For Equity Phase 2: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Training Services
CAWI and NORCC, two community-based organizations, are partnering to scale an existing social enterprise that provides a sliding scale fee-for-service training on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) for non-profits, municipalities, businesses, and corporations. CAWI will train women from diverse communities in workshop facilitation and employ them as facilitators to deliver workshops to organizations on JEDI topics.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOCity for All Women Initiative & Lowertown Community Resource Centre
Upskilling for Equity: Community- and Women-Led Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Training Services
Through this social enterprise project, diverse women – particularly those from marginalized communities – will receive training to facilitate workshops on equity, diversity and inclusion for non-profits, municipalities and businesses. As facilitators, the women will have the opportunity to bring their lived experiences into the workshops, while developing new and transferrable job skills. Revenue from these workshops will supplement Upskilling for Equity training programs for women who are living on a low-income and facing multiple barriers to employment.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOCNC Industrial Mechanic Millwright Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Program for Women
Women’s Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor (WEST), Windsor, ON
This 37-week program facilitates the entry of women without prior experience or knowledge into the millwright/machining trade. In partnership with St. Clair College and UNIFOR, Women’s Enterprise Skills Training provides employment training and support to women living on low incomes and who are unemployed or underemployed. The program includes a 12-week industry work placement, job search, communication skills, and computer literacy training, and wrap-around supports to mitigate barriers to women’s success.
Grant Amount: $257,000 over 4 years
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Skilled TradesGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOConnect Community Resource Program
Crossroads for Women, Moncton
The Connect Community Resource Program is creating and implementing workshops on gender-based violence, healthy relationships, dating and consent for women living with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. Similar workshops will be offered to parents, families, and guardians with children who are living with a disability.
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOConnect2Protect
Boys and Girls Club of Summerside
Summerside, Prince Edward IslandStudents in this healthy relationship program start each session with a home-cooked meal. It is open to youth of all gender identities and backgrounds and focuses on inclusion. Younger participants (Grades 7-9) cover topics including: how values and media influence identity; setting boundaries; healthy vs. unhealthy relationships, assertive communication, consent, and developing a personal safety plan. Older participants (Grades 10-12) focus on: healthy relationship characteristics; how to use personal power and participate in social activism; the impact of sexting; violence in relationships; conflict resolution and dating violence prevention.
Location:Prince Edward IslandProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOConstruire un monde sans violence
Corporation de l’Inter-Elles, Québec, Quebec
This project aims to foster positive relationships and trust between mothers and children who have experienced domestic violence. With this goal in mind, artistic projects will provide an outlet for expression in a supportive environment. Together, women and children will be encouraged to create inspiring messages through art projects that will be used in an outreach and awareness campaign that promotes non-violent relationships.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOCooperative Unime and Projet 10 / Project 10
“Buy One, Give One” – Increasing and diversifying our reach and impact
Project10, a service provider and advocacy organization for 2SLGBTQI+ youth, and Coop Unime, a non-profit cooperative focused on education, sexuality, and health, are collaborating to promote and expand Coop Unime’s six-month celebratory sex and relationship program through their app and interactive workshops, weekly resources, and supportive video calls. The project intends to take the “Buy One, Give One” (BOGO) approach with stakeholders to increase sales, expand their impact and diversify revenues for their programming, services, and training courses, while offering free participation to women, non-binary, and gender-queer people in underserved communities.
Grant amount: $74,970
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOCourt Support Program
Coverdale Courtwork Society
Halifax, NSThe Court Support Program will provide direct services to women, trans and non-binary folks who are navigating the criminal and family justice system by providing information, triage, navigation, assistance with applications, court support, education and awareness, advocacy and personal development programming. This program will focus on improving access to justice for criminalized and victimized women, trans and non-binary persons with a specific focus on racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOCulturally-Inclusive Mentorship and Leadership Program for Young Women of Colour
Youth Ottawa (Child & Youth Friendly Ottawa)
Ottawa, OntarioThis project focuses on researching, developing and piloting a sustainable leadership and mentorship program for young women of colour aged 15-25. It will combine the lived experiences of women of colour with professional leadership development support to create culturally appropriate leadership training, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, MentorshipGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOCybermentor
Cybermentor, University of Calgary
Calgary, AlbertaCybermentor is an online mentorship program that matches girls age 11-18 with successful female role models who work or study in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) fields. Due to the unique online e-mentoring model, Cybermentor is able to reach girls from underserved populations including girls who live in rural and remote areas, and Indigenous girls. Cybermentor also provides free hands-on STEAM workshops led by experts to girls and youth across Alberta with classrooms, libraries, and partnered organizations. Cybermentor is expanding capacity to address the gaps in representation of folks with diverse identities and experiences in STEAM education programs and careers; to address this need, we are launching a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:STEMGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEODames Making Games (DMG) and Centre for Art Tapes
Damage Labs Founders Fund Hybrid Capital Initiative
DMG Toronto was formed to provide safe spaces to discuss, play, and make games in a feminist and intersectional cultural context. It is a non-profit video game and interactive arts organization with a mission to provide enthusiastic community support to individuals historically underrepresented in and excluded from games both as an art form and an industry. DMG Toronto, in coordination with the Centre for Art Tapes, plans to create a self-sustaining Founders Fund for Damage Labs to create financial stability for marginalized creators interested in building games studios. Damage Labs’ mission is to eliminate barriers to starting and sustaining game studios owned and led by members of marginalized communities.
Grant amount: $63,100
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEODames Making Games & Toronto Media Arts Centre
Damage Labs
Dames Making Games will incubate game studios led by founders from marginalized and underrepresented communities. Participants, all from gender-marginalized identity groups, will receive expert and peer mentorship on: incorporation and business development; planning, production and marketing of games; and coaching on how to seek social finance investment. Guidance will focus on ethical labour practices, alternative financing, and cooperative corporate structures. This project aims to seed a new ecosystem for the financing and sustainability of independent games, and empower studios to use social financing and extend the benefits of their art into new communities.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEODecember 6th Fund
YWCA Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia
The December 6th Fund provides interest-free loans to women leaving situations of abuse. These loans of up to $500 help reduce barriers to leaving abusive relationships, by enabling women to cover essentials like damage deposits for housing, outstanding bills, utility deposits, and first-month’s rent.
Grant amount: $18,040Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Loan Funds, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEODeveloping and Coaching Peers to Success
Sistering
Toronto, OntarioThis program provides leadership training to women and Trans peer workers who have lived experiences of trauma, mental health and addictions, and those marginalized by poverty and homelessness. Sistering will research, test, and share documentation of this new leadership program, which is designed to work in a low-barrier environment and support participants who work in their community to promote and support harm-reduction practices and develop strategies to support victims of violence who are homeless or precariously housed.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEODévelopper la formation à distance pour mieux intervenir auprès des femmes victimes de violence conjugale
Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale, Montréal
The Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale is a provincial association that represents more than 40 member women’s shelters. This project centers on strengthening the capacities of shelter workers to defend the rights of victims of domestic violence and to support them in their process of taking back their power. This project aims to integrate techno-pedagogy by adapting the content of one of our courses to online and webinar formats. As requested by member shelters, The Feminist Intervention training includes theory and practice, fostering learning of intervention principles and strategies from a feminist approach. Our project will also compile and upgrade existing knowledge of our shelters to the new learning platforms. This transition to virtual learning will make it easier and more effective for the organization to reach workers in partner shelters and, possibly, those from unaffiliated shelters and partners.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEODigital Skills at Long Lake 58
Long Lake 58, ON
This First-Nation-led education program prepares women for the digital economy by equipping them with skills to work remotely from their own community in the burgeoning tech sector. Over the course of six months, participants receive a hands-on, project-based, and community-focused foundation in online productivity tools, web development, e-commerce, digital marketing, and creative computing. After a mentored internship, students will receive guidance on future paths, including an opportunity to continue working as mentors of this program.
Grant Amount: $260,000 over 4 years.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Mentorship, STEMGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEODisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN) & Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW)
VOX: A Human Rights Consortium
DAWN envisions the creation of a social enterprise comprised of a consortium of experts from rights-based and policy organizations who provide a range of services to the federal public service, unions and industries that are under federal jurisdiction and federal human rights legislation. Canada has recently passed the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) which aims to reduce barriers to Canadians with disabilities. There is increasing recognition of the need for complex and nuanced responses to social inclusion that go beyond any single aspect of identity and that any approach to inclusion must consider all factors which lead to exclusion and marginalization. There is an immediate need to educate and train the federal public service and the implicated private sector on how to apply an intersectional analysis to outward-facing policies, programs and services, as well as how to manage the recruitment and retention of employees with disabilities to meet their obligations under the ACA.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEODistance Counselling, Outreach and Education Program
Dragonfly Counselling and Support Centre, Bonnyville
The Dragonfly Counselling & Support Centre works to end the cycle of sexual assault and abuse through specialized, culturally sensitive interventions, counselling, and education. This grant will expand the Centre’s reach, making sexual violence services and supports available to women and children in remote and rural regions of northeast Alberta.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEODress for Success Ottawa National Capital Region
Improving the Social Fabric
Dress for Success Ottawa is part of a global non-profit network that supports women’s economic independence by providing clients with professional attire, pre-employment supports and employment-related programming. This project will provide an analysis of the market for recycled textiles, aiming to identify social enterprise opportunities for local affiliates of Dress for Success. These potential social enterprises would better capitalize on donated clothing and divert recyclable materials from landfills, while providing employment and job training opportunities for women, and generating income to support more employment programs for local women.
Grant amount: $48,364
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEODRIVEN: Reducing Transportation Barriers for Women who are Seeking Support for Gender Based Violence
Catholic Family Services of Durham
Oshawa, OntarioDRIVEN provides women who have experienced abuse and/or violence with an efficient and effective system of co-located services to facilitate access to supports and enhance service quality. This project with allow DRIVEN to continue to provide transportation services for women so they can access services.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEODurham Rape Crisis Centre
Durham Rape Crisis Centre, Oshawa
These funds will be used to meet the Centre’s increasing need for crisis services by survivors of sexual violence. They will enable the hire of an additional intake counsellor and the provision of honoraria for the volunteers who support the 24/7 crisis line.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOEduCare and Delta Family Resource Centre
My Power App
EduCare is a social enterprise that improves graduation outcomes for students with disabilities through a tech-enabled platform that connects post-secondary institutions and healthcare providers. EduCare, in collaboration with Delta Family Resource Centre, plans to launch the My Power App designed for girls between 12-20 years old across Canada to close the gap on advanced digital skills and new technologies for individuals from low-income and other marginalized communities.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOElizabeth Fry Society Kamloops and District
Women’s Employment and Empowerment Program
The purpose of this initiative is to create a food-based social enterprise for women facing barriers to employment in the Kamploops and District area. At this early stage of investment readiness, Elizabeth Fry plans to conduct a social enterprise feasibility study and business development planning. This planning process will identify a viable business opportunity to pursue in the next phase of the initiative with a well-grounded approach for success.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOElizabeth Fry Society Mainland Nova Scotia (EFMNS) and ElevateHER
The Abundance Store
EFMNS works to break the cycles that lead to criminalization by offering critical supports for transitional housing, programming both in jail and in the community to help develop essential life skills, and a range of court navigation services to provide underserved communities with the access to justice they deserve. ElevateHER provides individual and group mental health support services to those who identify as women and their families. In coordination with ElevateHER, EFMNS plans to expand The Abundance Store, an employment equity initiative designed to address gender-based poverty. The Abundance Store will grow to include an online store in addition to the existing storefront. The Abundance Store employs individuals with criminal records, a population that is historically disadvantaged in the labour market. Employees will be offered workshops and opportunities to gain professional experience such as resume-building and interviewing skills and enhance employment skills as they are supported on their journeys to economic security.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOEm(Power) and Allyship
Sexual Assault Centre of Waterloo Region
Kitchener, OntarioTeens in this program address and explore the root causes of gender-based violence, including power and privilege, toxic masculinity, racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and ableism. Participants will develop healthy relationship skills, as well as advocacy, allyship, and bystander intervention strategies so they know how to respond to harmful behaviours. After the 10-week program, youth leaders will have the skills they need to continue the group as a club.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOEmployment My Way
YWCA Moncton
Employment My Way enables women’s economic independence through self-employment. It assists in training women to research and write a thorough business plan for their micro and small business ideas. Using a gender-based approach, specific barriers and challenges that women face in the workforce and as entrepreneurs will be identified. Additional supports are in place to enable women to succeed in starting or building an enterprise. YWCA Moncton delivers this program in both official languages, English and French, as per group needs.
Grant Amount: $325,000 over five years
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Self EmploymentGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOEmpowered Youth
Amelia Rising Sexual Assault Centre of Nipissing
Nipissing, OntarioThe Empowered Youth Program will increase teens’ understanding of healthy relationships (with intimate partners, family, friends, community and self) through education, counselling, and a support group. It also seeks to address the gap in local services for those who identify as 2SLGBTQ+, and who may be facing isolation and/or abuse. The program raises teens’ awareness and fosters a culture of consent, equity, respect, safety, and resilience.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOEmpowering Action: Building Sex Workers' Capacity for a Provincial Bad Date Reporting System
Collingwood Neighbourhood House
Vancouver, British ColumbiaThis project responds to the need for a safe, provincial system for sex workers to report bad dates – clients whose behaviour raises concerns about safety. Bad date and aggressor reporting (BDAR) is a grassroots response to legal and social barriers, such as sex work stigma, fear of police, and the inadequacy of the criminal justice system to address the risks sex workers face. A BDAR system allows workers to report violence or safety concerns to peers, outreach workers or online databases, and make it available to other sex workers. As sex workers move to work or live in other communities, having a coordinated provincial system is imperative to ensure safety. This project will help sex workers build capacity and leadership skills to determine how a provincial BDAR system should work, participate in government consultations and engagement opportunities, and implement a province-wide network once designed.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Leadership, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOEmpowering Indigenous Women for Stronger Communities (EIWFSC) and Qalipu Cultural Foundation (QCF)
Dragonfly Moons
EIWFSC is a province-wide collaborative partnership with the Inuit, Southern Inuit, Innu and Mi’kmaq people that focuses on ending gender-based violence, provide mental health services and provide culturally based programming for economic and financial stability. QFC preserves and promotes the culture and heritage of the Mi’kmaq people of Newfoundland. Both organizations are collaborating to continue the development of Dragonfly Moons, a social enterprise led by Indigenous women that provide workshops and training for the community. EIWFSC will market education, expand public awareness of Indigenous people and culture in the province, refine their market assessment and advance their business plan.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOEmpowering Warriors Project
Springtide Resources, Toronto, Ontario
The Empowering Warriors Project supports women with disabilities and Deaf women who face multiple barriers to rebuilding their lives after experiencing violence and poverty. The project will prioritize women who identify as black, Indigenous, and/or people of colour. Through a series of 8-week leadership development workshops, this project empowers this demographic of survivors in community-building and rebuilding their lives. The primary goal of the Empowering Warriors Project is to create fully accessible supports for survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors. Topics include safety planning, self-care, assertiveness skills, leadership skills, and healthy relationships. Participants will have the opportunity to take on planning, facilitation, and leadership roles in the workshops.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOEngaged Creative Arts Groups for Victims of Conjugal Violence
Le Bouclier D’Athena / The Shield of Athena, Montréal, Quebec
In this program for survivors of domestic violence, an art therapist facilitates projects that allow clients to express themselves in a group setting and feel supported. Art therapy offers a safe way for survivors to share experiences that are difficult to articulate. Creating art also helps survivors to alleviate the effects of trauma, regain a sense of control, normalize stigmatized experiences, and discover new strengths and abilities. Participants may develop a trusting and safe relationship with the art therapist, which promotes their healing and supports them in rebuilding their lives.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOEntrepreNorth
MakeWay
EntrepreNorth’s mission is to empower northern community-based and Indigenous entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses and livelihoods across Northern Canada through a 6-month, cohort-based support program. EntrepreNorth supports entrepreneurs in the post-launch, early stage phase who are working to overcome barriers to business growth. Program participants come from all three territories—Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut—and are primarily from remote communities outside of the capital cities. The program’s vision is to support Indigenous-focused businesses that strengthen Northern ways of life. MakeWay is a project on Tides Canada’s Shared Platform.
Grant Amount: $260,000 over 4 years
Location:Northwest Territories, Nunavut, YukonProgram Focus:Leadership, Mentorship, Self EmploymentGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOEstablishing Community Partnerships for a Victim Advocate Program for Survivors of Sexual Violence
Sexual Violence New Brunswick
Fredericton, New BrunswickThis project builds toward establishing a victim advocate program that supports survivors of sexual violence throughout the justice process. It aims to enhance and formalize partnerships with key criminal justice services, such as police, government victim services, and other community agencies. This project will explore similar victim advocate programs in Canada as models for program delivery.
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOExpanding The Reach: To Address Violence Against Women with Disabilities
Scarborough Women’s Centre
Scarborough, OntarioThis program addresses gender-based violence experienced by women with visible and invisible disabilities in several key ways. It offers women with disabilities the opportunity increase their awareness of disability and gender-based violence, and to develop leadership skills. It will also develop training opportunities and resources that build service providers’ capacity to become more inclusive in offering services for women with disabilities who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing violence.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOFamily Court Support Program
YWCA Sudbury, Sudbury, Ontario
Through the Family Court Support Program, survivors of abuse get help navigating the family court system so they can rebuild their lives. Women receive assistance with legal paperwork, and receive referrals that help them explore their options. When women need to attend legal appointments and/or appear in court, the program provides someone to accompany and support them. Other services include safety planning and much-needed emotional support.
Grant amount: $21,800Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOFamily Court Support Program
Lanark County Interval House, Carleton House, Ontario
The Family Court Support Program provides support to victims of domestic violence who are involved in the family court process. The program offers information about the process, preparation for proceedings, support with court paperwork, referrals to other specialized services and resources in the community, help with safety planning, such as getting to and from court safely, and accompaniment to court proceedings. Through the program, there is oversight and coordination of the volunteer program (including ongoing training opportunities), and advocacy for change to better address women’s safety and support in the family court process. This includes working closely with rural lawyers, legal aid services, and court officials.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOFemme(at)work
reachAbility Association
Halifax, Nova Scotiatfemme(at)work is a program designed to provide femme identifying folks a safe and inclusive place to gain the skills and supports needed to identify a path to employment. Participants can expect not only curriculum but access to a peer mentor who will not only be a participant in the program but provide clear guidance in best practices to instructors and participants alike.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Economic DevelopmentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOFemmes Autochtones du Quebec / Quebec Native Women
Femmes Autochtones du Québec / Quebec Native Women
Kahnawake, QuebecDeeply rooted in our society, systemic racism and inequalities are manifested in education, housing, employment, the economy, and the under-representation of Indigenous people in management and leadership positions. Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by systemic racism, and face discrimination both as women and as Indigenous people. It is from these statements that Quebec Native Women understands the importance of providing a guide and practical tools to enable Indigenous women to recognize systemic racism when they encounter it and to actively combat it by knowing their rights and recourses.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOFirst Light - The St. John’s Native Friendship Centre Association
Indigenous Training Module Enhancement Project
First Light has had an exponential increase in the number of requests from social workers, legal aid, and other public servants in the justice field, and plans to design modules that include local examples and statistics that will have the greatest impact on their work. This investment will provide the opportunity to develop four new modules to enhance the current Cultural Diversity Training package. These topics will include intergenerational trauma, systemic violence, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and family structures and parenting. A gender lens will be applied to new modules, and the outcomes should indicate that participants in the training will have an improved understanding of how the topics outlined above impact Indigenous women and girls differently. Additionally, participants will indicate that they understand how their new knowledge can be applied to their work so that they can better support Indigenous Women and Girls.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOFlaunt It Movement (Flaunt-It) and Success Beyond Limits (SBL)
Flaunt It Movement’s BIPOC/Women-Led Visual Anthology Production
Flaunt-It, a youth-led social purpose organization that fosters self-love and leadership opportunities for young women of intersectional identities and their mentor Success Beyond Limits, a community-based movement in the Jane-Finch area of Toronto, are collaborating to produce their second visual anthology, it will highlight multidisciplinary art projects by emerging artists to challenge barriers faced by youth in underserved communities, as well as offer employment, train emerging talent and strengthen their community’s capacity to pursue career goals.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOFlaunt It Movement and Success Beyond Limits
Flaunt It Movement’s Magazine: Compilation of Stories, Art and Love by Women of Colour
North York, OntarioThe Flaunt It Movement is a youth-led grassroots arts organization that fosters self-love and representation of women through creative, community projects. Success Beyond Limits, is a charity organization and community-based movement that provides youth in the Jane-Finch area with holistic educational supports. They will develop a magazine project led by the Flaunt It Movement, to challenge barriers faced by youth in the community, providing arts and leadership opportunities. The magazine will highlight artwork by youth, as well as offer employment, train emerging talent, and strengthen participants’ capacity to pursue career goals.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOFora: Network for Change
Elevate by Fora
Fora is a centre of excellence for young women’s leadership development. Their mission is to advance the full participation of young women leaders in decision-making spaces in order to change the status quo. Elevate by Fora is a social enterprise offering customized training that empowers young women and gender-diverse individuals a pathway to navigate leadership in corporate spaces. Sessions for groups of 10-50 participants provide practical training for junior professionals who do not yet identify as leaders and want to grow their leadership skills and capacity. The project is designed for corporations committed to addressing the gender gap in their leadership.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOFOXY: Fostering Open eXpression among Youth
FOXY: Fostering Open eXpression among Youth, Yellowknife
FOXY provides culturally competent, healthy relationship programming that focuses on consent, conflict resolution, safety planning, sexual health, and mental health education. This funding supports FOXY workshops, which serve Northern and Indigenous young women, two-spirit, trans, and non-binary youth between the ages of 12-17 based in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon.
Location:Northwest TerritoriesProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOFramework for Addressing Violence and Resistance in Context
Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society, Watson Lake
This project develops and delivers a series of workshops to strengthen awareness of response-based practice among front-line community agencies responding to violence against women and broader social justice issues. These workshops bring an understanding of response-based practice among Indigenous women who have missing or murdered loved ones. The activities will also provide an opportunity for the Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society and Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Circle to submit solutions for changing the federal and territorial systems, and social services that hinder women from rebuilding their lives.
Grant amount: $22,800
Location:YukonProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOFresh Start Services For Women
Fresh Start Services For Women
St. John, New BrunswickThis grant will be used to fund the hiring of front desk staff who receive calls and walk-ins, and provide immediate resources and supports to those experiencing intimate partner violence. These staff allow us to better meet the immediate needs of women, Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people when they reach out for assistance.
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOFrom Compassion to Action: A Volunteer Engagement Program
Beauséjour Family Crisis Resource Centre, Shediac NB
This grant enables Beausejour Family Crisis Resource Centre to establish and implement a volunteer management system that includes a recruitment strategy, training manual, policies and protocols. By engaging women leaders in rural communities as volunteers, this system will allow the Centre to expand its reach and services. It will also ensure that volunteers understand the impact of gender-based violence in a rural context, and how they can support women’s empowerment and well-being
Grant amount: $21,210
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOFrom Safety Planning to Safety Assessment: Enhancing Risk Management in the Lives of Women and their Children
Juniper House, Yarmouth
This project will integrate the safety assessment and risk management approach used by The Redwood, which offers shelter and support services to women and children, to optimize service at Juniper House. This grant enables Juniper House to research and identify the supports needed by women in the rural Nova Scotia area. This process of integrating The Redwood’s approach will include consulting with The Redwood staff, training Juniper House staff on this approach, and working with the management and Board to develop policies that support this shift. Juniper House will share its work with the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, to explore the use of this approach across the province.
Grant amount: $17,500
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOFrom Violence to Freedom: Supporting women flourish beyond their experience of violence
Dixon Transition Society, Burnaby (Serving Burnaby and the Lower Mainland)
From Violence to Freedom helps women flourish beyond their experience of violence. The program offers guidance for parenting children who have witnessed violence, and helps to rebuild self-esteem as parents. One set of workshops offered three times a year provides information on how violence affects children and how to support children who have witnessed or experienced violence. Another set of workshops on building healthy boundaries, practicing mindfulness and rebuilding self-confidence will be offered three times throughout the year to support women in creating healthy homes for their children.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOFunding parity among shelters
National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence/Cercle National des Autochtones Contre La Violence Familiale
Kahnawake, QuebecThe National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence, in partnership with Women’s Shelters Canada, is undertaking a comparative study on three to four different areas of the country to address the level of disparity in funding between federally-funded, on-reserve women’s shelters and provincially-funded, off-reserve women’s shelters. In order to advocate for systemic change, there is a strong need for empirical evidence. The research obtained will be used as a lobbying tool with various levels of government in order to close the funding gap, if an inequity truly does exist.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOG(irls) 20
Future Leaders
G(irls)20 is a charity that advances the participation of young women leaders in decision-making spaces. Future Leaders is a social enterprise that aims to increase the number of diverse women leaders in the corporate sector, through two leadership training streams:
Stream 1: Leadership training for young women-identifying and non-binary individuals between 18-35 who, despite their aspirations for leadership, are hesitant to put themselves forward for leadership roles. This training will include both hard and soft leadership skills.
Stream 2: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity training for corporate leaders at a director level and higher, who are interested in implementing equity-focused changes but do not have the knowledge and/or tools to take appropriate action.Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOGender Affirmation Aid Project
Chroma: Pride, Inclusion, Equality, St. John
Gender diverse and transgender people often face daily risk of harassment, discrimination, and possibly violence when their identification does not match with their internal identity or external presentation. The Gender Affirmation Aid project will support and mentor participants through the gender marker and name-change process, as well as covering applicable fees, with the goal of raising awareness and reducing gender-based discrimination.
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOGirl Power, Girl Force
The Women’s Centre of Calgary
Calgary, AlbertaThe Women’s Centre of Calgary creates spaces for girls to build a sense of community, explore issues in their lives, foster activism, and leadership. The Girl Power and Girl Force programs run as summer camps and after-school programs or girls from Grades 5 to 9. The Centre also holds annual events to help girls connect across programs and get involved with the community.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOGirl Power'd
Girl Power’d, Toronto
Girl Power’d seeks to empower young black girls through gymnastics and dance programming that boosts their physical skills and mental well-being. It will also support girls who want to pursue gymnastics on a competitive level.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Girls' empowerment, Physical LiteracyGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOGirls Can ...
Mini University
Brandon, ManitobaGirls Can … engages participants in science through interactive, fun, and non-judgmental activities. Projects include programming robots, 3D printing, cooking, digital music, media literacy, floor hockey and more – all with a science twist. Girls can also participate in equine-assisted learning that uses horses in experiential learning. The overall aim is to open participants’ eyes to their opportunities in science, school and life, and to challenge preconceptions of “what girls can do.”
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Leadership, STEMGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOGirls Code
ElevateHER
East Mountain, Nova ScotiaThis program offers a supportive and confidence-building environment, where girls, trans, genderqueer, gender non-binary, and Two-Spirit participants can come together to deal with the issues they’re facing. The participants will discover their true potential, develop independence and identity as they build healthy relationships with mentors aged 16 to 19.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:MentorshipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOGirls Count
SuperNOVA
Halifax, Nova ScotiaThe Girls Count program combines weekly educational programming with continued mentorship to target gender disparity within mathematics through an exploration of STEM fields for girls in grades 6-8. The program will empower girls and women to be passionate, informed, and confident in their mathematics abilities by connecting participants with positive female mentors from related fields through weekly engagements. Lessons will build critical mathematics skills that promote confidence and literacy in related areas such as physics, engineering, and finance. Through team-based activities, skill-building workshops, individual problem solving, mentorship and guest presentations, participants will be exposed to fun, hands-on experiences in mathematics, leaving lasting and positive impressions of STEM as they consider their future academic and professional career paths.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Mentorship, STEMGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOGirls EQ: Revive, Renew, Reconnect
Lady Ballers Camp
Brampton, OntarioGirls EQ: Revive, Renew, Reconnect addresses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of Black girls from low-income neighbourhoods. The program will support girls with access to physical activities, while incorporating education to promote mental and emotional wellness. A counsellor crisis-line will provide support via text and/or phone. Participants can develop coping strategies through a basketball-based program, and mindfulness through yoga. They will also learn about nutrition, sleep hygiene, body positivity, healthy relationships, sexual health and gender-based violence, as well as how to connect with professional supports and resources.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Girls' empowermentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOGirls Group
Comox Valley Transition Society
Courtenay, British ColumbiaGirls Group is a supportive environment where girls who are marginalized for a variety of reasons can explore their unique experiences and gain knowledge and skills for healthy relationships and a healthy self. The group format is interactive, incorporating discussion and expressive arts. Through Girls Group, participants develop increased awareness and respect for diversity and for their own ability to become leaders and activists in preventing violence. Graduates are invited to participate in peer facilitation training where they gain the skills to co-facilitate the group with an adult facilitator.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOGirls Speak Out Project (GSOP)
Women’s Multicultural Resource and Counselling Centre, Pickering ON
Through education, leadership, and school outreach, this after-school program aims to prevent violence against marginalized and isolated girls. The Girls Speak Out Project will raise awareness about gender-based violence as well as build participants’ skills and knowledge about creating healthy relationships. It will also foster youth empowerment by encouraging participants to lead violence-prevention activities at school and in the community.
Grant amount: $22,948
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOGirls without Barriers
DisAbled Women’s Network DAWN
Montreal, QuebecGirls without Barriers project aims to encourage girl-serving organizations to examine and address the underlying causes and consequences of ableism/audism and their intersection with other systems of oppression from intersectional, feminist and cross-disability lenses. A key project activity in this phase will be to conduct focus groups and empirical story-based research with girls with disabilities and/or Deaf, focusing on more marginalized groups (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and racialized girls with disabilities). This will inform the development of narrative-based materials, including facilitation guides for service providers who deliver programs for girls. The guides will include facilitation tips, peer-support skills and tools for girls, informational sheets on ableism and how it intersects with other systems of oppression.
Location:NationalProgram Focus:Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOGiving Voice to Their Truth: Trauma and Violence Informed Interpreting (TVII) for Survivors of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking
Across Languages Translation and Interpretation Service, London & Southwest Ontario
Giving Voice to Their Truth provides training support to Violence Against Women (VAW) interpreting. This grant funds an update to the training program designed to prepare interpreters for their role of interpreting for women’s experiences through an anti-oppression/ feminist framework. By incorporating a trauma- and violence-informed approach, the goal is to improve interpretation services for women and girls who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault and/or human trafficking.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Sexual ExploitationGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOGo Girls – Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies
Big Brothers Big Sisters Lacombe and District
This funding allows Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lacombe to expand a girls’ mentoring program across numerous schools in the region. The Go Girls – Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies program engages Grade 5 students in discussions and activities covering mindfulness, body image, self-esteem, healthy eating, physical activity, and relationships. The program also builds on girls’ social skills, time management, boundary-setting, and sense of empowerment.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Girls' empowerment, MentorshipGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOGo Girls!
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Cowichan Valley
Duncan, British ColumbiaGo Girls! offers group mentoring opportunities to girls, with a particular focus on those facing additional barriers to building confidence and strong mental health because of traumatic experiences. The program matches groups of girls age 11-13 with two women mentors, and follows a national curriculum that is delivered at almost 80 schools. It addresses issues including media influence and stereotypes, peer pressure, and sexual exploitation, while bolstering protective factors such as self-esteem, social connections, critical thinking, and resilience. At least 40 per cent of participants identify as Indigenous, so cultural supports are incorporated into the program.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, MentorshipGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOGo Thrive Go Inc. and Amelia Rising Sexual Assault Centre of Nipissing
Launching Thrive self-therapy app of affordable, accessible, and customized resources for survivors of abuse and trauma
Go Thrive Go Inc. aims to empower survivors of abuse and trauma with a digital platform that offers support to heal, recover, and ultimately, thrive. Go Thrive Go Inc., with the support of Amelia Rising Sexual Assault Centre of Nipissing, will launch Thrive, a self-therapy app for survivors of abuse and trauma. Thrive will provide affordable, accessible, and customized resources and address the unique challenges and existing gaps in care for survivors. The Thrive app has been designed by professional therapists, psychologists, and trauma experts. It will provide an affordable therapy support option to complement community support, helplines, and other forms of therapy. It is designed to be accessible any time and is fit for long-term use.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOGRIS-Québec
GRIS-Québec
Trans and non-binary people face a disproportionate risk of gender based violence. This project offers supportive environments for sharing their experiences, and focus on survivor-led intervention approaches that contribute to ending gender-based violence.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOGrowing Opportunities Farm Community Coop and Nanaimo Association for Community Living (NACL)
Farm Gate Crate – Feeding the Community
Growing Opportunities Farm Co-op focuses on alleviating poverty, creating meaningful employment, and mitigating climate change through sustainable and equitable food system development. NACL provides services and programs to people with development disabilities (“diversabilities”), including employment services. Both organizations will work together to scale a self-sustaining women-led social enterprise to increase accessibility to farming and fresh produce by providing training and employment opportunities for people with diversabilities in the growing and distribution of fresh, local produce.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOGrowing Together
Envision Counselling and Support Centre Inc., Estevan & rural Southeast Saskatchewan
This grant supports the creation and implementation of a new program within the Children Exposed to Violence Program. Called Growing Together, the new program offers a collaborative counselling approach for mothers and children who are rebuilding their lives following violence and abuse. Through 10 counselling sessions, the program builds parental skills and improves the parent/child relationship, while the child attends therapy sessions. Each session provides parenting strategies that parents can practice between appointments. Growing Together is tailored to the needs of rural mothers and children in the region.
Grant amount: $22,250
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOGuelph Community Health Centre
Scaling Up Groceries from the SEED
Groceries from The SEED is the Guelph Community Health Centre (GCHC)’s flagship social enterprise designed to increase access to nutritious foods among households facing food insecurity. It is the first sliding scale online grocery store in Canada with the goal of making Guelph-Wellington the first community in Canada where everyone has access to good food. GCHC plans to do this by delivering food programs and operating social enterprises to increase access to healthy food, train and employ youth, and generate revenue for reinvestment. Groceries from the SEED pay-what-you-choose pricing model means choice and dignity for people of all incomes while shopping for high quality groceries that are delivered to their door.
Grant amount: $73,350
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOHealing Journey Through the Arts
First Stop Woodlawn – YWCA Toronto, Toronto
This grant enables an innovative arts-based healing module to be added to an existing discussion program for mothers and children who are dealing with domestic violence. In Healing Journey Through the Arts, a specialized facilitator will lead participants in a one-year project that offers tools and strategies for expressing emotions in meaningful ways. Using art as an outlet can create emotional safety while reducing the risk of re-traumatization.
Grant amount: $19,690
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOHealthy Futures
Second Stage Safe Haven
Saint John, New BrunswickThe Healthy Futures project promotes and cultivates healthy relationships, communities, and safe spaces for teens in New Brunswick. It provides educators, guidance counsellors and facilitators in middle schools with training and resources and delivers healthy relationship programming to rural and urban students in both official languages. The project also trains high-school facilitators working with vulnerable youth, and youth who identify as 2SLGBTQ+. Working with partners, Healthy Futures also aims to determine effective intervention strategies for cyber bullying and sexual assault.
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOHealthy Relationships for Trans, 2-Spirit, Non-binary, Gender-Nonconforming Youth
Centre for Sexuality
Calgary, AlbertaThis project aims to build a program that creates a safe and welcoming space for gender non-conforming and non-binary youth to: explore their identities; experience a sense of belonging and acceptance; and develop healthy relationship skills. This will empower youth who are often marginalized to recognize and prevent abusive relationships and advance gender equity.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOHealthy Relationships for Youth
Second Stage Safe Haven Inc, Saint John
Healthy Relationships for Youth will deliver the Fourth R’s Healthy Relationships Program to grade 8 students in Saint John and surrounding rural areas. The Fourth R program was founded on the belief that relationship knowledge should be taught alongside the other 3 “R’s” – reading, writing and arithmetic. It aims to prevent dating violence, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence. Each of schools will host 28 one-hour, interactive sessions to engage students in discussions, activities, and practice leadership. Students get the chance to provide their input and feedback, while exploring topics related to violence prevention and healthy relationships.
Grant amount: $18,000
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOHelping Children Thrive: Supporting Women Abuse Survivors as Mothers
St. John’s Women’s Centre/Marguerite’s Place, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador
Helping Children Thrive supports mothers who are leaving situations of domestic violence to develop effective parenting skills. This 12-week program helps mothers understand how domestic violence can undermine their parenting and offers alternative strategies in a safe and supportive environment. The overall goal is to strengthen families and stop the cycle of intergenerational violence. Participants develop improved mental, physical, and emotional health, which manifests as higher confidence, a stronger sense of belonging and community connections, as well as an improved ability to parent.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOHERd Zine League
LUSO Community Services
London, ONHERd Zine League builds participants’ media literacy skills, encouraging them to think critically about how commercial media promotes gender stereotypes. Girls also learn how to use zines and other media to promote positive, empowering images and messages. Participants will use their own talents – writing, drawing, collage, and poetry – to produce zines to be distributed as a form of community action.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Media LiteracyGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOHome Care Workers’ Cooperative and Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health
Home Care Co-operative Development: Women Social Entrepreneurs in the Care Sector
The Home Care Workers’ Cooperative (HCWC) operates in the social wellness sector providing in-home care services for Ontario’s elder population. The HCWC is made up of personal support workers, disability support workers, and daycare providers, the majority of whom are women, many of whom are newcomers. HCWC, in coordination with the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health, will provide educational tools, mentoring, back-office supports, and networking to empower care sector workers and create equitable working environments. The project plans to provide business services to women care workers through a Care Cooperative Incubator, where services include business and marketing plans, payroll management, invoicing, scheduling, and human resource services. Their project will support women entrepreneurs to provide care for their communities in a non-exploitative working environment in addition to building awareness of inequality in the sector.
Grant amount: $72,050
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOHousing Project
Elizabeth Fry Society, Edmonton, Alberta
The Elizabeth Fry Society of Edmonton’s housing program provides subsidized housing to Indigenous Women who have experienced victimization through sex trafficking. The housing program’s aim is to provide women with a safe and secure place to achieve their personal goals and overcome any obstacles they may face. Participants receive assistance in making community connections and building a circle of support that will benefit them and their children.
Grant amount: $250,000 over 5 yearsLocation:AlbertaProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Sexual Exploitation, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOHuron Women's Shelter
Huron Women’s Shelter
Goderich, OntarioHuron Women’s Shelter, Second Stage Housing and Counselling Services will engage women and girls who have experienced violence in psycho education, mental and holistic health, self-discovery, and leadership development. In addition to providing healing for physical trauma and psychotherapeutic treatments, the organization’s healing program seeks to treat the whole woman. This program will provide opportunities to ensure women and girls have access to the essential aspects of community and personal life from the minute they connect with our organization.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOImmigrant Women's Information Network (I WIN)
Immigrant Women’s Information Network (I WIN), Toronto
I WIN’s Afghan Girls Empowerment Group is for refugee girls age 9 to 15 who require a survivor-centred, trauma-informed, and culturally safe approach to rebuilding their lives in Canada. The program aims to educate participants about their rights, independent thinking, perspectives and approaches to interpersonal relationships, boundaries, and consent.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Girls' empowermentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOIMPACT Program: "Our Stories Our Way"
South Asian Women’s Community Centre, Montréal
IMPACT provides high-school girls with a safe place to share their experiences of gender-based violence, racism, and mental health struggles. Through 25 one-hour sessions during lunch break, this bilingual program will create a support network for the participants to seek encouragement, gain education on violence and oppression, and develop the tools to become allies and amplify each other’s voices. IMPACT also engages participants in a digital storytelling and zine project, which will use oral storytelling, spoken word, and other creative outlets to speak to the issues discussed. The participants release a short film and share their zine publication with the larger community at the end of the project.
Grant amount: $21,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOIMPACT: Our Stories Our Way II
South Asian Women’s Community Centre, Montréal
This program provides high-school girls a safe space for sharing experiences of gender-based violence, racism, and mental health challenges. It creates a support network for the girls to build confidence, learn about violence and oppression, as well as to develop creative skills for expressing themselves. Participants learn about storytelling, spoken word, as well as creating a zine and a short film to share with the community. There is also the opportunity for the girls who participated in last year’s program to take on facilitation, leadership, and mentorship roles for the new participants.
Grant amount: $21,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOImproving Pathways to Safety for 2SLGBTQ+ Communities
Springtide Resources, Toronto
This project aims to improve the experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ survivors who are trying to access shelter and outreach services in the Greater Toronto Area. Springtide Resources will partner with and audit service providers, provide reports and recommendations, as well as preliminary training on how services could be made more inclusive and accessible. The goal is to create meaningful and lasting organizational transformation at partner sites, as well as to develop a model for greater 2SLGBTQ+ survivor inclusion that can be adopted by other service providers.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Grant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOImproving Pathways to Safety for 2SLGBTQ+ Communities
Springtide Resources, Toronto & GTA
Improving Pathways to Safety aims to develop inclusive practices for working with 2SLGBTQ+ survivors of intimate partner violence who need shelter services in the Greater Toronto Area. By partnering with four anti-violence shelters in the Greater Toronto Area (the Redwood, Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter, North York Women’s Shelter and Interim Place) they will create and offer a robust analysis of 2SLGBTQ+ accessibility and inclusion in their organizations. Springtide Resources will provide recommendations for changes to current practices, an implementation proposal and guide, three training sessions for frontline staff, management and boards, and an overview of the steps involved in ensuring services are truly inclusive of 2SLGBTQ+ survivors.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOIndigenous Women's Family Reunification Program
Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society
Fort St. John, British ColumbiaThe Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society runs a 12-unit second stage townhouse housing project, called Skye’s Place, for women and children leaving abusive relationships. Through intergenerational trauma, colonization, and lack of family supports, and the impact of the resource industry many Indigenous women clients have been subjected to violence and have used substances to cope with trauma. As such, many of the women have had their children taken into care. The aim of this project is to provide Indigenous women with networked and integrated case management, with the aim of reuniting the women and their children in a stable housing environment.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOInformed Opinions
Agency – The Informed Opinions Training Centre
Informed Opinions (IO) aims to amplify women’s voices to achieve gender balance in media by 2025. IO makes it easier for journalists to find female sources and deliver strategic communications and media engagement workshops that support women in speaking up. Canadian news media chronically underrepresented women’s voices and perspectives, which increased only 4% in terms of the sources quoted or interviewed in the past quarter century and currently sit at 27%. This has profound implications for what issues are prioritized and whose experiences and insights inform policies and spending. In seeking to bridge this gender gap and address the unmet demand, IO plans to scale its existing social enterprise and fee-for-service training by increasing academic and corporate client activity. Generating additional financial resources will enable IO to train more marginalized and under-resourced women and expand in-houses tools such as the innovative Gender Gap Tracker, a research tool which provides real-time measurement of women’s voices in Canadian media.
Grant amount: $40,000
Location:NationalProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOInstitut National pour l'Équité, l'Égalité et l'Inclusion des personnes en situation de handicap
Institut National pour l’Équité, l’Égalité et l’Inclusion des personnes en situation de handicap
Montreal, QuebecThe project aims to support the capacity and actions of women living with disabilities. The C.A.F.É.S. working group will ensure a better understanding of the impact of inequalities, violence and discrimination as well as the social participation of people with different abilities in the development and implementation of promising initiatives.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Economic DevelopmentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOIntergenerational Girls’ Empowerment Program
First Light (St. John’s Native Friendship Centre)
St. John’s, NLElders and seniors play an important role in Indigenous culture as the keepers of knowledge, wisdom, and traditions. The Intergenerational Girls Empowerment Program will connect participants with community Elders and seniors as mentors, and offer outings, guest speakers, and cultural activities. Both the participating girls and the Elders will benefit from the mentoring connections and activities, which will focus on Indigenous traditions, ways of learning, and healing.
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, MentorshipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOIt's Time for Women's Voice
Iqitsivik Salluit Family House (Maison de la famille Salluit Iqqivvik)
Salluit, QCThis project provides the tools needed to break the silence and empower Salluimut women on the issues of domestic and conjugal violence, in culturally relevant ways that support community development. Activities will include arts-based opportunities for self-expression, self-defence, and caregiving and support to community members experiencing violence. Participants will have access to professional supports as they face their own situations of violence and addictions, and experts that will lead workshops on related topics.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOJeunes survivantes à la violence
Centre des femmes de la Basse-Ville, Québec
When children who are exposed to domestic violence become adults, they may bring unhealthy behaviours into their own romantic and intimate relationships. This program offers education and support to teens and young adults (age 16 to 25) who have been exposed to spousal or family violence. Through a series of eight workshops, participants learn to: identify violent behaviour at home and with others; protect themselves from toxic personalities; promote equal relationships; and engage parents where necessary. Screening tools will be provided to teachers in schools and youth centres to better support adolescent girls and young adults who have been exposed to spousal violence as children. Participants will be invited to contribute to the development of these prevention tools.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOKaleidoscope Social Impact (KSI; formerly Saint John Community Loan Fund)
Next Inc. Women Energy Auditors
Kaleidoscope Social Impact provides knowledge, resources, and opportunities through three streams of work: skills training, social-purpose real estate and social finance. KSI has operationalized Next Inc., a woman-led social enterprise subcontractor that offers energy efficiency services by Canadian Certified Energy Auditors and energy audit training to women, launched in August 2022. Next Inc. is well-positioned to take advantage of a certified Energy Auditor shortage and long waitlist for environmental building energy audits occurring in the Atlantic region by offering their certified service and by training new cohorts of certified energy auditors.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOKamloops & District Elizabeth Fry Society
KW Resource Centre
The Kamloops & District Elizabeth Fry Society is an active community-based women’s organization working to improve the lives of marginalized women in their community. Their work includes programming and services in housing and community justice, creating second-stage housing, and encouraging economic security for women by offering support programs and educational bursaries. Their project, the KW Resource Centre (KWRC) is a co-working social enterprise for service providers that support women, gender-diverse communities, and children. KRWC offers affordable shared space for service providers to facilitate programming, outreach activities, and training. Co-locating services benefits community as well because they can learn about and access various services in one location.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOKeewatin Productions & Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre
1200+ Teachings
The full scope of violence and abuse against Indigenous women and girls in Canada remains overlooked and misunderstood. The 2018 film “1200+” by Keewatin Productions is a call to awareness and action on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, that also serves as a public education tool to increase understanding and empathy toward victims of violence. The film helps viewers contextualize gender-based violence and shifts attitudes from apathy to action. Ma Mawi Chi Itata Centre and Keewatin Productions are partnering to develop a curriculum, resources and teachings that will complement the film, and strategize to create a sustainable business that shares teachings with schools, government, companies and other institutions in Manitoba and across the country.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOKemet Advanced Manufacturing Ltd. And Institute for Sexual Minority Studies & Services
Personalized Medicine for Gender / Sexual Diverse Populations
Kemet’s long-term goal is to build transportable medication manufacturing facilities to address extensive critical medication shortages. Kemet’s pilot facility – KemPound Compounding & Repackaging Pharmacy makes personalized medications for sale to other pharmacies and healthcare professionals and are currently exploring personalized medicine for underserved communities. Kemet Advanced Manufacturing Ltd., in collaboration with the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies & Services (iSMSS) will assess current and ongoing pharmaceutical needs of gender and sexual diverse populations across Canada, work to gain an understanding of current medication use patterns and see where medication makers should focus their efforts for patient-centered pharmaceutical care for these communities.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOKitikmeot Heritage Society
Kitikmeot Heritage Society
Cambridge Bay, NunavutThis funding will support key women staff members to work with four female Inuinnait Elders-in-Residence as they implement linguistic and cultural revitalization activities. The funding will also support access to capacity building opportunities to find strength as cultural leaders.
Location:NunavutProgram Focus:Economic Development, LeadershipGrant Streams: -
PLAY VIDEOKoo-Ya-Sh-Pee-Meh-Hay-Too-Soo-Wen
Aboriginal People’s Alliance of Northern Ontario, Moosonee and Moose Factory Island
Koo-Ya-Sh-Pee-Meh-Hay-Too-Soo-Wen empowers young Indigenous women through personal, educational, and technical skill development. The program offers a balance of Indigenous and Western resources and teachings to help participants develop skills for healing. Over 12 weeks, 24 sessions will include art therapy to encourage the development of new skills, as well as healthy strategies for releasing trauma and emotions. In addition to the structured program, women will participate in Full Moon and Women Sweat ceremonies.
Grant amount: $22,687
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOL'Art de Rebâtir sa vie / The Art of Rebuilding One's Life
La Maison Marguerite de Montréal Inc.
Montréal, QCThe program “The Art of Rebuilding One’s life” created by La Maison Marguerite de Montréal aims to provide women clients with tools to use individual and collective action strategies to deal with the violence they have experienced, prevent further violence and reclaim their place in society. Relying on art’s inclusive nature, the shelter will give participants the opportunity to explore and analyze their experience in a critical empowerment perspective.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOLa Fondation Louise-Amélie
100 FLA-FLA Counter
The 100 FLA-FLA Counter is a thrift store run since 2018 by a team of dedicated volunteers from La Fondation Louise-Amélie. The store sells clothes, furniture, books, decorative items, linens, and other items donated from the community. In 2019, the store added a section for new items made from recycled and recovered materials. This project will allow La Fondation Louise- Amélie to increase staffing and volunteer capacity at the 100 FLA-FLA store. In turn, this will support the store to increase its revenues and reinvest the funds into programming at La Fondation Louise-Amélie.
Grant amount: $55,824
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOLand-Based Learning Program
Boys and Girls Clubs of the Foothills
Black Diamond, AlbertaThe Land-Based Learning Program focuses on supporting children and youth who have witnessed abuse, through traditional, Indigenous-led means of healing. The Youth Outreach Worker will access the deep wealth of knowledge of Band leaders and local Elders and together they will together design an Indigenized approach to healing by recognizing the deep, physical, mental, and spiritual connection to the land that is a part of the Stoney-Nakoda culture. By offering opportunities to children and youth to learn about traditional ceremonies, traditional medicines, the history of the land, how to be stewards of the land, and how to speak their traditional language we are offering opportunities for reconciliation. The Indigenous-led, Land-Based Learning Program will re-engage Indigenous children and youth in their own wellness, build community connectedness, and revitalize Indigenous practices, which leads to healing.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and TeachingGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOLe Centre filles mobile
YWCA Québec
Québec City, QuebecThe Mobile Girls Centre enables participants to develop leadership skills and empowers them to take action. The project is for and by the participants, so each group will collaboratively decide on goals, projects, and themes. Through these activities, the participants will explore their identities, develop confidence, leadership, self-confidence, critical thinking, and sense of belonging. These activities will have a strong gender and intersectional lens.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOLes ateliers interactifs : en route vers des relations saines
L’Arrêt-Source, Montréal, Quebec
This interactive workshop series caters to the 19 women residents in this shelter for young women. The goal is to increase community support and guidance for young women survivors of violence, by improving their healthy relationship skills. This program includes interactive workshops and individual follow-up with participants.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOLes Scientifines
Les Scientifines, Montréal
Les Scientifines aims to promote STEM learning to girls aged 8 to 17 from underserved neighbouhoods. This funding will build on existing Scientific Activities for Girls programming, by adding a science fair component to the program and will help to make it sustainable.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Girls' empowerment, STEMGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOLes Scientifines
Les Scientifines
Montreal, QuebecLes Scientifines is a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise interest in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) among girls from disadvantaged areas while helping them to develop new cross-curricular skills. These funds will help enhance and sustain these efforts in a new schools in a new district.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Girls' empowermentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOLive-In Support Worker
Women’s Safe Haven Resource Service Inc., Flin Flon, Manitoba
This grant helps to provide a live-in support worker who offers stability and guidance to women who are moving toward a healthy lifestyle that is free from violence.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOLove Offering Community Emergency Relief Fund
Black Women in Motion
Toronto, OntarioBlack Women in Motion’s Love Offering Community Emergency Relief Fund provides critical and urgent support to Black women, nonbinary and gender-non-conforming survivors of gender-based violence living in Greater Toronto. The fund administers income relief and fresh produce boxes to survivors navigating income and food insecurity, and provides clients with access to educational workshops, peer-led healing circles and free, one-one counselling sessions with Black and Afro-Indigenous clinicians from our Wellness Support Network.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Economic DevelopmentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOMaking Technology Work for You! Using Technology Safely and for Court Documents
Luke’s Place Support and Resource Centre for Women and Children
This project offers two technology strategies to women who have experienced abuse and who are involved in family court. While both strategies will be available to all Luke’s Place clients, this project prioritizes: women who don’t have legal representation; women suffering extensive trauma; women who have learning and cognitive disabilities; and women whose first language is not English.
The first technology strategy introduces documenting software that can help to complete court paperwork. The second strategy supports women to feel safer when it comes to using technology. The safety strategy aims to engage older women, who may be less comfortable with technology, as well as women who have been targeted by an abusive partner through technology. Participants will learn strategies to remain safer online, identify cyberstalking, and collect evidence of technology abuse that help them to rebuild their lives. This project will provide one-on-one support and workshops for our service users in Durham Region, a workshop kit and presentation for service providers throughout Ontario, and resources on both topics for women. This material will be shared with women and their advocates across all of Luke’s Place resources and services.
Grant amounts: $19,255
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOMigrant Women’s Rights Project
Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, Toronto, Ontario
This program offers support to women who are either experiencing or vulnerable to trafficking for sexual exploitation because of their precarious immigration status. A group of organizations in Toronto will provide services including trauma counselling, legal advice, access to primary health services, and housing referrals. The organizations involved will focus on community outreach and work with migrant women in locations where they gather and feel safe. Efforts will be concentrated in Toronto neighbourhoods where women are recruited for trafficking.
Grant amount: $250,000 over 5 yearsLocation:OntarioProgram Focus:Sexual Exploitation, Systemic Change, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOMinawaanigwendam
Fort Frances Tribal Area Health Services
Through this project, Fort Frances Tribal Area Health Services will offer a two-day empowerment camp for at-risk Indigenous women who have experienced violence. The goal is to provide a safe place to address the healing process, encourage women to find their voices, and empower participants through ceremony and Anishinaabe teachings, giving them tools to help end violence. This project will provide a strategy and action plan, deliver traditional teachings that are strengths based, and promote cultural resilience.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOMinwaashin Lodge: Indigenous Women’s Support Centre
Empowering Independence for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women fleeing intimate partner violence through traditional artisanship
Minwaashin Lodge: Indigenous Women’s Support Centre serves First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and their children and families within the urban Indigenous community of Ottawa as well as neighbouring communities of Akwesasne, Pikwaknagon, and Kitigan Zibi. Minwaashin provides a range or socioeconomic and mental wellness programming for survivors of intimate partner violence, trafficking and other forms of exploitation, and direct or intergenerational survivors of the Residential School System, 60s scoop, and other colonial policies. Minwaashin plans to enhance a social enterprise where First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women fleeing intimate partner violence will receive training in various cultural crafting techniques. Experienced artisans will be hired to train a cohort of indigenous women on how to make products for resale with traditional medicines, plants, herbs, and other materials.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOMunicipality of Pond Inlet
Municipality of Pond Inlet
Pond Inlet, NunavutThe community of Pond Inlet will address the issue of Nunavut’s high youth suicide rate and the high number of teenage pregnancies by providing young women with the opportunity to participate in a young women’s hockey program. The community of Pond Inlet believes that, with support from parents, Elder’s teachings of Inuit traditional ways, the hockey program will help boost participants’ confidence and keep them engaged in a positive activity.
Location:NunavutProgram Focus:Girls' empowermentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEONada and Sea Smart
Increasing Accessibility to Food Sustainability Initiatives & Engagement in Plastic Pollution Reduction
Nada, a tech-enabled package-free grocery store and delivery company, and Sea Smart, which delivers solution-based programming on ocean pollution reduction and environmental issues in BC to youth, are collaborating to reduce the carbon footprint of the food supply chain while improving the accessibility of healthy, local, and sustainably sourced foods. Nada and Sea Smart will engage new communities in sustainable practices while raising revenues for both organizations through the optimization of Nada Grocery’s e-commerce platform and the expansion of Nada’s ‘Food For All Initiative’, a program that promotes food accessibility and security for social housing residents, and through Sea Smart’s outreach via marketing and community events highlighting environmentally conscious consumerism.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEONanaimo Foodshare Society
Women in Agriculture: Growing Local Leaders
Through this Nanaimo Foodshare project, women will build experience and receive support toward gaining employment in agriculture. This organization works to address hunger and increase community access to sustainable local food in Nanaimo and surrounding areas. This investment will also boost women’s presence in the agriculture sector while engaging them in helping to address food insecurity.
Grant amount: $48,195
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEONational Zakat Foundation
Nisa Homes – Establishment of National Community-Based Thrift Stores
Nisa Homes, which provides transitional housing for Muslim women and children, will use this grant to assess the feasibility and market for a community-based thrift store. The goal of this pilot project would be to provide equitable employment opportunities to women who are Muslim, immigrant, refugee, non-status, or experiencing homelessness or abuse. This means ensuring there are childcare options, flexible work hours, decent wages, access to mental health and social supports. A community-based approach will be implemented, involving the clients of Nisa Homes. The long-term vision is to launch thrift stores across Canada.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEONdinawe Transitions Program
Ndinawemaaganag Endaawaad (Ndinawe), Winnipeg, Manitoba
Transitions helps graduates of the Red River College/Ndinawe Child & Youth Care Certificate Program to transition into careers as child and youth care workers. These graduates have experienced trafficking and/or sexual exploitation. Through weekly personal and professional development sessions, Transitions participants help each other deal with the stress and issues that arise in their work. This program is essential, because work in this field can be triggering for those who have experienced trafficking and other forms of violence.
Grant amount: $125,000 over 5 yearsLocation:ManitobaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Leadership, Mentorship, Sexual Exploitation, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEONewfoundland Aboriginal Women's Network & Ulnooweg Education Centre
Investing in our Future – Preparing Indigenous Women for Sustainability through Culture and Social Innovation
Through a partnership between Newfoundland Aboriginal Women’s Network and Ulnooweg Education Centre, 40 women from 15 Indigenous communities have been trained as peer facilitators who deliver culturally-based workshops on mental health and gender-based violence. This investment will help determine whether it’s feasible to build the community workshops into a social enterprise that is self-sufficient and sustainable. The project aims to develop women’s capacity around social innovation while supporting mental health and preventing gender-based violence.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEONisa Foundation
Nisa Foundation, Surrey
Nisa Foundation offers services that support social and mental wellness for racialized women across Canada. The organization provides a toll-free peer-to-peer counselling service, facilitates educational seminars, and provides referrals to resources including shelters, expert counselling, legal advice, and financial aid.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEONon-Binary BIPOC Drop-In
Planned Parenthood of Toronto
Toronto, OntarioThe Non-Binary BIPOC Drop-In is a weekly group for teens who identify as non-binary Black, Indigenous, or people of colour. Through discussions and activities facilitated by staff and peer facilitators, participants will explore the intersections of their identities, build community, and gain confidence. A youth advisory committee will be formed to ensure that programming is developed collaboratively with youth and to provide training and support for advisory committee members who become peer facilitators for the group.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEONorth York Women's Centre
North York Women’s Centre, Toronto
This project aims to shift how young women and girls in marginalized communities perceive their future and how they expect to be treated in their relationships with their peers, family, community, and intimate partners. North York Women’s Centre, in partnership with Shakespeare in Action, will deliver a theatre project for youth ages 15 – 30 that addresses gender based violence in the community’s cultural context.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Girls' empowermentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEONous aussi, on peut le faire
L’Oasis des enfants de Rosemont
Montréal, QCThrough discussions and activities, this program will help participants build a strong sense of community and confidence, as well as strengthening their own potential to face challenges and achieve their goals.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEONova Scotia Youth Project
Nova Scotia Youth Project
Halifax, Nova ScotiaThis project will create a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Hub and conference space where 2SLGBTQIA+ youth all over Nova Scotia can connect, share learnings, build meaningful and sustainable friendships, and participate in peer-driven education. This will also be a space where 2SLGBTQIA+ teachers and GSA supporters, service providers, and ally educators within the public school system can connect, exchange resources, share stories of success and challenges, and work to de-silo care and service.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOOn-Reserve Counselling Support for Victims of Sexual Violence
Battlefords & Area Sexual Assault Centre Inc.
Battleford, SaskatchewanThe impact of sexual violence that occurred in residential schools has led to an overwhelming amount of intergenerational trauma. The goal of this program is to address the cycle of sexual abuse in First Nations Communities and its links to suicide among youth. This project enables a counsellor to go into these communities to address barriers to support and facilitate survivors’ healing journeys.
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOOntario Association of Interval & Transition Houses (OAITH)
Make it Our Business – Business Plan
Toronto, OntarioOAITH and the Centre for Research & Education on Violence against Women & Children (CREVAWC) will develop a training program and delivery network to provide Ontario workplaces with training in prevention of and response to domestic violence and violence and harassment in the workplace. New legislation going into effect in 2021 requires employers to deliver training to employees, conduct risk assessments and develop comprehensive policies on these issues. OAITH and CREVAWC are looking to capture a share of the anticipated spend, ensuring it remains in the women’s sector through the provision of best practice consulting and training.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOONYX Works – Youth Employment Program
PLEA Community Services Society, Vancouver, British Columbia
OnyxWorks helps young women who have survived trafficking to develop the work skills they need to begin rebuilding their lives. The program offers employment and mentorship opportunities to women and girls age 13 to 19. Services include intensive one-on-one support and supervision, skills-based training, and a 10-week job placement. During the placement, youth workers who have experience with trafficking survivors are there to support both participants and employer-mentors. The goal is for participants to gain the experience and skills they need to secure regular employment.
Grant amount: $237,832 over 5 yearsLocation:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Mentorship, Rebuilding Lives, Sexual Exploitation, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOOperation Grow
Huronia Transition Homes, Midland, ON
Operation Grow is a social enterprise designed to address the needs of women who have experienced violence. This community hub combines a vertical farm, a retail store, an inspected kitchen, a yoga studio, a meditation hall, meeting rooms, and shower and laundry facilities. Through the vertical farm, women are employed in a flexible and supportive environment. They increase their knowledge of and access to good, healthy food, while developing their assets, social networks, and economic resilience. Wrap-around services ensure that the space is safe and accommodating, with particular attention to self-care and trauma supports.
Grant amount: $260,000 over 4 years
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOOskinikiskwew
Samson Community Wellness
Maskwacis, AlbertaThe Plains Cree word Okinikiskwew derives from a ceremony where a young girl becomes a woman, and it connects to the goal of this program for Indigenous girls. The program offers participants a culturally-sensitive space to explore the issues they’re facing, and helps them to develop positive gender and cultural identities. Participants also have the opportunity to learn healthy coping mechanisms and leadership skills while connecting with strong role models.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, LeadershipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOOur Stories, Our Land: Addressing Gender Based Violence Through Stories and Land-Based Learning
Prince George New Hope Society
Prince George, British ColumbiaThis program aims to offer women a holistic approach for responding to experiences of violence. Rooted in feminist and Indigenous principles of sovereignty, self-determination, land-based knowledge, holistic health, and storytelling, this project builds on established relationships with sex workers and community partners in Prince George. BC. This year-long project is designed to centre women’s voices and stories, and topics have been identified by members in our society, to reflect the realities and needs of our women’s lives. The themes covered will include spiritual and emotional healing, land-based learning, as well as health and safety topics.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21, Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOPACE Society
PACE Society, Vancouver
PACE Society seeks to address high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) among sex workers by providing enhanced, accessible supports for their safety, recovery and well-being. Training will increase the organization’s capacity to respond to GBV, and a Peer Support Group will help provide additional support for sex workers.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOPartnerships Against Sexual Violence
Northern Society for Domestic Peace, Smithers, BC
The Partnerships Against Sexual Violence project would like to enhance the current role of the Community-Based Victim Assistance program to provide outreach specific to developing a sexual assault response and protocols in the Gitxsan Territory of rural northwest British Columbia. To focus on addressing Indigenous women’s experiences of sexual violence and community practices by engaging women in discussions on risks, safety, the rights of victims and in identifying immediate barriers to disclosure and what needs to be addressed. The project engages key community leaders, including chiefs, elders and matriarchs, and key community partners, including bands, health stations, community services, hospital and emergency responders. Through these partnerships, education and explore sexual assault response strategies that incorporate the experiences of the victims will be provided. Community protocols that interface with cultural practices and provide safe procedures that empower women and support disclosure and reporting, and third-party protocols with the detachment and communities are being developed. As well, positive relationships with the RCMP and health care providers when they are responding to sexual violence cases are being encouraged and facilitated.
Grant amount: $22,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOPeer Support Program
Sagesse, Calgary, Alberta
This program trains volunteer women from the community to facilitate peer support groups for women who are experiencing or are at risk of experiencing domestic violence. The peer support groups program is an 18-20 week program, broken into an initial program focused on self-esteem (Finding Our Voices) and a domestic violence specific program (Growth Circle). Topics covered in the Peer Support program include self-esteem, communication, shame, compassion, healthy relationships, cycles of violence, family of origin issues, effects of abuse, guilt, anger and denial, moving beyond abusive experiences and reclaiming our lives. The program aims to build capacity within eight rural and remote communities to support women and children experiencing domestic violence and build a safe and caring community for everyone.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Leadership, Mentorship, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOPitone Teen Healthy Relationships Program
Grande Prairie Friendship Centre
Grande Prairie, AlbertaThis culturally based program encourages youth aged 10-19 to reflect on how their thoughts, beliefs, biases and fears impact their relationships with others. Participants explore gender stereotypes and gender-based violence and inequalities, with a goal of learning how to recognize healthy relationships and prevent violence. A Red Cross teen healthy relationships facilitator delivers the sessions and trains co-facilitators. Elders and Knowledge Keepers provide cultural guidance, lead ceremonies, and provide individual support for youth and facilitators. The program is inclusive of all gender expressions and is led by youth, for youth.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOPLEA Community Services Society
PLEA Community Services Society
Vancouver, BCOnyxWorks provides pre-employment training as well as meaningful employment and mentorship opportunities to young people (primarily girls) aged 13-19 who are involved in sexually exploitative situations.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Sexual ExploitationGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOPositive Adolescent Sexuality Support (PASS)
Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre
Headlingly, ManitobaThis program is designed to educate Indigenous youth, foster healthy relationships and sexuality in a culturally relevant, safe, and supportive learning environment. The peer-based program focuses on four elements of being: Education and life skills for the mind, spirituality and culture for the spirit, awareness and prevention for the body, and support for emotions. Workshops are youth-driven and include healthy relationships, teen dating violence, birth-control methods, STD/STI awareness, self-esteem, and more.
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOPositive Discipline in Everyday Parenting
The Redwood, Toronto, Ontario
This program teaches positive parenting skills to mothers in the Redwood shelter. Over 12 weeks, participants learn strategies for non-violent, respectful, and solution-focused parenting for children up to age 20. The skills parents learn help to cultivate their children’s self-discipline and long-term life skills. In addition, peer mentorship is available and consists of 2 weekly sessions with an emphasis on facilitating Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting to mothers in the community. As peer mentors, women can facilitate workshops and support mothers who have survived violence. Participants build self-esteem in the process, becoming role models for their children, and sharing invaluable knowledge with hundreds of women and children in the community.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Mentorship, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOPower Girls - A Migrant Girls STEM Project
DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society
Surrey, British ColumbiaIn partnership with Science Alive, this collaborative program takes a feminist and experiential approach to engaging girls in STEM. Designed specifically for racialized girls who have migrant experiences, Power Girls encourages participants to shape and lead programming according to their needs and interests. Participants will develop empowering skills in critical thinking, creativity, organization, problem-solving, and teamwork.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Leadership, STEMGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOPower of Stories
Girls Incorporated Northern Alberta, Fort McMurray
This program aims to break the cycle of gender-based and intergenerational violence in the region and fill a critical gap in services. Girls Incorporated taps into Indigenous traditions of healing and empowerment: storytelling, Indigenous knowledge-sharing based on the 7 Sacred Teachings, and connections with women mentors. The program engages two age groups of girls in Anzac and Fort McKay—both remote Indigenous communities. Interpretive services will be made available in Cree, Chipewyan and Dene
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOPrévention de la violence chez les femmes qui affichent des services sexuels sur le web
Projet intervention prostitution Québec, Québec
The goals of this program are to prevent violence against sex workers (especially those who advertise in different virtual spaces), to evaluate their needs in order to improve the services offered by the organization, and to create a service strategy for women who are survivors of violence. In collaboration with the participants, a range of prevention and awareness tools are being created, as well as partnerships with organizations that support women who have experienced violence.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Sexual ExploitationGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOPrince Albert Safe Shelter for Women
Prince Albert Safe Shelter for Women
Prince Albert, SaskatchewanThe COVID-19 pandemic necessitated operational changes to meet new health standards, and meant that crisis support staff had to take on more work to ensure client safety during meal services. This funding enables the hiring of a dedicated staff person for daily meal preparation and service, helping to staff to better meet the need for crisis support.
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOPrince George Sexual Assault Centre
Prince George Sexual Assault Centre
Prince George, BCThe centre is expanding its services for 2SLGBTQI+ folks who have disproportionately experienced gender-based violence throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This will strengthen much-needed and underfunded services, as well as assist in capacity and skills-building for youth who face multiple barriers to education and employment. Participants will be trained and mentored to provide peer support, and run drop-in and groups for 2SLGBTQI+ youth.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Economic Development, LeadershipGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOPrince George Sexual Assault Centre
Prince George Sexual Assault Centre, BC
This initiative provides individual and group counselling for girls and gender-diverse youth ages 13 to 19 who have experienced gender-based violence. The focus will be on building strengths and connections.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Girls' empowerment, Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOProgramme d'aide aux survivantes d'agression à caractère sexuel et groupe de soutien pour la famille
Centre Novas-CALACS francophone de Prescott-Russell, Casselman, ON
This program addresses the unique needs of two groups as they rebuild their lives following violence. The first section includes a closed support group for women survivors of sexual assault. The second section will be an open support group for mothers of children who are survivors of sexual violence. Through dialogue, peer support, and connections, both groups of women will advance the path toward healing.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOProject BRAVE
Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking, Sudbury
Through this funding, Project BRAVE aims to expand services and reach more people seeking support for experiences of sexual exploitation and trafficking. It will allow for additional counselling and peer support sessions, as well as workshops on sexual exploitation and trafficking for service providers and girls in the region.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Sexual ExploitationGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOReach! – Empowering Underserved Survivors of Sexual Violence
Sexual Assault Support Centre Ottawa, Ottawa
Reach! seeks to expand SASC’s services and support network to two groups of survivors that have identified as particularly underserved: differently-abled women, and mothers whose children have witnessed or experienced sexual violence. The three interrelated activities of the project are: a facilitated 15-week peer support group tailored to differently-abled survivors of sexual violence; a facilitated 15-week peer support group tailored to mothers of survivors or witnesses to sexual violence; and the roll out of a Text Support line to enable women who are unable to access the 24-hour phone line, including women who have hearing or speech difficulties or feel uncomfortable using the phone, to also have 24-hour crisis support.
Grant amount: $16,880
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOreachAbility Film School
reachAbility Association
Halifax, Nova ScotiareachAbility Film School will focus on providing the introductory tools, training, experiences, and opportunities to women, 2SLGBTQI+ and non-binary individuals who are interested in the online media, film or television industries. This program supports those who are starting up their own small-to-large scale production studios or seeking avenues of opportunity to share their stories and amplify underrepresented voices in their community while accessing reliable and growing revenue streams. This will include creating a shared network to showcase and amplify voices, featuring creator-driven video and documentary series focussing on topics and subjects close to the artists. These productions will build and rely on an internal network of support and promotion, with every contributor generating buzz and attention within the framework of their own content about the content of another contributor, creating a self-perpetuating system for mutual support and amplification of each other’s content and voices in a non-competitive environment.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Mentorship, Self EmploymentGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEORed Road to Healing
North Point Douglas Women’s Centre, Winnipeg
Designed by an Anishinaabe woman from Winnipeg, this program centres on Indigenous teaching and ceremonies to facilitate healing for women who have experienced domestic violence. The program will be introduced to women in the community three times over the year, and will mentor community facilitators in its delivery. Women who previously participated in the program will have the opportunity to share their experiences and develop new skills as facilitators. The Canadian Department of Justice has recognized this 10-week program as a promising practice to reduce violence and increase safety for Indigenous women
Grant amount: $19,725
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOReducing Housing Barriers for women who have experienced domestic violence
YWCA NWT
Yellowknife, NTUsing a culturally-appropriate, empowering, and women-centred approach, this program provides women with the resources needed to break the cycle of violence and take steps to rebuild their lives. Support is based on each woman’s needs, and the belief that she knows what is best for her and her children. A key element of this program is partnerships with community housing partners and landlords to secure safe and affordable housing where women can rebuild their lives.
Location:Northwest TerritoriesProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOReducing Transportation Barriers for Women who are Seeking Support for Gender-Based Violence
Catholic Family Services of Durham and DRIVEN, Oshawa & Durham Region
DRIVEN eliminates the barrier of transportation so that women across the Durham region can access the supports required on their journies to rebuilding their lives. Through this funding, women can access the funds needed to travel to/from the program and other necessary steps in their journey. This project also connects women to one of their video chat partner locations: a network of 29 agencies that work together to provide a seamless system of service delivery.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Grant Streams: -
PLAY VIDEOReducing Transportation Barriers for Women who are Seeking Support for Gender-Based Violence
Catholic Family Services of Durham and DRIVEN, Oshawa & Durham Region
DRIVEN eliminates the barrier of transportation so that women across the Durham region can access the supports required on their journeys to rebuilding their lives. Through this funding, women can access the funds needed to travel to/from the program and other necessary steps in their journey. This project also connects women to one of their video chat partner locations: a network of 29 agencies that work together to provide a seamless system of service delivery.
Grant amount: $1,500
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEORespect Without Borders
Bureau de la Communauté Haïtienne de Montréal
Montreal, QuebecThe Bureau de la Communauté Haïtienne de Montréal will continue its school programming with a new focus on raising awareness about cyber violence, hypersexualization, and to promote respect for diversity. With the support of facilitators, participants will launch their own awareness campaigns, using social media platforms to spread the word. The goal is to unite teens around common goals, promote collaboration, resilience, critical thinking and leadership.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEORêve-Action / Dream-Act
Maison D’Haïti
Montréal, QuebecThe Dream-Act project caters to racialized immigrant women and young mothers who are survivors of domestic violence. Its goal is to empower participants (age 15 to 60) to rebuild their lives through personalized supports and resources to meet immediate, practical needs. The project also aims to take strategic action to eliminate gender-based domestic violence, contribute to women’s safety and reduce domestic violence. More broadly, the will also raise awareness about the devastating impacts of violence on children’s lives.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEORISE Empowerment Program
Community Resource Centre (Killaloe) Inc.
Killaloe, ONThis program provides rural girls, trans and non-binary youth opportunities to connect, express themselves creatively, learn their rights, build healthy habits, and leadership skills. It offers an environment that helps girls to make friends, build skills, develop their voices, and lead community change – ultimately readying them for their high-school years. Past program participants may volunteer as mentors, activity leaders and guest speakers.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, MentorshipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEORural Education and Leadership Program for GSAs (R.E.A.L. Program)
The Youth Project, Halifax
The R.E.A.L. program will engage students who are involved in Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) in five rural areas across the province, helping them develop leadership skills and educate their school communities. Creating confident GSA students and a more educated and welcoming community will reduce violence. By providing support, the project builds resilience in the youth who can change the culture in those schools. Although this is a new program, it builds on the 2016 Safer Schools Initiative. The new program responds to the need for support in rural communities.
Grant amount: $17,446
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOSADI Girls’ Group Mentoring Program
Survivor’s Hope
Pinawa, ManitobaThe SADI Girls’ Group Mentorship program takes place in two rural Manitoba communities, Sagkeeng First Nation and Powerview-Pine Falls. Facilitators train high-school mentors in both communities to lead empowering and accessible programming for Grade 6 students. Discussions and activities focus on respect, self and community care, leadership, and healthy relationships, while allowing students to shape activities based on their needs and interests. The program also aims to create a safe space for gender-questioning and non-binary students.
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Leadership, MentorshipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOSafe housing pilot for women leaving abusive relationships
YWCA NWT, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
This program provides housing for women who are leaving abusive relationships. It helps women to overcome the barriers associated with finding secure housing, which can discourage them from leaving abusive relationships. This will not only increase safety for women and their children, but also help them to establish a solid tenancy record and stable home environment.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:Northwest TerritoriesProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOSafe Housing: A Rural Perspective (for women & children)
Mountain Rose Women’s Shelter Association, Rocky Mountain House (Serving Clearwater County and Rocky Mountain House – West Central Alberta)
Safe Housing: A Rural Perspective supports women and children who have left situations of domestic violence through transitional housing. The program provides apartment housing for those who have stayed in the emergency shelter, but who face barriers to finding a longer-term place to stay. Along with housing, the program provides donated furniture and a food hamper to help the family as they begin to rebuild their lives. A Housing Support Coordinator helps to ensure that apartment residents have the skills they need to be successful in a rental unit, and to contribute to the community.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOSafer Spaces: Supporting the Role of Beauty Professionals in a Community Response to Violence Against Women
Chrysalis House
Kentville, Nova ScotiaThis project will provide beauty professionals such as hairdressers, aestheticians, and nail and lash technicians in rural Nova Scotia with training on how to respond when clients disclose experiences of gender-based violence. This is essential because negative social reactions to disclosures can impede healing and deter individuals from seeking help. Local beauty professionals have asked organizations involved in this project for information to assist them in supporting clients who have disclosed abuse. This project will equip members of this professional sector to respond in supportive ways.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Grant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOSafer Transitions: Welcoming Gender Diversity in Saskatchewan's Transition Houses
Moose Jaw Pride, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
The goal of this project is to ensure that Saskatchewan’s Transition Houses are equipped with information, resources, and procedures to ensure the safe and equitable treatment of gender-diverse people who are seeking crisis support services. After providing diversity training to a few Saskatchewan Transition Houses, Moose Jaw Pride recognized the need for more information on gender diversity tailored to the shelter environment. In this project, a trans-identified staff member will work with 5 transition houses to provide ongoing diversity training, a portfolio of resources and best practices, and development of policy, procedural guidelines and recommendations for welcoming gender diversity in transition houses.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOSaint John Community Loan Fund
NEXTinc.
This social enterprise trains women to offer energy-efficiency consulting services to businesses, such as home energy auditing and operating performance improvement. This will help women gain employment in an industry where they are underrepresented. Some of the revenue generated by NEXTinc. will be invested into the Enterprising Women Program – a 90-hour business accelerator for first-time female entrepreneurs that is operated by the Saint John Community Loan Fund. NEXTinc. aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals of creating opportunities for women and reducing our environmental footprint.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOSARAH: The Basics of Healthy Relationships
Sexplique
Québec, QCThis program equips young people with violence-prevention tools and strategies just as they’re beginning to start dating and forming romantic relationships. Through interactive workshops, participants explore: thinking critically about social media, body image, self-esteem and values, love vs. friendship, socio-cultural identity, healthy communication, consent and sexuality. Workshop themes and discussions are guided by participants’ personal experiences and interests. A youth committee is in charge of creating a wider impact in the community and developing an intervention tool to raise awareness among their peers. The program also offers training to adults who have teens in their lives, including parents, caregivers, and facilitators from partner organizations.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOSaskatoon Open Door Society
Women’s Business Hub of Saskatoon Open Door Society
Saskatoon, SaskatchewanSaskatoon Open Door Society assists newcomers to Canada in becoming participating members of an inclusive and diverse community and country. The Women’s Business Hub facilitates the entry of women immigrants and refugees into entrepreneurship. The Business Hub recruits, trains and counsels interested women to move their ideas into enterprise-specific business plans that have potential for success. This initiative will scale the work of the business hub and explore different revenue-generating activities, including facility rental and training services.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOScadding Court Community Centre
Stitch Lab
The Stitch Lab by 707 is a women-led social enterprise that offers affordable tailoring and alteration services, as well as products made from repurposed clothing and textiles. Based out of a pop-up storefront in Scadding Court Community Centre’s Market 707, this initiative supports women to create sustainable economic opportunities for themselves by honing their business skills, increasing the representation of women in local entrepreneurship, and building toward a sustainable funding model for the program.
Grant amount: $49,822
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOScadding Court Community Centre
Stitch Lab
Stitch Lab, a women-led social enterprise, will expand operations and scale the impact of their existing services which currently offers a line of handmade items from recycled textiles and custom orders for local businesses by offering affordable tailoring and alteration services. Stitch Lab will diversify revenue streams, increase marketing and visibility, and increase capacity to offer new products and services. Stitch Lab promotes economic empowerment by preparing participants for entrepreneurship and employment opportunities and building their capacity as social enterprise leaders.
Grant amount: $63,900
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOScarborough Women's Centre
Scarborough Women’s Centre
Scarborough, OntarioThis pilot program will help women with disabilities enter the workforce and build their capacity to participate in sectors where they are underrepresented, including educational, financial, and corporate. A series of six virtual peer support groups that will assist women with disabilities in navigating employment barriers and increasing their self-advocacy skills.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Economic DevelopmentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOSecond Story Women's Centre
Second Story Women’s Centre, Lunenburg
This funding supports the need for an outreach counsellor at Second Story Women’s Centre, which offers support to women and gender-diverse people impacted by sexual assault and abusive relationships. It’s also one of many organizations collaborating to address the issue of young women being recruited for trafficking in rural Nova Scotia. The outreach counsellor will provide essential support and counselling, helping to fill gaps in mental health services.
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOSeizing the opportunity: You and your potential / Réalise ton plein potentiel
ACEM Microcrédit Montréal, Montreal, Québec
This self-employment training and business accelerator program provides opportunities for women from marginalized communities, including immigrant and racialized women, to build on their knowledge and abilities to build new skills through business start-up training. The program includes core competencies training focused on assertiveness, resilience, public speaking, and leadership skills; financial literacy; time management; and turning ideas into business plans and putting those plans into action. Small loans (microcredit) are offered to support women in testing their products or services and launching their businesses when ready.
Grant Amount: $260,000 over 4 years.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Mentorship, Self EmploymentGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOSenior Women Living Together (SWLT) & Elder Abuse Prevention Muskoka (EAPM)
Affordable Housing Solutions for Senior Women Living Together
Bracebridge, OntarioEAPM and SWLT will work together to explore a revenue model that can sustain SWLT, and ideally one that will allow for the acquisition of properties to be held as affordable housing stock in perpetuity. SWLT has created a community for single senior women who are dealing with financial stress and need affordable accommodation. Through the home-mate model they are able to find affordable rental accommodations for women in their chosen communities. SWLT has also been able to find tenants for women who own their properties but can no longer afford to maintain them.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOSensory Friendly Solutions & Autism Resources Miramichi Inc.
Sensory Friendly Dentistry for Women and Girls
Miramichi, New BrunswickAutism Resources Miramichi Inc. offers free resources to individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, their families, community support workers and professionals throughout Northumberland County, New Brunswick. They will partner with Sensory Friendly Solutions to design a public-facing campaign on sensory-friendly dentistry and its value, in addition to including a free self-assessment tool for dental clinics and staff to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the sensory experience at their location.
They will also include the design and delivery of online sensory-friendly training and certification for dental clinics and staff to enable them to successfully provide oral health care to women and girls currently marginalized and under-treated due to underlying disability and sensory-sensitivity. Together, they will improve the oral health of women and girls with autism in Canada and subsequently improve their health and well-being and reduce inequalities particularly experienced by people with disability.
Grant amount: $45,000
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOSEP: Service d'Entraide Passerelle
SEP: Service d’Entraide Passerelle, Montréal
Service d’Entraide Passerelle supports women to overcome barriers in ending romantic relationships. This often involves dealing with post-separation violence, which has increased during the pandemic. The organization has developed a series of in-person workshops to support participants and advance systemic change. This funding will support the adaptation of the workshops for online delivery, so that they can be made available to other organizations.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOSex Work-Police Liaison Model to Address Violence Against People in the Sex Industry
Peers Victoria Resource Society
Victoria, British ColumbiaThis project will document the history, objectives, best practices, benefits and challenges of a multi-year violence prevention partnership between Peers Victoria and the Victoria Police Department. While this partnership has existed in practice for years, the two principal organizations have not had the joint resources to work together to document the inter-agency model. Working together to document the working model will result in new knowledge and collaboration potential. It will enable the dissemination of guidelines, a complaints process, and training curriculum locally and to other jurisdictions seeking to implement similar models to improve accessibility of police services.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Sexual Exploitation, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOSexual Assault Recovery and Healing Follow-Up Program
Survivor’s Hope Crisis Centre
Pinawa, ManitobaSurvivor’s Hope Crisis Centre is the only rural sexual violence resource centre in Manitoba, offering immediate crisis support to survivors since 2003 through its Sexual Assault Recovery and Healing (SARAH) program. Through the new SARAH Follow-up Program, the Centre will offer ongoing support to survivors through one-on-one counselling and support groups. Given that survivors often turn to friends and family after experiencing sexual violence, the Centre will also offer workshops that equip friends and family of survivors to be positive and well-informed supporters.
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOSexual Exploitation, Trafficking, Systemic Change
Mettre Fin à la Traite Sexuelle (Ending Sex Trafficking)
Mouvement contre le viol et l’inceste, Montréal, Quebec
This project aims to help service providers better serve the needs of women who have experienced trafficking. It has three goals: 1. To develop a tool that helps identify clients who have experienced trafficking, 2. To create a referral network for survivors of trafficking, particularly for those who are immigrant women, 3. Create a specialized support program for survivors, with emphasis on the needs of immigrant women, refugees, and those who have experienced multiple barriers. The program also aims to provide a training program on sex trafficking in the context of immigration.
Grant amount: $250,000 over 5 yearsLocation:QuebecProgram Focus:Sexual Exploitation, Systemic Change, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOSexual Violence Community Support and Outreach Counsellor
Interim Place (Peel Committee Against Woman Abuse), Mississauga & Peel Region
This grant funds a full-time Sexual Violence Community Support and Outreach Counselor to deliver support to women who have experienced sexual violence. Counselling supports will be provided to 50 women within a six-month period and bi-weekly counselling sessions will be offered to all participants in the program. A maximum of eight feminist, trauma-informed counselling sessions will be offered. Accompaniments to various appointments, including court and hospital, will be available to women on a case-by-case basis.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOSexual Violence Support Groups for Marginalized Gender Survivors
Newfoundland and Labrador Sexual Assault Crisis and Prevention Centre, St. John’s
This project offers a new and much-needed source of support for female and gender non-conforming survivors of sexual violence in the Northeast Avalon region of Newfoundland. Through support groups co-facilitated by a social worker and counsellor, participants will have the opportunity to discuss how to heal from trauma and develop new coping skills. The social worker will also meet individually with survivors as needed.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOSexually Exploited Youth and Adult Outreach Facilitation
Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, Headingly
This grant funds a Sexual Exploitation Outreach Facilitator to coordinate sexual exploitation services across the city. The Outreach Facilitator will connect directly with women, trans people, and youth who are engaged in the sex industry and build bridges to community resources, advocacy, and ongoing support. This work will be conducted with a harm-reduction and Indigenous perspective and aim to coordinate efforts among stakeholders and sectors.
Grant amount: $23,000
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Sexual Exploitation, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOSHADE: Safe Housing And Directed Empowerment
SHADE: Safe Housing And Directed Empowerment, Winnipeg
SHADE supports immigrant and refugee women impacted by gender-based violence and family violence, through counselling and programs that help to heal, rebuild their lives and develop healthy relationships. This grant will help SHADE meet the need for administrative support as it works to expand its programming, policy and fundraising activities.
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOShear Movement & Social Planning and Research Council of BC (SPARC BC)
Shear Movement
Burnaby, British ColumbiaShear Movement is an Indigenous-women-led social enterprise that aims to build a supportive space and community for Indigenous and other marginalized youth to build careers in the beauty industry. Shear Movement will conduct a feasibility study for an Indigenous-led community salon in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to serve as a hub for hairstylist training and apprenticeship, youth empowerment, and business skills development.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Skilled Trades, Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOShelter Movers
Social Purpose Storage Facility
Shelter Movers intends to purchase and operate a retail storage facility, whose purpose will be to a) generate revenue for Shelter Movers’ work and mission through retail storage rentals, b) provide skills development and meaningful employment opportunities for women survivors of abuse, and c) provide free storage space for use by women and children fleeing abuse. The development of a social enterprise for this storage business model will based on empirical commercial real estate research and analysis of prospective properties. Conclusions from this research and modelling will be critical to assessing the viability of a social purpose storage business operated on the day-to-day by women survivors of abuse.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:NationalProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOShift
HIV Community Link, Calgary
This program offers support, outreach, and education to women across the spectrum of sex work and sexual exploitation. The goals are to enhance the wellness, safety and stability of women actively working, and to support those who want to exit sex work. Taking a harm-reduction and human-rights based approach, the program works to reduce vulnerability and increase safety, remove barriers to services, and reduce social isolation. A case manager provides counselling based on where the client is in her journey. Shift has an open-door policy and offers ongoing support, recognizing that leaving the sex industry is most often experienced as a process.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Sexual Exploitation, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOSisters in Solidarity & Learning Enrichment Foundation
Sisters in Solidarity
Toronto, OntarioThe Learning Enrichment Foundation and Sisters in Solidarity are collaborating to offer community leaders a program focused on growth and scaling Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs), and the opportunity to gain investment in their businesses. Sisters in Solidarity is an accelerator program for early-stage SPOs led by BIPOC women nation-wide. The accelerator consists of 5 modules where women who are creating impact will learn everything there is to know about: 1. Investment Readiness; 2. Asset Mapping; 3. Sales Acquisition; 4. Organizational Development; 5. Go to Market Strategies.
Grant amount: $40,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Self Employment, Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOSitti Social Enterprise & Tawheed Community Centre
Sitti Soap – Online Subscription Box
Mississauga, OntarioThe Tawheed Community Centre and Sitti Soap Social Enterprise will expand the Sitti International Social Enterprise to Canada, by recruiting, screening and training refugee employees who identify as women or gender diverse. Sitti Soap will collaborate with local stakeholders to launch an online subscription box service, creating entry-level employment and training opportunities for refugee women and non-binary folks in the Greater Toronto Area.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Self Employment, Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOSkills for Change Metro Toronto (SFC)
Black Leadership Institute
Skills for Change is scaling an education-based, paid training social enterprise – Black Leadership Institute (BLI) – by expanding professional leadership development skills and training modules within the context of Anti-Black Racism for individuals in private institutions and through the development of a new corporate stream. The project aims to support Black and racialized professionals on their journeys of creating more inclusive and diverse work environments, while becoming changemakers in their communities and workplaces. Using a sliding scale pricing model, SFC will offer specialized support to corporate clients and will use the revenue generated to subsidize the cost of the program for Black and racialized women living on low-incomes.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOSOFIA House Women’s Programming
Sofia House, Regina
The women’s programming at SOFIA House offers individual and group counselling to those who are staying there. Counselling topics include: understanding abuse; self-esteem, stress management, and education and socialization of girls and young women. SOFIA House counsellors also connect women to services in the community. This grant enables SOFIA House to extend the much-needed existing programming into the weekends.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOSohkitihiwin Youth Retreats
Heart Linked Community Services Co-operative
Saskatoon, SaskatchewanThe Sohkitihiwin retreat program was created in response to the increasing number of suicides being attempted or completed by First Nations youth in Northern Saskatchewan. The focus of the program is to provide girls with an opportunity to grow through retreats, away from the pressures and temptations in their home environment. Exposure to quiet contemplation, uplifting reinforcement and positive cultural experiences will help the girls to develop hope and optimism for the future. The participants engage in a wide range of activities and dialogue, ranging from managing anxiety and anger, growing their “super powers”, body image, social media awareness, cultural crafting, drug and alcohol awareness, sexual health and basic life skills such as cooking and nutrition. The specific needs and challenges faced by a community are also reflected in the content.
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and TeachingGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOSoit forte!
Maison d’Haïti, Montréal, Quebec
This project aims to develop and strengthen a continuum of activities and individual support for young women ages 10 to 17 and their parents, as well as young mothers from racialized communities who are victims or survivors of violence (including domestic, intimate or intra-family violence, natural disasters, and migration). The program aims to help participants regain control over their lives, feel safe, become models for their children and to grow up and thrive in a healthy environment.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Leadership, Rebuilding Lives, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOSortons des binaires (Get out of the binary)
Project 10
Montréal, QuebecThis is a pilot project for trans, non-binary, and gender-fluid youth aged 14-25 that addresses mental health and trauma care. A collaboration between two organizations with expertise in this area, the project aims to increase the availability of community-based counselling and mental health interventions; prevent gender-based violence through affirmative medical and non-medical care; and promote youth-led programming.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOSpeak Up Program: Girls' Group
Community Arts and Heritage Education Project (CAHEPP)
Thunder Bay, ONSpeak Up Girls’ Group Program brings professional artists together with girls and girl-identified participants for projects involving art, storytelling, music, song, theatre and dance. Through these activities, participants will look at what it means to be a girl and how girls can help bring about social change. The program also builds on girls’ leadership skills.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOSpecialized Sexual Violence Program
Dragonfly Counselling & Support Centre
Bonnyville, AlbertaThe Specialized Sexual Violence Program focuses on decreasing barriers and increasing access to services and supports for women, girls, Two-Spirt, trans, and non-binary people who live in Northern Alberta. The program is committed to ending the cycle of sexual violence by providing specialized and culturally safe intervention, counselling and support to those who have been impacted directly or indirectly by sexual violence. The Specialized Sexual Violence Program serves 45+ rural and remote communities in the North Central/East Region of Alberta. The program uses an outreach model, with a main office in Bonnyville, and satellite offices throughout the region in Cold Lake, St. Paul, Lac La Biche, and Athabasca. Sessions are held both remotely and in-person.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOSt. James Town Community Co-op and Central Neighbourhood House
OASIS Food Hub social enterprise
The St. James Town Community Co-op’s primary focus is sustainable food security and climate change resilience. Working with the Central Neighbourhood House, the St. James Town Community Co-op’s OASIS (Organic Agro-ecological Sustainable Integrated System) Food Hub, a women-led, community food system model for marginalized communities. The OASIS Food Hub model was designed primarily by BIPOC women by and for the neighbourhood o St. James Town in Toronto. Their objectives include improving health and food security for diverse women and families in low-income communities; growing affordable, nutritious, local food year-round; creating sustainable job and enterprise opportunities for women and their families; providing community education to cultivate skills for women in climate-resilient food production and waste diversion.
Grant amount: $73,640
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOStardale Women's Group
Stardale Women’s Group
Calgary, AlbertaThe COVID-19 pandemic has impacted girls’ education, development, mental health, and overall quality of life. Stardale has partnered with RESOLVE Alberta to learn how its girls’ programming can help respond to these challenges. Elders and the advisory team will guide the implementation of these new approaches.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Girls' empowermentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOSteer Canoe in the Right Direction
Huu ay aht First Nation
Port Alberni, British Columbiaƛiƛič̓ałukwit̓asin – we will be steering our canoe in the right direction – will help girls to develop meaningful relationships with themselves and others. The program also aims to strengthen participants’ cultural identities and offer strategies to manage mental health and relationship issues, to help prevent intimate partner violence, self-harm and substance use. Through weekly sessions, mentoring and retreats, young Huu-ay-aht women will connect with one another, their traditional lands and culture.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Leadership, MentorshipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOStoney Trail Wellness Centre & Stoney Nakoda Nations
Empowering Women’s Entrepreneurship: Mobile Food Product Truck
Eden Valley, Treaty 7Stoney Trail Wellness Centre and Stoney Nakoda Nation will conduct a feasibility study to inform a business plan for a Mobile Food Product Truck. This initiative will help women gain entrepreneurial skills and experience, provide access to capital, and address issues in their territory, including food security, education, social inclusion, and health. The work will also contribute to the revitalization of the Indigenous food system and culture in the community.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOStrengthening Our Journey: Women’s & Girls’ Empowerment
Fort Frances Tribal Area Health Services, Fort Frances, Ontario
This project provides support services to Indigenous women who are at risk of, or who have experienced trafficking and other forms of violence. The goal is to provide participants with tools and resources to help them avoid violence, sexual exploitation, and trafficking. Fort Frances Tribal Area Health Services wants to address issues affecting Indigenous women and girls by collaborating with various community and social service agencies. This project aims to provide opportunities for women and girls to heal and regain strength, and to empower communities to educate themselves and find their voices.
Grant amount: $255,170 over 5 yearsLocation:OntarioProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Sexual Exploitation, Systemic Change, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOStrong Girls Strong North Girls Club
YWCA NWT
Yellowknife, NTThe Strong Girls Strong North Girls Club provides inclusive, youth-led, and culturally-appropriate programming that helps girls to better understand violence and its root causes. Programming empowers young women to build self-esteem and make healthy choices, while fostering their leadership potential. Having a safe place to learn and grow is especially important in Canada’s North, due to its isolation, limited resources, and high rates of family violence. As a free, preventative, weekly, girl-specific program, Strong Girls offers a rare and much-needed space for participants to explore their gifts and strengths.
Location:Northwest TerritoriesProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOStudent Leadership and Youth Empowerment Network
Student Leadership and Youth Empowerment Network
Scarborough, OntarioThis program will provide education and mutual aid relief to Black, Racialized and Indigenous trans and cis women and girls, femmes, and gender nonconforming folks experiencing and leaving heterosexist domestic, community and state violence. The project will host a drop-in education program to discuss topics gender-based violence, economic security, safety planning, women and girls’ empowerment, queer, trans and non binary empowerment, mental health and self care, knowledge of self and effective communication, and employment training. Personalized support for young women leaving situations of violence will also be provided.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOSummer STEM for Girls
Women In Resource Development Corporation
St. John’s, NewfoundlandThis project will deliver summer STEM and trades programming to girls living in low-income neighbourhoods who attend the day camps sponsored by an affiliated community centre. Participants aged 9-15 will be able to “try on for size” trades and technology activities in a supportive environment. Activities include coding programs, building and wiring lamps, field trips related to STEM, lunch & learns with role models, and more. Each activity will connect science and math courses in junior and high school to a potential career path.
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Mentorship, STEMGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOSupporting Diverse Survivors of Sexual Violence
Newfoundland and Labrador Sexual Assault Crisis and Prevention Centre, St. John’s
The goal of this project is to diversify and update the organization’s training program for volunteers on the 24-Hour Crisis, Support, and Information Line. The project will engage stakeholders and deepen community partnerships in order to develop training modules on how best to support survivors of sexual violence who are members of Aboriginal/First Nations, Elderly communities, and 2SLGBTQ+ communities. These modules will take an informed, culturally-sensitive approach and help volunteers create a more supportive and accessible service for women from diverse backgrounds.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOTechWomen
Immigrant Services Society of BC
Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSofBC) offers a pre-employment program designed to prepare newcomer women for careers in the technology sector through web development and design training, tech-specific language skills, employment preparation training, and a practicum placement. ISSofBC provides one-on-one support through career counselling and mentoring opportunities with women working in the tech sector.
Grant Amount: $325,000 over five years
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Mentorship, Skilled Trades, STEMGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOTerrace GRIT Program: Gain Resilience, Ingenuity, and Tenacity
Terrace Women’s Resource Centre
Terrace, British ColumbiaThis program is tailored to meet the needs of girls in rural northern community where they may face multiple barriers to pursuing their goals. The GRIT program (Gain Resilience, Ingenuity, and Tenacity) uses a strengths-based approach to encourage participants to become future leaders. Girls learn and practice intercultural understanding and conflict resolution while celebrating inclusion. Activities empower girls to know themselves and trust their voices.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:LeadershipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOTewegan Housing for Aboriginal Youth
Braid Hard – Decolonizing Social Financing in Indigenous Housing
The Braid Hard project connects Indigenous youth with their own strengths and visions for the future, while developing their social finance knowledge related to the land and self-determination. Braiding symbolizes interconnected relationships across people, cultures, and perspectives – ultimately weaving a strong community and future for all. Through this listening project, Tewegan Housing will continue to build towards its own future. A future that includes strong community supports, economic self-determination, and a decolonization of its relationship to land.
Grant amount: $35,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOTewegan Housing for Aboriginal Youth
Gashkitoon: Sustainable Transitional Housing through Social Finance Project (STH)
Tewegan, an Indigenous youth supportive housing provider, plans to expand housing capacity and develop a social enterprise that provides a revenue stream based on existing skills and capacity. Gashkitoon will advance Tewegan’s development of a revenue-generating model that supports young Indigenous women through the provision of safe, supportive transitional housing options. Tewegan has identified a two-pronged model that involves the potential purchase of a smaller multi-unit building as well as the co-occurring development of a property management company. Tewegan plans to define financing and investment vehicles for the purchase of a multi-unit dwelling with an interactive financial model and develop market research and a business plan for the proposed property management social enterprise.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOThe ?a?jim Program
Tla’Amin Health, Powell River
?a?jim (Young Women) is a violence-prevention program that engages teens who identify as girls, aiming to strengthen their sense of identity, purpose, and confidence. It also raises awareness of violence against First Nations women, and brings communities together to take a stand. Through weekly meetings, participants focus on topics including: traditional gender roles for First Nations women, healthy relationships, sexuality, diversity, and healthy bodies. This program takes a de-colonial and trauma-informed perspective, incorporates intergenerational mentorship and community involvement.
Grant amount: $21,300
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Avalon Legal Consultation Fund
Avalon Sexual Assault Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia
The Avalon Legal Consultation Fund reduces barriers to the civil, family court, and criminal justice systems for survivors of sexualized violence and for parents of child survivors of sexual abuse. Avalon Sexual Assault Centre will consult with feminist lawyers and law students to develop improved policies and procedures for clients around sexual assault cases, child protection, and records applications. Legal counsel will help the Centre to protect survivors’ interests, and to provide legal information to clients or liaise with other legal professionals. This will build capacity to influence legislative reform against discriminatory practices.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Basket Project
Common Weal Community Arts, Regina SK
The Basket Project will engage participants in basket-making as a way for victims, families, and communities to help rebuild their lives after experiences of violence. Veteran artist Michèle Mackasey is helping to develop this program to empower Indigenous girls and women against sexualized violence. Mackasey will work alongside local northern Elders and knowledge keepers to envision a program that is sensitive and relevant to the issues at hand. To further support this work, Common Weal Community Arts hopes to partner with the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan to find appropriate partnering agencies.
Grant amount: $22,880
Location:SaskatchewanProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Blanket Exercise
Cortes Island Women’s Resource Centre
Mansons Landing, British ColumbiaThe Blanket Exercise – a participatory experience of learning about Indigenous people’s history and the process of colonization – will be used to educate, show commitment, and bridge the gap between the Klahoose First Nation (and all Nations) and the non-native Cortes community. The exercise will promote understanding of the community’s history, and help to move forward with decolonization. It will also help to support Indigenous women and girls in a remote area, and help make the community safer for women in the community.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and TeachingGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Canadian Women’s Foundation Leadership Institute
The Coady Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia
More than 70 mid-career women in the non-profit sector received intensive leadership training through this pilot project, which ran from 2012 to 2015.
The Leadership Institute, established in partnership with the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University, was designed to ensure that the next generation of women leaders in Canada’s nonprofit sector has the leadership skills needed to effectively manage, build the sector, and become a force for change for gender equality in Canada. Many of the Leadership Institute graduates are working on the forefront of social change—using their skills in a diverse range of organizations across the country.Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Leadership, MentorshipGrant Streams: -
PLAY VIDEOThe Enchanté Network
The Enchanté Network
Ottawa, OntarioThe Network is receiving increasing requests to help organizations improve capacities to serve Indigenous and Two Spirit (2S) individuals. Our request explicitly addresses this need by providing seed funding for a Two Spirit Programs Coordinator who will work to build capacity among broader 2SLGBTQ-serving agencies to provide culturally informed programming to a growing and vulnerable 2S community. This role will also provide dedicated support to 2S member agencies.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Gateways Project
Naos Jeunesse: la créativité en action!
Montréal, QCThis project aims to facilitate elementary- to secondary-school transition as well as promote school retention and support vulnerable young girls to reach their full potential. Through workshops, girls have the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills. We create an environment in which they are able to express themselves, create and develop a sense of belonging. Using a model focused on dialogue, creativity and openness, the girls are equipped to better recognize their strengths, limits and interests, as well as negative stereotypes, violence and gender inequality.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Grant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Housing Supports for Women Program
Elizabeth Fry Society of Northern Alberta
Edmonton, AlbertaThe Housing Supports for Women Program provides rent subsidy and wrap-around supports to women who have experienced criminalization, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, victimization, and racialization. Program participants are reintegrating after a period of incarceration, and working on rebuilding their lives with their families and children.
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:TraffickingGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Ins and Outs of Healthy Relationships
Newfoundland & Labrador Sexual Health Centre
St. John’s, Newfoundland and LabradorThis 12-week program empowers youth to understand healthy relationships (romantic, platonic, familial, and professional) and learn tools to improve or end unhealthy relationships. Learning these skills will help to help prevent intimate partner violence, and to empower participants who are trans, Two-Spirit or gender non-binary.
Location:Newfoundland & LabradorProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOThe Laurel Centre
The Laurel Centre
Winnipeg, ManitobaThis funding supports the extension of The Laurel Centre’s Executive Assistant position. This role has been instrumental in developing and enforcing policies and procedures related to the pandemic. In addition, the EA has helped drive forward our 2021-2024 strategic priorities during these challenging times. Further advancement in these priority areas will strengthen the centre’s ability to serve diverse women, girls, Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people in our community who have experienced childhood sexual abuse and need support that meets their unique needs.
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Ocama Collective
The Ocama Collective, Toronto
The Ocama Collective is a group of birth workers of colour, who are dedicated to the reclamation of traditional and holistic childbearing and birthing practices. This funding allows it to expand its doula support and lactation consulting services. It may also be used for training and outreach to enhance current service provision.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Grant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOThe Redwood
Women on the Move (WOTM): Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Staffing
Toronto, OntarioThe Redwood’s HVAC Staffing is asocial enterprise that provides training and employment opportunities to women and non-binary folks who have experienced gender-based violence. It also provides staff or apprentices for an industry seeking more skilled tradespeople who identify as women or gender diverse. HVAC Staffing enables financial stability for survivors and their children, supporting them to remain free from abuse. The enterprise also provides ongoing support to ensure staff not only succeed but thrive in their new careers. This initiative will scale the social enterprise to a sustainable business.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Skilled Trades, Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOThe Space Youth Centre's Support Circle for Survivors of Gender Based Violence
The SPACE Youth Centre
Hamilton, OntarioThis program is designed to meet the needs of survivors within the community at the SPACE Youth Centre. This program is a closed, confidential group created for and informed by Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPoC) and 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and community members. It recognizes that people who experience intersecting forms of oppression also face more barriers to accessing services that meet their needs. The program provides inclusive services for youth who are often left out of spaces that address gender-based violence, with the goal of creating a community that promotes healing, and learning and unlearning together.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Rebuilding Lives, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOThe51 & University of Calgary
The51: A Financial Feminism Investing Lab
Women make up 51 per cent of the population, yet they receive less than 3 per cent of venture capital worldwide. The Financial Feminism Investing Lab aims to help educate aspiring women investors and create new funding opportunities for businesses started by women. The program will teach participants about early-stage investing, the social and economic value generated by women-founded enterprises, and the socio-economic barriers that influence women’s access to capital. This project is a partnership with the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, in collaboration with the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking and Innovate Calgary.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOThorncliffe Park Women's Committee
Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee
Toronto, OntarioThis project supports newcomer and immigrant women to find ways to enter the workforce through the Park Cafe social enterprise program. Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee will provide essential training and employment for women and girls to gain Canadian experience.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Economic DevelopmentGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOTipihew: "She has equal capabilities"
Aboriginal People’s Alliance of Northern Ontario
Kapuskasing, ONThe Tipihew program for Kapuskasing and surrounding communities will engage girls and 2SLGBTQII+ youth ages 9 to 13 in building confidence and access to community resources. The program will help participants to overcome barriers related to living in a northern region, and support them in becoming more engaged at school, in sports, and in their community. Girls also have a mentor (older youth or young adult) throughout the program, who can share their own experiences, coping strategies, and leadership skills.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Leadership, MentorshipGrant Streams:Girls’ Fund -
PLAY VIDEOTowards Justice for Trafficked Non-Citizen Women
Canadian Council for Refugees, Montreal, Quebec
This national project helps lawyers and non-governmental organizations address and prevent the sex-trafficking of women and girls in Canada who are not Canadian citizens. It aims to build the capacity of organizations to respond to survivors’ needs, to strengthen advocacy efforts, and to eliminate systemic gaps so that these survivors don’t fall through the cracks.
Grant amount: $250,000 over 5 yearsLocation:NationalProgram Focus:Sexual Exploitation, Systemic Change, TraffickingGrant Streams:Anti-Trafficking -
PLAY VIDEOTraditional Food, Budgeting, and Meal Preparation Program
Batchewana First Nation
OntarioThe Traditional Food, Budgeting and Meal Preparation Program equips all Anishnabe Kwe and non-Anishnabe participants who access the emergency accommodation services at the Nimki-Naabkawagan Family Crisis Shelter with the skills to address issues of food security, how to meal plan, stretch a budget, access traditional and healthy foods, and prepare nutritious meals for themselves and their children so that can improve their quality of life, and lower financial and health burdens.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Grant Streams:Rebuilding Lives -
PLAY VIDEOTransEstrie
TransEstrie
Sherbrooke, QuebecThe funds will extend the contract of a service coordinator to better serve the community. The coordinator answers outreach requests, plans and facilitates group discussions, supervises drop-ins, pairs clients with a peer supporter, assists peer supporters, reviews financial aid applications, organizes monthly activities, and ensures continuity between onsite services and referrals to external providers.
Location:QuebecProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2021/22 -
PLAY VIDEOTransition Towards Independence
Help and Hope for Families, Watson Lake, Yukon
This program is designed to demonstrate to all women, from young to elderly, that they can take back their empowerment and dignity after experiencing violence or abuse. It aims to teach women of all ages how to create healthy relationships.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:YukonProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOTurtle Island Institute & Tides Canada Initiative
Turtle Island Institute
Turtle Island Institute (TII) is an Indigenous social innovation collaborative—a think and do tank—enabling transformative change. TII seeks to establish a national community of practice of Indigenous innovators within the social innovation ecosystem in Canada and establish the first ever Indigenous Action Lab in Niagara Falls, Ontario. TII envisions this space as complementing existing programming at the sacred thundering waters (Niagara Falls). From this space, TII will deliver customized leadership and social innovation programming for Indigenous women and changemakers. The Institute focuses on training, coaching, and otherwise supporting social innovators tackle systemic and colonial barriers. Through TII’s deep engagement with social innovation organizations across Canada, it has become clear that the sector is largely inaccessible to Indigenous women and changemakers. Specifically, the superficial engagement of Indigenous wisdom within social innovation programs, and pedagogies has resulted in the marginalization of Indigenous practitioners and change-makers from the Canadian social innovation ecosystem. TII was originally incubated at the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience and in 2019, moved its programmatic work to Tides Canada.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOUnderstanding a Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit
Tobique Wellness Centre Wolastoqewiyik Healing Lodge, Tobique First Nation
This grant enables the development of a program to prevent violence and abuse against pre-teen and teen girls in the Tobique First Nation community. Initiated by the Wolastoqewiyik Healing Lodge, the program will combine established prevention tools for Indigenous youth, Maliseet cultural teaching (Medicine Wheel), and counselling interventions. It aims to empower girls to take control of their lives, reduce their risk of violence and abuse, and to recognize signs and symptoms of abuse. It will also encourage teen girls in the community to express themselves and take steps toward confidence and independence.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:New BrunswickProgram Focus:Indigenous Culture and Teaching, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOUnlearn and Learn: Helping Youth Address Pornography, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment and the Role that Internet Plays
Lady Ballers Camp, Brampton
This series of interactive workshops engages girls and boys in discussing and thinking critically about gender stereotypes, consent, sexual assault and harassment, and pornography, as well as the influence of the Internet and social media. The program is a collaboration between Lady Ballers Camp—a youth-driven organization—and professional experts including a sex and emotional literacy educator, crime prevention services, and lawyers. The goal is to help participants develop a solid understanding of legal rights and responsibilities related to consent, the roots of sexual harassment and violence, as well as strategies for prevention and intervention.
Grant amount: $22,054
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOUp Standers Against Violence Program
Surpassing Our Survival (S.O.S.) Society Sexual Violence and Prevention and Counselling Services, Prince George
Up Standers Against Violence is a school-based program that focuses on girls, sexual violence, bullying, and healthy relationships. The program empowers young women with the skills to reduce their risk of violence, as well as to develop leadership experience. While the activities are youth-led, there is shared decision-making with adults, as well as the incorporation of community expertise. In this phase of the program, the goal is to establish an “UP Team” of trained Grade 10 students across three local high schools. This will allow the program to reach more youth in the community, and to build supports and leadership skills for girls and women as they move beyond high school.
Grant amount: $19,994
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2019/20 -
PLAY VIDEOUPstanders Against Violence
Prince George Sexual Assault Centre
Prince George, British ColumbiaUPstanders Against Violence is a leadership and capacity-building program to reduce and prevent gender-based violence. This youth-driven program brings together community expertise, school/faculty supports. It is designed to increase knowledge, awareness, capacity, and resilience, while reducing the risk of violence, and providing a continuum of support to foster systemic change and sustainability.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Leadership, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOUPstanders Against Violence
Surpassing Our Survival (S.O.S.) Society, Prince George
UPstanders Against Violence aims to reduce and prevent gender-based violence by bringing together community expertise, school faculty, and youth leadership in a school setting. This will be a youth-led initiative with shared decision-making supported by adult allies. This is a three-phase leadership and capacity-building project, and each phase will strengthen and broaden the overall reach and impact. Program development will be informed by gender, trauma-informed and Indigenous “lensing.”
Grant amount: $19,994
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Leadership, Systemic Change, Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOVancouver Women's Health Collective
Vancouver Women’s Health Collective
The Vancouver Women’s Health Collective provides culturally informed, low-barrier access to free, trauma-informed drop-in/respite programs and services in the city’s downtown east side. It strives to go beyond meeting clients’ basic needs, and support their ability to thrive through safer connection and a sense of belonging. An Indigenous Culture and Community Coordinator ensures that programming reflects the communities that the organization supports.
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Violence PreventionGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOVictoria Native Friendship Centre
Cowichan Sweater Resurgence
The Victoria Native Friendship Centre encourages and promotes the well-being of urban Indigenous people by strengthening individuals, families, and community. The Victoria Native Friendship Centre, in partnership with Victoria-based clothing store Ecologyst, will revive the locally sourced Cowichan sweater knitting industry, providing fair wages for the knitters, so that Indigenous artisans can earn a living and be fairly compensated for their designs and knowledge. Fair wages for knitters will lead to more funds for stable housing, food, and better outcomes for Indigenous children and families. The project aims to expand employment in Indigenous crafts, engage Elders in mentoring/marketing, disrupt local supply chains, introduce new investors and end-use buyers, and build capacity at all levels.
Grant amount: $75,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOViolence Prevention Fund
Network of Inner City Community Services Society, Vancouver
This project enhances the Vancouver Rent Bank (VRB), which seeks to increase housing stability through interest-free loans to low-income individuals in financial crisis. The Violence Prevention Fund is specifically for women leaving abusive relationships and/or rebuilding their lives after experiencing violence. The fund lowers barrier for women to establish a safe and financially sustainable home. The program also provides for a variety of needs, including rent, moving costs, childcare, and others. It connects women with community services, and provides advocacy services for women who may need assistance navigating bureaucratic systems.
Grant amount: $20,000
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Loan FundsGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2018/19 -
PLAY VIDEOViolence Prevention Program
Spence Neighbourhood Association
Winnipeg, ManitobaThis program raises awareness about why violence against young women and trans youth occurs, and engages participants in working together prevent it. Grounded in the understanding that gender binaries are a colonial social construction, the program will connect participants to learning and teachings from various community facilitators. Youth will learn about how lateral violence (a learned behaviour stemming from colonial and patriarchal systems) contributes to violence against women, trans and non-binary youth, and how they can work together to challenge this. Activities will also promote understanding and acceptance of the diverse communities that make up Winnipeg’s West End neighbourhood.
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Annual Grants 2020/21 -
PLAY VIDEOVoices of Refugee Women from the Middle East
Family Services of Peel, Mississauga, Ontario
This project empowers refugee women by giving them the opportunity have input on what impacts their safety throughout their migration journeys. It explores how the immigration experience can increase women’s vulnerability to violence. It also highlights how the trajectory of immigration shapes refugee women’s status and impacts their overall safety and well-being. Through discussion, participants help develop strategies for violence prevention. The program also challenges common stereotypes of Muslim women.
Grant amount: $22,250Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOVolunteer Program
Sandgate Women’s Shelter of York Region, Sutton West, Ontario
This grant supports a part-time volunteer coordinator to expand the shelter’s volunteer base and recruitment strategy. The coordinator will work to engage volunteers who reflect the diversity and needs of the women and children served by the shelter. The overall goal is to provide more opportunities to empower women in the community to support women and children who are rebuilding their lives after violence. Volunteers will be recruited to support programs within the shelter and in the community, and to serve as co-facilitators. The project will also update training and policies for volunteers, as well as information to ensure safety and confidentiality for volunteers, staff, and clients.
Grant amount: $23,000Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Leadership, Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOVWTH Housing & Outreach Program
Victoria Women’s Transition House Society, Victoria, British Columbia
This program supports the health and healing of women living on or close to the streets, who have experienced abuse or violence. Taking a holistic approach, the program offers a safe space for peer-driven learning, storytelling, and discussion. Participants are encouraged to reflect on a time and place where they felt safe. The themes covered throughout the year will reflect the realities of women’s lives, and include spiritual and emotional healing, as well as basic health and safety.
Grant amount: $20,000Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Rebuilding LivesGrant Streams:Annual Violence Prevention 2017/18 -
PLAY VIDEOWe Know Our Worth
The Pas Family Resource Centre
The Pas, ManitobaBased on feedback from youth who access the Teen Centre, The Pas Resource Centre focuses on programming that supports youth to establish clear boundaries, develop mutual respect, maintain individual identity, enhance communication skills, and have a better understanding of gender, identity, sexual orientation, self-expression and personal safety. As requested by the youth, these workshops will be adapted to be shared with their families to foster healthy relationships.
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Violence Prevention for YouthGrant Streams:Teen Healthy Relationships -
PLAY VIDEOWindmill Microlending
Foreign Credential Recognition Study for Immigrant and Refugee Women
CalgaryWindmill Microlending offers skilled immigrants and refugees microloans of up to $15,000 and supports that include learning plan development, financial literacy, mentorship and career coaching.
Windmill Microlending will conduct a Foreign Credential Recognition Study for Immigrant and Refugee Women. This study will strengthen the business case for providing loans that can support women with expenses including tuition, exams, learning materials, travel and living expenses. It will also showcase to investors the potential to scale the existing Community Bond program.
Grant amount: $45,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Loan Funds, Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOWoman's Legal Education and Action Fund
Woman’s Legal Education and Action Fund, Toronto
This project recognizes that more work must be done to meaningfully include trans women and gender-diverse people in feminist advocacy. This funding will help build competence in gender equity related to trans women, trans people, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people to strengthen their role in the Canadian feminist movement.
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Systemic ChangeGrant Streams:Community Needs Grants 2022/23 -
PLAY VIDEOWomen Abuse Council of Toronto (WomanACT)
Organizational Development Services: Preventing and Responding to Workplace Violence
WomanACT is building a social enterprise that aims to provide organizational consulting services to help make workplaces safer for all employees by reducing workplace violence. WomanACT offers workplace audits, training, policy review and organizational development This project builds upon a feasibility study undertaken by WomanACT that revealed the need for addressing workplace culture as the root issue of workplace violence and that offering customized solutions for workplaces is the best approach. WomanACT plans to pilot this social enterprise by fine-tuning the business and pricing strategy aimed at corporate clients, institutions, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that focus on client attainment, engagement, and retention.
Grant amount: $74,930
Location:OntarioProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOWomen Against Violence Against Women Rape Crisis Centre (WAVAW)
Integrated Sexual Assault and Gender Services Clinic: Feasibility Study and Investment Readiness
Vancouver, British ColumbiaWAVAW is British Columbia’s largest Rape Crisis Centre serving cis and trans women, Two-Spirit, and non-binary people. WAVAW is in year 1 of its 5-year strategic goal to launch an Integrated Sexual Assault and Gender Services Clinic that offers survivors free access to services. WAVAW will complete a feasibility study to determine the viability and business model options for a self-sustaining, revenue-generating clinic and develop a business model that helps build relationships with philanthropists.
Grant amount: $40,932
Location:British ColumbiaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOWomen in Business
SEED Winnipeg
The Women in Business program provides business development supports for Indigenous and Newcomer women to launch a new business or expand an existing business. SEED’s Business Consultants provide business management training, money management workshops, business plan development coaching, access to financing, and continued support after business launch. Each year, the program will be offered to newcomer and/or Indigenous women, and program supports will be adapted to meet the specific needs of each group.
Grant Amount: $325,000 over five years
Location:ManitobaProgram Focus:Mentorship, Self EmploymentGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOWomen in Need Society (WINS) Calgary
MORE Store Expansion
WINS provides basic needs and resources to support disadvantaged women and families in the Calgary area. WINS is building on their initial successes of growing from one social enterprise retail store to launching an online subscription box service, and six locations across the region. WINS is launching a new bulk-based thrift store/warehouse called the “MORE Store”, the more you buy, the more you save, and any unsold items are then recycled. Revenue generated from social enterprise thrift operations support several programs such as the House to Home – which supports vulnerable women and families who are coming out of crisis situations; Retail Ready – provides experiential learning and employment skills for women in the retail sector; Warehouse Ready – an employment program which supports low-income clients find stable employment in warehouses across the region; and four community resource hubs.
Grant amount: $73,740
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness 2022 -
PLAY VIDEOWomen in Need Society (WINS) of Calgary
Twice New by WINS
Women in Need Society (WINS) plans to expand its current e-commerce social enterprise to include a subscription-based box service containing curated, stylish, thrift clothing items to customers’ doors. The online service helps to broaden WINS donations, sustain operating income, ensure women living on a low income have access to free clothing, household items and furnishings to make their house a home. WINS works in partnership with 80+ agencies to alleviate poverty, improve employability and foster self-sufficiency for thousands of women and their families every year.
Grant amount: $50,000
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Social EnterpriseGrant Streams:Investment Readiness -
PLAY VIDEOWomen in Technology Employment Program
Making Changes Association of Alberta
Making Changes Association offers an integrated skills training program that combines employability skills upgrading, technical training in the field of web development, and hands-on work experience to produce employment outcomes for unemployed or underemployed immigrant and Indigenous women in Calgary. The program includes educational upgrading, technical skills training, work experience, and mentorship in partnership with Sozentech. Participants work towards their Full Stack Web Development certification. The program also includes a research and policy component drawing on the extensive experience of the Alberta Network of Immigrant Women.
Grant Amount: $325,000 over five years
Location:AlbertaProgram Focus:Mentorship, Skilled Trades, STEMGrant Streams:Economic Development -
PLAY VIDEOWomen Unlimited
Women Unlimited
The Women Unlimited program supports diverse women to build careers in the trades and technology (T&T) fields in Nova Scotia. The Women Unlimited model is designed to support diverse women along a multi-year journey from recruitment, to their 14-week Career Exploration Program, through college-level T&T training, transitioning to employment, and once employed, through apprenticeship to certification. Throughout this journey, Women Unlimited provides wraparound supports to address the range of barriers women face. Women Unlimited also works with relevant industries, unions, governments, apprenticeship, educational institutions and agencies to build more respectful learning and workplace cultures for diverse women.
Grant Amount: $325,000 over five years
Location:Nova ScotiaProgram Focus:Mentorship, Skilled Trades, STEMGrant Streams:Economic Development