Awarded Grants

This project will adapt and deliver four educational workshops for seniors in three key rural/suburban areas on Vancouver Island. Planned and delivered in collaboration with local project partners, the workshops will aid participants in developing skills and strategies to effectively navigate the Home and Community Care System, as they engage with health professionals and support one another in accessing care. Participants will receive a session binder containing information specific to their region and information on provincial services and associations for seniors.

KHAOS is a re-imagining of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone set in a contemporary world of climate change and looming global catastrophe. KHAOS asks the question, ‘What if Persephone were prevented from returning from the underworld to console her mother? Would Demeter’s continuing grief and despair end life on Earth as we know it?’ This is a request for funding of the premiere production and touring.

This opera is based on aspects of the life of actress Marilyn Monroe, with libretto from BC author and poet, Marilyn Bowering. It examines Marilyn Monroe’s intellectual and emotional relationship to death and love. As the work progresses, the performance interweaves what is taking place on stage with the trajectory of Monroe’s life through relationships, fame and myth.

Approximately 4,000 temporary foreign agricultural workers (TFWs) come from Mexico to the Lower Mainland each year. Although they have mandatory, self-paid, private health insurance many of these workers face language, cultural and logistical barriers to accessing health services. The Umbrella Mobile Clinic provides culturally-appropriate health services via a van that has been converted into a medical clinic. This mobile clinic is staffed by a site coordinator, a BC-licensed physician, a cross cultural health broker and volunteers. This year, the project will also incorporate health promotion workshops (as requested by the patients), and expand ongoing relationships with farm owners and extend outreach to local pharmacies, laboratories and hospitals.

The BC Books Online consortium aims to deliver a collection of BC published books in e-book format to every public, academic and school library in the province. In partnership with the Association of Book Publishers of BC, BC Books will hire staff to create marketing and information packages for the libraries, work with publishers and writers to develop terms of trade, and develop a program to sustain the project over time, ensuring access to the BC Books Online collection across the province and creating a significant literary legacy.

The Grand Foyer of the Museum overlooks Discovery Passage, a waterway rich in First Nations and marine history, coastal lifestyles, unique landmarks and natural features. It highlights Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuuchalnulth and Coast Salish cultures as well as logging, fishing and coastal life styles. This project will place a user-activated, large screen kiosk, akin to an ‘IPod on wheels’ in the foyer. It will offer layers of interpretation with interview clips, slide shows, video clips, narration and images, both archival and current, grouped by thematic icons. Custom programming would allow for easy updating and adding of content or images.

Social Enterprise Services

IBDE is an online, accredited training program that helps persons with disabilities (PWD) become web designers or establish a business website. Curriculum is accessed from www.ibde.ca, allowing participants to learn comfortably from home. Participants receive one-on-one assistance from qualified, caring personnel who understand the challenges they face. Assistance is offered in our virtual classroom and through instant messaging, email, and telephone. We offer two IBDE programs: (1) IBDE Web Essentials, a six-month introductory web design program, and (2) IBDE Web Advanced, a four-month program offering training in web programming and web marketing. Through this project we plan to provide supports to 17 individuals in total, eleven in IBDE Web Advanced and six in IBDE Web Essentials. This project will increase employment for PWD by equipping them with technical skills and experience that are in high demand by employers and the business community.

This project will build public support for a public system of integrated early care and learning that meets the needs of BC children, families and communities. In 2010, an Emerging Plan shared with thousands of British Columbians was overwhelmingly positive. In 2011 and 2012 the Project will produce a final Plan and undertake public education and community engagement activities to build awareness and support for the Plan.

This project will offer networking and skill-building activities that will allow 40 community groups to collaborate year-round. It will implement outreach, workshops, online communication mechanisms and best practices sharing for these organizations. Two partner organizations will offer programs for Aboriginal and racialised girls and young women in their communities.

Afghan Women's Sewing and Craft Cooperative (Malalay) supports the socio-economic development of Afghan women in BC. This project will: develop increased knowledge and skills for co-operative and society members; refine business and marketing plans; revise the co-operative by-laws; and increase engagement of members as stakeholders.

Partner to develop engaging educational resources for students within the school system that will supplement current Social Studies curriculums. These will describe and illustrate the history of Indian Residential Schools (IRS), the role of Churches and Government, and the impact the schools have had on First Nation’s people & non-natives. Create mobile exhibits to be rotated among schools, colleges, universities etc. and in the lobbies of participating corporations with the goal of educating employees about IRS & to create funding, scholarships & job mentoring opportunities. Develop a proposed permanent education and research centre at UBC to supplement the First Nation’s Studies Program, House of Learning, Museum of Anthropology, Long House, First Nations Library etc. By creating interactive, multi-media displays that bring the experience of Residential Schools to life, the exhibits will assist educators by enhancing the resources of their in-class curriculum and generate additional interest in the subject with native & non-native people.

The Project will serve BC children, youth and their families, professionals providing non-therapeutic child interviews in family cases, and legal professionals who need their services to implement BC law. It will start a non-profit society that promotes professional education for non-therapeutic child interviewers, where BC families and legal professionals can learn about a service available to them to support children and youth; and where BC children and youth are given an opportunity to share their views with qualified interviewers where their best interests are determined.

This project addresses the addiction issues of mothers and pregnant women with peer support through weekly workshops run alternatively between professionals and mentors. This program directly benefits the community at large, increases use of existing services, decreases the risks of child apprehension and fills a need unmet by other service providers.

The project will engage and train at-risk children, youth and parents in community food security (life skills, leadership, food safe, food preparation, cooking and healthy nutrition). Three neighbourhood single parents will be trained and employed as part time kitchen trainees to help prepare and cook nutritious food for residents involved in Kiwassa programs. The trainees will be supported to find entry level employment in the hospitality industry, leading to increased financial security.

The Burnaby Youth Hub provides educational, health and therapeutic services to vulnerable youth with complex needs who are not connected to the community through school or work. Services include an educational program, a youth clinic, and a youth centre. The Hub also offers counselling services, job readiness and skills training. This project will assist with staffing costs to provide oversight of the network of agencies that work at the Hub and promote the Hub to the community.

Gladly, high school "Green Clubs"; have community organizations help with group projects like school gardens and elective courses are now being offered by concerned teachers. Taking this further into the mainstream, BTC positions Sustainability & Leadership as an appealing curriculum module within Planning 10 - a course that all highschool students need to graduate. Learning by doing, students make "sustainable lifestyle choices" in this innovative 16 week module that features: 1) inspiring, educational, video-enriched school presentations; 2) a "Student Action Guide" filled with important actions to choose from; 3) a Facebook application that makes tracking actions fun & easy; 4) a dialogue process in "Action Circles" where students report on actions and dialogue on personal experiences; and 5) a teacher training course/manual to make it easy for any teacher to deliver. Although targeting Planning 10 in B.C., this module may be used in courses such as Leadership, Social Justice, Critical Thinking, and Civics in provinces across Canada. This is the global mind-shift in action!

The Japanese Canadian National Museum will undertake important community outreach and collaboration programs to preserve Japanese Canadian history and culture. Japanese Canadian elders are very concerned that their history be preserved, and the human rights abuses suffered during the forced evacuations of the Second World War not be forgotten. The Museum will work with volunteers in Vancouver, New Denver and Kamloops to catalogue and scan photographs and documents, and make them available to all Canadians, researchers and students through the JCNM’s online database.

This project builds a sense of community around food availability and sustainability, dietary education, and emergency food supply. This grant will fund efforts to share the program’s successes and challenges in a tangible way and growth towards the next phase of food self-sufficiency. It will also fund “A Food Security Handbook for Small Neighbourhoods”, investigate the accessibility of crown land for farming, and research the use of heat generated by the Kaslo Arena to heat a community greenhouse that provides seedlings for urban gardens as an education tool.

This project is a women centered, peer driven initiative that offers support, encouragement, awareness in personal journeys and mentoring for mothers struggling with addiction. It aims to enhance the group by providing bi-weekly mentorship workshops for the mothers, including resources and wages for two senior mothers in recovery to facilitate one mentoring workshop a week. The second workshop every week will be facilitated by community professionals on various topics pertaining to the recovery process.

The Lagoon Society will work collaboratively with other organizations to engage residents in biodiversity conservation, conduct a biodiversity assessment, and develop a regional biodiversity conservation strategy. We will bring together existing information and conduct new inventories and assessments to evaluate the current status of biodiversity, assess threats, and identify high priority areas for conservation and restoration. We will bring together scientists, land managers and stakeholders at a 3-day summit to develop a biodiversity conservation framework with common objectives, coordinated strategies and effective measures to conserve, enhance and monitor biodiversity in the region. By carrying out diverse public outreach activities, we will encourage and enable residents to assist with biodiversity conservation. In the long-term, this project will increase the capacity of our community to undertake sound stewardship of biodiversity and ensure that our region maintains a connected, biologically diverse network of habitats, healthy, resilient ecosystems and ecosystem services.

The Mentorship Employment Program will provide opportunities for both young adults with developmental disabilities and the local business communities to broaden their expectations of how persons with disabilities can meaningfully contribute in the workplace. The Program will help participants discover and develop their interests and skills in the pursuit of employment opportunities, and will facilitate increased accessibility and inclusion in Sea to Sky communities and labour markets. The Program will provide participants with opportunities to explore 3 employment options through supported unpaid and short term employment experience in order to find the best/most appropriate employment opportunities, where both employee and employer needs are satisfied. SSCS is uniquely positioned to successfully deliver this program using our related experience and existing collaborative networks. We have been helping adults in their career choices since 1990 and have worked effectively with partners in many of our employment and disability focused programs.

Small Change Fund is changing the funding landscape for grassroots groups across Canada. We are connecting community projects, especially those in remote and rural areas, with donors through our innovative crowd-funding platform and communications campaigns. Without Small Change Fund, grassroots groups have few, if any, sources of support and channels to communicate their messages. Over the past year, we received more applications to support vital grassroots action taking place in British Columbia than any province/territory. B.C grassroots leaders clearly see Small Change Fund as an opportunity to secure resources to contend with their specific set of struggles around resource development and Aboriginal rights. Now, more than ever, grassroots leaders in British Columbia are mobilizing around the challenges they are facing in their communities. We want to answer the call of these leaders, and be responsive by offering the support they are asking of us.