Awarded Grants

This project seeks to develop an online knowledge resource where programs can share best practices and policies in helping women and children fleeing violence. It will identify and provide access to online training tailored to meet workers’ needs. It will transform existing training modules into an accessible on-line format to enable the training of workers to meet their clients needs.

This parenting class helps parents build a strong relationship with their pre-teens, and gives them the confidence and skills to guide their children through the sometimes troubling teen years. This six-session program helps parents reduce the likelihood that their children will participate in illicit drug and alcohol use and other high-risk behaviours. Program leaders develop culturally appropriate programs for their specific community. The project will result in specialized training, mentoring and multi-language resources to enhance the delivery of the program to immigrant and refugee parents.

TeenWork and TechWork - To provide and promote meaningful and integrated employment and training opportunities, and/or related technological supports, for those with special needs.

This pilot project taught eight families how to grow, harvest and prepare vegetables. Now over 50 families want to participate. A group of senior citizens have agreed to share their knowledge about growing and preserving foods. The program aims to improve mental and physical health in marginalized groups while connecting the community to agriculture. Participants will learn soil preparation, seeding, nurturing, harvesting, preservation and preparation skills while interacting with other citizens in a caring, safe environment.

Solutions Job Developer - This project will increase employment among Perrsons With Disabilities by working n a one-to-one basis with employers in the DCLS service region and job seekers to create the best match between a job seeker's skills/abilities and the employer's needs.

To conduct research and policy analysis to provide technical support to the BC Species at Risk Working Group. Legal activities will also leverage media as part of a public outreach campaign to secure a Species and Ecosystem Protection Act in BC. Ecojustice’s interdisciplinary approach and leadership will demonstrate the need for additional legislative protection for BC species and habitat.

EMBERS Staffing Solutions - Employment Support

Phase 2 Opening Doors to Work 2

Can You Dig It helps immigrants and refugees break down isolation by building a community garden on East 8th Avenue at Commercial Drive. The project will facilitate connections between immigrants and local community people, with the goal of social and economic integration. Over two years, this project will sponsor gardening training sessions; recruit newcomer volunteers to meet with neighbours and invite them to participate; and invite 240 newcomer families to establish and maintain a produce garden at their homes.

Over the past decade, the Sea-to-Sky region has seen significant growth, with many new families. To ensure these families are able to connect with needed resources, Sea-to-Sky Community Services Society wants to open a Drop-in Family Centre in Squamish that offers referrals and information, workshops, peer support and child-minding to families with children ages 0 to 18. The program would be led by one half-time Family Support Worker who would host two drop-in sessions per week and offer one-on-one support with families as needed.

Aboriginal youth ages 17 to 30 will have the opportunity to receive industry-recognized training, exposure to the post-secondary education environment, and meaningful work experience at high-traffic tourism venues. This proven model is designed to create opportunities for high-risk Aboriginal youth, who primarily live on reservations and face poverty and low literacy. It strengthens cultural connections by working with elders and indigenous cultural experts from the Squamish and Lil’wat Nations and assists in developing successful work and education patterns. This highly successful model, designed to create opportunities for high risk aboriginal youth, who primarily live on reservations and face multiple barriers (e.g. poverty, low literacy levels), strengthens cultural connections by working with elders and other indigenous cultural experts from a range of Squamish and Lil'wat Nation aboriginal communities and assists in developing successful work and education patterns. Funding provided by the Vancouver Foundation for this project will enable the formalization of the program and provide for 3.0 credit. This credit will create a bridge to further education and increase opportunities for participants.

Turning Point Ensemble is a co-producer of Ahakista – Air India Flight 182, a new opera commissioned by the Banff Centre for the Arts, Cork Midsummer Festival (Ireland), and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. As the story of Air India Flight 182 begins in Vancouver, stops in Toronto, and tragically explodes over Ireland, this opera weaves together local, national and global threads to tell a human story of our time.

The goal of this project is to raise the overall digital literacy in Vancouver’s DTES and surrounding neighbourhoods, while building confidence and a range of skills in facilitators. The Learning Exchange will train and support 80 local residents to take a leadership role in the community by delivering free computer classes to people with little or no computer skills. By creating opportunities for facilitators to lead workshops, the project will ensure people have the IT skills increasingly needed to function in our technology-dependent world.

Some Aboriginal students face challenges when returning to their communities. Both communities and students often feel that students’ new skills and knowledge were not developed through an indigenous lens. This project identifies and mitigates breakdown points, and helps students share what they’ve learned with their community. Using a structured, three-month mentorship model, students develop, deliver, manage and evaluate a community development program while building relationships with their community.

This project will facilitate the revitalization and sustainability of the Sençoïen language at their band-operated school. Their five-year mission is to establish immersion programming from pre-school to Grade 3. They have hired six language apprentices to work with a language team, including three current language instructors who will soon retire. They seek on-going funding for their master/apprentice relationships between their 15 remaining fluent elders and their dedicated young adult apprentices.