Grants Awarded 2009
Total disbursements for 2009 under the Metcalf Foundation’s Community Program equal approximately $925,000. The following is a list that includes grants to qualified donee organizations and descriptions of contracted services for specific charitable work to be carried out on behalf of the Foundation.
Communities in Action
The Communities in Action Program supports people and organizations to create comprehensive collaborative long-term solutions to issues of poverty.
ACORN Institute Canada
$40,000
to reduce housing insecurity in Toronto by building community capacity through tenant working groups of low- and moderate-income families to challenge the issues of low quality rental housing and a shortage of affordable housing. This project aims to build on proven successes from Toronto and other jurisdictions to fundamentally change the way affordable housing is built and maintained in Toronto.
Canadian Council on Social Development
$7,500
to support the first Canadian Social Forum to bring together community leaders from social development, public health, environment, community safety and recreation to target both urban and rural poverty.
Community Social Planning Council of Toronto
$60,000
to support efforts to reduce poverty at the local level. This project will deepen Toronto-based work on poverty reduction by establishing spaces where organizations doing local organizing on poverty reduction issues can come together to share information, resources, and pursue the development of shared strategies and initiatives. This will assist in linking the community engagement work by local organizations to the broader public policy activity.
Community Social Planning Council of Toronto
$7,500
to support the 2009 Toronto Community Development Institute Spring Conference, an effort of community agency staff, academics, and activists committed to strengthening community development practice as a city-building strategy.
COSTI Immigrant Services / South Asian Women’s Rights Organization
$37,046
to support women living in the Teesdale, Cresent Town and adjacent communities to organize to address the issue of access to affordable and adequate childcare supports necessary to assist women to pathway out of poverty.
Daily Bread Food Bank / Voices from the Street
$70,000
to work with a team of social assistance recipients who are leading a review of the Social Assistance System. The team will develop a blueprint for how Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program needs to change to decrease barriers and increase opportunities for people to transition out of poverty.
Gerstein Centre
$30,000 (year 2 of 2)
to support Voices from the Street, a project that trains individuals who have had the lived experience of homelessness to become educators and leaders on issues relating to poverty. This will strengthen and extend their participation in a range of initiatives such as the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction, and to develop tools and resources to help organizations, institutions, and policy makers to facilitate the participation of low-income people in dialogue and decision making processes.
Houselink Community Homes
$35,000
to support the Dream Team’s efforts to address poverty reduction and more specifically, to expand the availability of affordable, supportive housing in Ontario. The Dream Team will use both public education campaigns and policy development initiatives to advance their work.
Informetrica Limited
$38,850
to develop a roadmap to support policy makers, the media, think tanks, and community groups to navigate differing poverty related claims and measures, their strengths and weaknesses, and their relative statistical validity.
The Learning Enrichment Foundation
$50,820
to increase the capacity of residents of Weston-Mount Dennis to break the cycle of poverty in their community. They will work with community residents to implement a series of strategies to address issues of inadequate income and benefit supports, lack of childcare subsidies, the limited opportunities for employment and training supports, and insufficient supports for the young people in their community.
Neighbourhood Legal Services / Income Security Advocacy Centre
$17,150
to support the facilitation of a set of strategic conversations about the province’s anticipated Social Assistance Review. The conversations will bring together academics, policy experts, and community groups under the leadership of people with lived experience to explore how to shape the scope and policy directions of the province’s review to achieve fundamental transformation of the system.
Omega Foundation
$40,000
to support a collaborative initiative to increase low-income families’ participation in RESP’s. This initiative aims to change how governments and banks engage with low-income people related to education savings while supporting families to increase financial literacy, help families start and build education savings, improve access to eligible government program funds, and support education success for youth.
Ontario Employment, Education & Research Centre
$65,000 (year 2 of 2)
to strengthen the capacity of contingent workers to develop their leadership and public policy capacity to address issues of precarious employment.
Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre
$32,880 (year 2 of 2)
to support the ongoing develop of the Ambassador Project, an innovative neighbourhood consultation model led by low-income residents in the community. This project will support ongoing training, curriculum development, and dissemination of the model locally and nationally.
Ralph Thornton Community Organization
$35,000 (year 1 of 2)
to develop a successful model of community development that creates inclusion and social cohesion in a mixed income community.
Schools Without Borders
$18,000
to support the creation of a youth-led food security strategy in the Kingston-Galloway community in Scarborough.
The Stop Community Food Centre / Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre
$75,000 (year 2 of 2)
to expand and enhance community-led efforts to address poverty and hunger. These include expanding the work of the Income Security Advocacy Council and launching a new public education and engagement effort through the Green Barns Support Club to bring a new constituency of people together to work on addressing poverty.
West Hill Community Services
$75,000
to engage residents in developing a comprehensive food strategy for southeast Scarborough with the end goal of reducing the cost of food and increasing buying power. Resident leaders will develop skills to bring knowledge and information about poverty reduction initiatives to other residents living in poverty across the city.
Leadership in Action
Leadership in Action is intended to contribute to fostering a reflective, diverse, robust community sector capable of responding to complex social challenges. During 2009, we offered two distinct learning and leadership opportunities: Innovation Fellowships and Renewal Fellowships.
Renewal Fellowships
The Renewal Fellowship supports exceptional senior leaders in the community-based sector who have demonstrated outstanding work and a long-term commitment to improving social conditions and opportunity for low-income people. It provides a sabbatical for professional revitalization. The Foundation provides financial support up to a maximum of $40,000.
John Elliott, Program Director – West Hill Community Services
John will examine the areas of reflective leadership practice, and the inter-relationship between leadership and organizational design with particular focus on chaos theory and complexity science. As part of his fellowship John will engage with the Greenleaf Centre for Servant Leadership as well as with nonprofit leaders based in Northern Ireland.
Bob Rose, Program Director – Parkdale Activity - Recreation Centre
Bob will pursue the theme that the recovery of personal stories is a requisite for rebuilding lives of those most marginalized in communities. He will explore this idea through a range of creative mediums including writing, music and reconnection to his roots in Newfoundland. Bob will also undertake research in the area of organizational change and the particular role that leaders play in stewarding these processes forward.
Innovation Fellowships
Innovation Fellowships give people of vision the opportunity to investigate ideas, models and practices that have the potential to lead to transformational change. The Foundation provides financial support up to a maximum of $40,000.
Lynn Eakin, Lynn Eakin & Associates
to provide strategic leadership to the recently created Ontario Nonprofit Network. Lynn will also examine the concept of a public benefit economy through peer networks and discussion forums to determine if this is a useful framework to help increase the effectiveness of the sector.
John Stapleton, Open Policy
to advance a new vision and approach to income security in Ontario.
Patricia Thompson
to explore the area of nonprofit leader renewal and how investing in the professional vitality of leaders supports the strengthening of organizations and the sector as a whole.
Other Grants
The Centre for Aboriginal Media
$5,000
to support the 10th anniversary of the imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival.
Design Exchange
$70,000
to support an innovative partnership project with Design Exchange, archiTEXT, and East Scarborough Storefront to enable young people to take an active role in the creation of a community resource building. This project aims to create a model for participatory design, creativity, and innovation in architecture through the engagement and empowerment of the community.
Labour Community Services
$4,000
to support the Good Green Jobs for All Conference to bring together community, labour and environmental activists to address key issues for the future economy of greater Toronto.
Communities In Action Guidelines >
Innovation Fellowship >
Renewal Fellowship >
Emerging Leaders >
Application Deadlines >
Advisory Committees >