For the first time, in 2009/10 the Foundation decided to commission a series of solutions papers, from a variety of different writers, that would describe how Ontario could move toward a truly local, sustainable food system by identifying key leverage points for food system change. The series of paper was intended to build on the themes in Foods Connects Us All, a Metcalf publication from 2008, by presenting credible, pragmatic, innovative, and forward-thinking solutions. More than 40 proposals were submitted for papers, and the resulting papers represented a diversity of approaches: from alternative farming through urban agriculture and community food centres. For more information about the five Food Solutions Papers, please click here.
We are living in a time of profound change, where simple solutions to the complex, interconnected issues we are facing – from growing income inequality to increasing pressures on our natural environments – are not adequate. We need new ways of seeing and acting to tackle integrated ecological, social, economic, and cultural challenges confronting us today.
The Metcalf Innovation Fellowship is directed at supporting new “thinking and doing.” We believe fresh insights and true experimentation often happen on the edge of an issue, out beyond where organized and traditional efforts are being made. We want to create opportunities for this work to be developed, disseminated, and heard. This Fellowship gives individuals of vision and creativity, people with outstanding talent and originality, the freedom to pursue powerful ideas, models, or practices that have the potential to contribute to building a healthier, more resilient southern Ontario.
The Innovation Fellowship is aimed at individuals with vision, a passion for their issue, intellectual rigour, and a willingness to ask hard questions and propose novel solutions. Funding can be used to support costs associated with project activities; awards of up to a maximum of $30,000 will be made available for Innovation Fellowships.
Applications can be received either directly from the prospective Fellow, who, upon receipt of an Innovation Fellowship, would enter into a contract for services with the Foundation, or from the registered charitable organization with which the individual is associated.
Applicants to this program must:
- have a significant record of achievement and be recognized within their field; and
- have worked in an area related to their proposed exploration for a minimum of ten years.
Individuals may propose any type of project that they wish to pursue, bearing in mind that it must contribute to the mission of the Metcalf Foundation and to the work in one or more of our program areas.
For a full description of the program, including the process for making an application, please view the program guidelines here.
Applications are received at the Foundation on an ongoing basis and will be considered by the Board at quarterly meetings. Click here to view the application guidelines for more information.
For frequently asked questions, please review the FAQ section.
To review past Metcalf Foundation grants, please visit the Who We Fund section.
Current Metcalf Fellows
Lynn Eakin has been providing consulting services to the nonprofit sector since 1989. Currently, as a Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellow, Lynn is involved in the establishment of the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN), to improve the ability of the sector to address the cross-cutting policy issues it faces. She continues to engage in sector research and is involved with ONN in identifying, developing, and advocating for systemic reforms to improve the ability of the sector to undertake its important work. Her studies have documented the systemic underfunding of the sector (Community Capacity Draining); described the cumulative administrative burden imposed by multiple funders on community organizations (We Can’t Afford to Do Business This Way); warned of the disconnect between legislation and regulation of the sector and the daily reality of nonprofit organizations (Canada’s Nonprofit Maze); and called for distinct treatment of organizations providing public benefit in our communities as distinct from commercial enterprises (The Invisible Public Benefit Economy). http://www.lynneakin.com.
Fay Faraday is a nationally recognized lawyer with expertise in constitutional and human rights law, and has a particular interest in the rights of migrant and marginalized workers. Fay represents civil society, unions, and individuals in the areas of constitutional and appellate litigation, human rights, administrative/public law, labour and pay equity. Fay has addressed a wide range of issues relating to gender and work, rights of persons with disabilities, rights of migrant workers, race discrimination, employment equity, poverty, income security, and international human rights norms. She has represented clients in constitutional litigation at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Fay is a frequent guest lecturer at law schools; is frequently invited to speak at human rights, labour and civil society conferences; and publishes extensively on a range of issues including labour, human rights, and constitutional law, and is currently co-authoring a book on farm workers' rights.
As a Metcalf Fellow, Fay is undertaking research on the strategic analysis of the laws, programs, and policies that structure and constrain the rights of migrant workers in Toronto in order to map the complex legal landscape that regulates migrant workers. The aim of this work is to develop a framework for sustainable reform to strengthen temporary foreign worker rights in Canada.
Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the ESRC Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE). Funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the aim of RESOLVE is to develop a robust understanding of the links between lifestyle, societal values and the environment, and to provide evidence-based advice to policy-makers seeking to influence people’s lifestyles and practices. Professor Jackson also directs the newly-awarded Defra/ESRC Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group. From 2004 to 2011 he was Economics Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission, where his work culminated in the publication of the controversial book Prosperity without Growth – economics for a finite planet (Earthscan 2009). In addition to his academic work, Tim is an award-winning dramatist with numerous radio writing credits for the BBC.
Shannon Litzenberger is a Toronto-based dance artist, writer, director, and arts advocate. Her work in arts policy has contributed significantly to shaping sector-wide advocacy strategies and policy positions on behalf of the arts and culture community. She is the former Executive Director of the Canadian Dance Assembly, a founding member of Canada’s Performing Arts Alliance, and a member of the Canadian Arts Coalition Steering Committee. In 2010, she was named the first-ever Metcalf Arts Policy Fellow and is currently spending time exploring the relationship between arts policy and practice at all levels of government. Her blog, The Arts Policy Diaries, has become an important arts policy resource in Canada. As a dance artist, she has worked with some of Canada’s most dynamic artistic voices and is currently collaborating with award-winning dancer, choreographer, and director Marie-Josée Chartier on the creation of a new work on the theme of “home.” http://www.shannonlitzenberger.com.
Jane Marsland has managed arts organizations since 1974 and has, for the past 12 years, been one of Canada’s most respected arts consultants. She was General Manager of the Danny Grossman Dance Company from 1983 through 1999. In 1995, she was the first recipient of the M. Joan Chalmers Award for Arts Administration for outstanding leadership in the arts and, in 2002, she received Theatre Ontario’s Sandra Tulloch Award for Innovation in the Arts. She was co-founder of For Dance and Opera, a strategic collaboration to book and tour four companies, as well as co-founder and director of Arts4Change, a program designed to create positive change for and by arts professionals in Toronto. Arts4Change introduced Toronto to the work of consultants Nello McDaniel and George Thorn of Arts Action Research, and Jane has since become an Associate of Arts Action Research, and, in this capacity, she provided technical assistance to the Creative Trust Working Capital for the Arts program. As part of the October 2011 Toronto Arts Awards, Marsland was recognized for her years of service as the recipient of the Rita Davies and Margo Bindhardt Cultural Leadership Award. As a Metcalf Innovation Fellow, Jane is examining fiscal sponsorship models and their applicability to the performing arts sector in Ontario.
Sally Miller (BA Princeton, MA, PhD Cornell University, MES York University) has worked as a researcher and writer in various sectors including local food, sustainable agriculture, public transportation, natural building, renewable energy and co-ops. In addition, Sally has over twenty years of experience as a manager, director and consultant in sustainable farming and local food initiatives.
Projects include the recent Nurturing Fruit and Vegetable Processing in Ontario paper for the Metcalf Foundation and various reports for Sustain Ontario, as well as work for the Toronto’s public transit union, research in natural building and renewable energy for Fourth Pig Worker Co-op and the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, and a book publication entitled Edible Action: Food Activism and Alternative Economics (Fernwood Publishing 2008). Edible Action explores the power of alternative food movements to effect economic and social change; similarly the Transformations in Land Uses and Rights in Ontario project will explore the transformative potential of new uses and approaches to land. A chapter forthcoming in the 5th Edition of Power and Resistance: Critical Thinking about Canadian Social Issues, provides an initial exploration of these ideas.
John Stapleton worked for the Ontario Government in the Ministry of Community and Social Services and its predecessors for 28 years in the areas of social assistance policy and operations. During his career, John was the senior policy advisor to the Social Assistance Review Committee and the Minister’s Advisory Group on New Legislation. His more recent government work concerned the implementation of the National Child Benefit. He is a Commissioner with the Ontario Soldiers’ Aid Commission and is a volunteer with St. Christopher House and Woodgreen Community Services of Toronto. John was Research Director for the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults in Toronto and was the co-chair of the working group associated with this project. John also serves on the Board of Directors of the Daily Bread Food Bank and he is the President of the Canadian Horseracing Hall of Fame.
John has published op-eds in The Globe & Mail, National Post, and The Toronto Star. He has written reviews for the Literary Review of Canada and written articles and studies for Ideas that Matter, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the C.D. Howe Institute, the Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation, the Caledon Institute, The Toronto Dominion Financial Group, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, The Toronto City Summit Alliance, and many others.
Patricia Thompson is a Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Massey College, University of Toronto. Her research explores the connections between vocational, organizational, and civic renewal. Since 2000, Pat has been a consultant to leaders responsible for mature nonprofit organizations facing adaptive challenges. Pat began her career on Parliament Hill in 1981, where she worked first for her hometown MP and later for two federal cabinet ministers. From 1988-2000, she worked for the YMCA locally, nationally, and internationally in senior roles related to strategic communications, external relations, and programs.
Dr. Peter Victor is an economist who has worked on environmental issues for over 40 years as an academic, consultant, and public servant. By extending input-output analysis, he was the first economist to apply the physical law of the conservation of matter to the empirical analysis of a national economy. His most recent book is Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster (Edward Elgar, 2008).
Dr. Victor is a Professor in Environmental Studies at York University and from 1996 to 2001 was Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies. This followed several years as Assistant Deputy Minister of the Environmental Sciences and Standards Division in the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Prior to that, Dr. Victor was a principal of VHB Consulting and Victor and Burrell Research and Consulting.
From 2000 to 2004 Dr. Victor was President of the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science, Canada’s oldest science organization, and from 2004 to 2006 he was Chair of Environment Canada’s Science and Technology Advisory Board. Dr. Victor was the founding president of the Canadian Society of Ecological Economics. Currently he is Chair of Ontario’s Greenbelt Council, and a member of the boards of the David Suzuki Foundation, the New Economics Institute, and the Centre for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy. He is also a member of several advisory committees in the public and private sectors.
In 2011 Dr. Victor was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in the Social Sciences.
Tom Zizys has worked for almost 20 years as a policy researcher and project consultant in the community sector, focusing on labour market analysis and designing employment programs. He works regularly with the various training boards across Ontario and frequently makes presentations to organizations and policymakers regarding labour market trends. Tom previously held a number of senior positions in the Government of Ontario, including Director of Policy, Premier’s Office. He has taught several courses at York University and Ryerson University, including program evaluation, public policy, and public law. He has also been involved in numerous international development projects focusing on civil society and poverty alleviation.
Tom’s work as a Metcalf Fellow involves exploring the impact of the changing labour market on the working poor – how these changes have come about, what their impact has been, and how Ontario’s labour market can be improved to serve employers, employees, and job seekers better.