Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB)
Funding will support Advocacy Committees to equip businesses, community organizations and municipalities with resources so that they become more accessible.
Focus Area: Communities
Scope · Supporting and amplifying the leadership of equity-deserving groups to address systemic barriers to economic and social justice at a local, regional or national level.
Approach
We seek to serve and support community agency; respecting local knowledge and strengths.
Equity, Trust, Community Self-Determination and Collaborative Engagement are the four principles driving this work. Grounded in our experience that communities know what is best for them, our intention is to focus on the “how” and the “who” and not the “what”. This means instead of prioritizing specific issue areas (e.g.: food security or youth), we are prioritizing work that rebalances power to equity-deserving groups and supports community-driven solutions.
Prioritizing equity-deserving groups
We seek to understand and serve the needs of communities with a priority placed on listening to and responding to the needs of equity-deserving groups. We will prioritize partnering with and strengthening organizations led-by and representing equity-deserving groups that experience significant collective barriers to economic and social justice. These barriers could include attitudinal, historic, social and economic barriers based on age, ethnicity, disability, economic status, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation and transgender status.
What do we mean by Community?
We take a broad view of community: A group who share common needs and goals, whether defined by geography, identity, interest, purpose, practice, or other commonalities.
Strategies and Criteria
Collaboration and Collective action
We want to support organizations to collaborate and achieve shared outcomes that might otherwise be out of reach. We seek to work with organizations and collaboratives that have a history of working together to advance a common agenda.
The Foundation believes that Communities already know – and are actively doing – what needs to be done. Our goal is to help accelerate and amplify the positive change already underway.
Criteria questions for collaboration and collective action applications:
- How will the proposed work advance social and economic inclusion, equity and justice? Why are you proposing a collaboration or collective response?
- How will your work include individuals or communities that are the intended beneficiaries of the proposed activities?
- Please describe the history of your partnership.
- How long have you been working together? What brought you together? What has changed as a result of your work together?
- What support is needed for you and your partners to work on this?
Policy Change
We want to support organizations to advance policies or policy changes that favour economic and social justice and reduce barriers for equity-deserving groups.
We will support policy change efforts at all stages: from advocacy to engagement, communication, consultation and priority setting.
Criteria questions for policy change applications:
- How will the proposed work advance social and economic inclusion, equity and justice?
- Why are you proposing a policy response?
- How will your work include individuals or communities that are the intended beneficiaries of the proposed activities?
- What support is needed for you and your partners to work on this?
Recent Funding
Learn more
Building Blocks for Child Care (b2c2)
Funding will contribute to the expansion of non-profit and public early learning and childcare centres in Ontario, with a focus on increasing access for equity-deserving groups.
$ 300,000
Huddle
Funding will serve to scale the model in Manitoba, to increase number of hubs, to support two existing Indigenous hubs and to integrate Indigenous health and mental care.
$ 400,000
Inspiring Communities
Funding will support collective action in Digby, Dartmouth and Cape Breton on a variety of social and economic issues.
$ 750,000
Prosper Canada
Funding will support Prosper Canada to strengthen national and local financial empowerment services to address financial vulnerabilities of lower income households.
$ 1,200,000
Disability Without Poverty
Funds will be used to for staffing and programs to develop and implement the Canada Disability Benefit.