Backgrounder:  Social Development Partnerships Program  

The Social Development Partnerships Program is a grants and contributions program that supports investments in not-for-profit organizations to help improve life outcomes for persons with disabilities, children and families, and other vulnerable populations. The program is divided into two components: the Disability component and the Children and Families component.

The program provides an opportunity to work in partnership with social not-for-profit organizations to help improve the life outcomes of these target groups. Activities funded by the program are expected to lead to the development and sharing of knowledge of existing and emerging social issues; the creation of collaboration, partnerships, alliances and networks; and the development of approaches to respond to existing and emerging social issues.

Social Development Partnerships Program – Children and Families component

The Children and Families component provides funding for socially innovative projects that maximize outcomes and community impact through partnerships and social innovation.

The program enables proven innovative approaches to reach greater numbers of Canadians in response to complex and persistent social challenges facing marginalized populations. This supports the Government of Canada’s social innovation priorities, which encourage promising and results-oriented initiatives that increase the impact of federal spending and increase participation from all sectors.

Children and Families: Call for proposals – Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Children and Youth Projects

The 17 projects funded under the Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Children and Youth call for proposals are:

Organization

Agency Chiefs Tribal Council
(Spiritwood, Witchekan Lake, Pelican Lake and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)

Amount

$2,209,745

Project name and description

A Collective Expression through the Eyes of Children and Youth will provide access to programs and services that will enable the social inclusion and overall well-being of Indigenous children and youth. It will target three separate youth age groups and will promote community-oriented and culturally sensitive approaches. The project will also partner with other Saskatchewan First Nations groups to promote self-expression through art, dance, play and theatre, and it will educate on the deep impact of social isolation.

Centre de pédiatrie sociale de Gatineau

(Gatineau, Quebec)

$1,024,936

The Boîte à musique project will support children and youth in the Gatineau area suffering from cognitive developmental disorders due to physical, psychological and sexual abuse or due to family issues. The project will offer specific awareness and empowerment activities through music to help reduce toxic and chronic stress, prevent school dropout and break social isolation.

Centre for Sexuality Society

(Calgary, Alberta)

$669,000

Building Healthy Relationships: Children/Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities will provide programs and services to decrease social isolation for children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities by actively developing and maintaining more meaningful social connections and healthy relationships, and by reinforcing the parents’ and service providers’ knowledge, skills, and comfort to support healthy relationships and sexual development.

Cirque Hors Piste

(Montréal, Quebec)

$1,442,420

Cirkaskina – Le cirque comme outil de transformation sociale will target youth from 18 different communities in the Montréal area, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, people living in precarious conditions, and linguistic minority communities in Quebec. The project will promote circus arts as a vehicle for positive social change and will encourage shared activities to develop confidence and social belonging.

Escale MadaVic

(Edmundston, Grand-Sault, Haut-Madawaska, Saint-Quentin and Saint-Léonard, New Brunswick)

Up to $2,620,431

Espaces thérapeutiques collaboratifs avec/pour les jeunes victimes et/ou témoins de violence will develop physical, mobile and virtual therapeutic spaces for young people who have witnessed or been victims of family violence, including young women, young Francophones, Indigenous people, and people living in rural and remote communities in New Brunswick.

First Light St. John’s Friendship Centre

(St. John’s and Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador)

$2,966,672

Shared Spaces will provide cross-organizational program delivery services and shared access to infrastructure, facilities and programming to the Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) community. The project will also focus on the development, oversight and facilitation of an urban BIPOC youth council to promote community engagement and self-confidence.

Ifarada: Centre for Excellence

(Ajax, Ontario)

$1,703,240

The Kujenga Youth Well-being Project will target Black and racialized youth in the Durham region to enhance their social, emotional and cultural pride and increase positive parenting skills, strategies and attitudes for racialized families through youth-led workshops.

Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment

(Etobicoke, Ontario)

$928,304

Look Up, Lift Up! will promote a broad range of programming in arts, health, life skills, mentorship, peer relations and personal development that will support and empower Black and racialized girls and young women, particularly those from low-income families in the Greater Toronto Area.

Kanata United Church

(Ottawa, Ontario)

$303,414

The Ottawa West-Carleton LGBTQ2S+ Centre project will provide access to programs and services that decrease instances of isolation and vulnerability of LGBTQ2S+ youth and develop safe spaces where they can learn about their rights and gain self-confidence to fully participate in society.

NorWest Co-op Community Health

(Winnipeg, Manitoba)

$1,057,797

Going Places for All will expand an existing youth program in two new low-income neighbourhoods. The activities will reduce social isolation and improve well-being by providing access to resources and programming like education, employment, counselling, recreation and mentorship. The program will also create a safer space and community hub, including for newcomers and Indigenous children and youth.

Nunavut Literacy Council

(Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay and Arviat, Nunavut)

Up to $2,573,902

Qiturngavut – Our Children will offer opportunities to vulnerable Indigenous children and youth to feel included in society and their community, destigmatize traditional gender roles, responsibilities and cultural practices, and offer a young parents program. The project will empower youth and encourage engagement in the remote communities they belong to.

Pacific Training Centre for the Blind Society

(Bowen Island, British Columbia)

$1,247,844

Camp Bowen Summer Independence Camps will develop and carry out services and supports to help increase the social inclusion and well-being of vulnerable children and youth, specifically blind, deafblind and low-vision children and youth. These objectives will be achieved through summer independence camps that are specific to: music, Braille literacy, technology in code hardware, and early intervention.

PEERS Alliance

(Charlottetown and Stratford, Prince Edward Island; Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia)

$1,048,838

TRANSforming for the Inclusion of Gender Creative Children and Youth will foster inclusion and support to LGBTQ2+ youth, with an emphasis on gender diversity in Prince Edward Island. This project will expand the Roots & Shoots peer support program, introduce a trauma-informed role play games and events program, and create a safer schools toolkit which will support inclusion in the public school system.

Projet LOVE: Vivre sans violence (Québec)

(Montréal, Quebec)

$146,497

The Media Arts Program for Vulnerable Youth at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres will provide access to programs and services that will reinforce the social inclusion and overall well-being of youth living in group homes at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres through annual media arts programs. This project will also target official language minority communities in Quebec.

The Side Door Ministries

(Yellowknife, Northwest Territories)

$2,979,751

No Youth Left Out will expand on successful programs like the Mentorship Program and Camp Connections, which target different social issues and subsets of society to reach more members of BIPOC and 2SLGBTQI+ communities, people with disabilities, women and girls, low–income people, Indigenous people and people living in remote or rural communities.

Urban Non-Violent Initiatives Through Youth

(Toronto, Ontario; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)

$1,129,905

The Digital Inclusion project will address and eliminate barriers created by lack of access to devices and high-speed internet. In partnership with local youth-focused and arts-based organizations, the project will build sustainable virtual programming practices for youth, including those in remote regions or experiencing barriers to digital access, in Nova Scotia, northern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. 

VIDEA (Victoria International Development Education Association)

(Victoria, Pemberton and Kamloops, British Columbia; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; Wabasca and Maskwacis, Alberta; Shell Lake, Saskatchewan)

$1,546,048

Strengthening Roots, Growing Together will scale up a project that is focused on creating a supportive virtual space for Indigenous youth to plan and carry out a range of weekly wellness activities. The project will help to build connections, combat isolation, develop social skills, address mental health issues, and share culture and Indigenous approaches to individual and community wellness.