Applicants

To be an eligible applicant, your organization must belong to one of the following categories:

• Not-for-profit organizations;
• For-profit organizations, if the nature and intent of the activity is:
• Non-commercial,
• Not intended to generate profit, and
• Supports program priorities and objectives;
• Research organizations and institutes;
• Indigenous organizations or governments; and,
• Municipal, provincial, and territorial* entities, which includes:
• Institutions,
• Agencies and Crown Corporations,
• Public health and,
• Educational institutions (universities, colleges, CÉGEPs, school boards/school districts)

*Provincially/territorially funded institutions are eligible with the consent of the provincial/territorial government.

Note to organizations located in and operating in Quebec:

Ministère du Conseil Exécutif (M-30)

• The Quebec National Assembly adopted the Act respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif (M-30). The provisions of this Act include certain conditions on Quebec government bodies and certain other entities wanting to contract with the federal government.
• You may wish to review the provisions of M-30 at the following website before submitting your Application for Funding to make sure you comply  with the Act.
• Any entity that is subject to the Act must obtain authorization from the Government of Quebec before signing any agreement with the Government of Canada.

Projects

To be an eligible project, your project must meet all the following criteria:

• Confirm your project responds to one or more of the Canada Service Corps service themes:
• Reconciliation
• Building an inclusive Canada
• Preserving the environment
• Promoting civic and democratic engagement
• Strengthening youth resilience
• Potential new themes that are youth-identified
• Target participants between the ages of 12 and 30 at the time their service placement begins
• Target at least 50% of total participants who are Indigenous, under-served youth, or both
• Have project activities that take place in at least two provinces and/or territories
• Propose to offer the required minimum full-time and/or flexible service placements per fiscal year (April to March). This means that:
• If offering only full-time placements, a project must offer at least 40 full-time placements per fiscal year.
• For fiscal year 2024-2025, projects must offer at least 27 full-time placements. This is because projects won’t have the full 12-month period for this year.
• If offering only flexible placements, a project must offer at least 120 flexible placements per fiscal year.
• For fiscal year 2024-2025, projects must offer at least 80 flexible placements. This is because projects won’t have the full 12-month period for this year.
• If offering full-time and flexible service placements, a project must offer a combination that is equal to at least 14,400 hours per fiscal year.
• For fiscal year 2024-2025, projects must offer a combination that is equal to at least 9,600 hours. This is because projects won’t have the full 12-month period of this year.
• We expect that approved projects under the Service Placements National Stream can start as early as August 2024. If your planned start date is after August 1, 2024, we’ll pro-rate your targeted number of service placements for fiscal year 2024-2025 when assessing your proposal.
• A fiscal year is a 12-month period that starts from April 1 to March 31. For example, the fiscal year 2024-2025 will begin on April 1, 2024, and ends on March 31, 2025.
• Please note that a full-time service placement must last a minimum of thirty (30) hours per week for three (3) consecutive months within a fiscal year. A flexible service placement must last a minimum of one hundred and twenty (120) hours within a fiscal year.
• Not exceed $8,000,000 per fiscal year in total funding amount requested from ESDC 

Note:

• All projects must let participants know of supports that they can access to help complete their service placements.
• The intent of this call is to fund project activities up to March 31, 2027.

Activities

You should also make sure that your project activities are eligible.

Eligible activities include:

• activities that offer support for youth in the identification and validation of issues and priorities for community action
• activities supporting the implementation of methods to reach Indigenous youth, under-served youth, or both
• activities that support the implementation of strategies or actions to address community issues
• activities that explore, test and/or develop innovative solutions, best practices, tools and/or methodologies (for example, toolkits, resources, etc.)
• activities to support access and participation of youth in service, including Indigenous youth, under-served youth, or both
• activities designed to support social integration and understanding of diversity
• activities designed to support approaches to facilitate participation in civic life for youth
• activities that provide opportunities for youth to learn or enhance skills and competencies, such as leadership, teamwork and communication skills
• activities that establish and maintain partnerships, alliances and/or networks to promote alignment with Canada Service Corps program priorities
• activities designed to support knowledge development and research on engaging youth in service
• activities designed to test projects and methods to engage youth in service
• activities designed to test methods and/or incentives to encourage youth to participate and successfully complete service placements
• activities supporting the dissemination of information and knowledge

Who can participate in your project

To be eligible, participants must be:

• Canadian citizens, permanent residents or persons who received refugee status in Canada
• at least 12 years of age and no older than 30 years of age at the time their service placement begins

Note:

• Projects must target at least 50% of total participants who are Indigenous youth, under-served youth, or both.

What the funding can be used to pay for

Eligible costs include:

• overhead costs, normally up to 10%, including costs related to central administrative functions of the recipient organization that are drawn upon to support agreement activities (such as shared postage, telephones, information technology maintenance, and head office support)
• data collection and reporting (including tools such as software programs, outside of administrative costs, that are used to collect data)
• costs of materials and supplies
• wages and mandatory employment-related costs (MERCs)
• training and professional development costs for project staff
• honoraria (program participants are not eligible)
• printing and communication costs
• professional fees, such as consultant, technical expertise, or facilitation
• domestic travel costs, not exceeding rates and allowances in the National Joint Council travel directives
• participant costs and supports such as:
• living expenses
• equipment or services that enable virtual service opportunities
• mentorship
• dependent care
• transportation
• accommodation
• meals
• mental health supports
• career development supports
• specialized services or referrals to appropriate resources
• arrangements or equipment for persons with disabilities
• recognition or completion certificates and other non-financial incentives to encourage youth to participate and successfully complete their service placements

Note that participant living expenses must have a direct link to the project objectives and activities. Living expenses must be due to participation in an intervention. They must also be reasonable and at fair market value. Living expenses aren’t to replace or act as an employment or income support.

Where the recipient redistributes contribution funding to one or more persons or entities to carry out project activities, payments from the recipient to the third party to reimburse the latter for the above-listed types of expenditures incurred are also eligible expenditures.

Ineligible costs include:

• financial payment for participants volunteering their time, such as:
• stipends
• completion bonuses
• scholarships
• student loan repayment
• severance pay
• honoraria
• international travel costs
• gift cards as form of recognition
• living expenses and rent not related to domestic travel costs
• debts
• membership fees (organizational or individual level)
• credit card payments
• fines
• penalties
• mortgage payments
• primary accommodations of participants

Other eligibility requirements

To be eligible, you must also make sure the following are met:

• You must submit your application before the deadline of December 19, 2023, at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST).
• You must make sure that your application package is complete and has all the required documents (as per the Prepare your documents section).
• You must confirm that your organization is able to provide safe and inclusive environments that are free from racism, harassment and discrimination for both participants and organization staff.