Eligible Contribution Recipients

Eligible organizations may only submit one application.

Eligible recipients for this Call for Proposals include:

• Not-for-profit organizations (including registered charities, voluntary organizations, and foundations)
• Municipal governments
• Indigenous organizations (including band council, tribal councils, and self-government entities)
• For-profit organizations (provided that the nature and intent of the funded activity is non-commercial and not intended to generate a profit)
• Public health, educational and cultural institutions
• Provincial and territorial governments, institutions, agencies, and Crown Corporations.

Proposals could include the following activities:

• Activities designed to enable stakeholders to develop and plan eligible projects
• Activities that support the development and use of tools and products for learning, skills development, career planning and career development
• Service activities, which include but are not limited to outreach, client assessment, case management, career development information, and job search and job retention assistance
• Activities designed to enable youth to acquire and enhance skills, which include but are not limited to pre-employability skills, employability skills and advanced employability skills
• Activities designed to provide work experiences
• Activities designed to provide wrap-around services to support youth employment needs, such as mentoring and coaching
• Activities designed to support youth entrepreneurs gain self-employment
• Activities that support youth in making informed career decisions, promote the value of education, and promote youth as the labour force of the future
• Activities designed to support research and innovative projects to identify better ways of helping youth prepare for, return to, and keep employment and to be productive participants in the labour force
• Activities related to measuring and articulating the impact of the program
• Activities to support employers in hiring or retaining youth facing barriers
• Activities designed to build better linkages between organizations (for example, by linking employers, service providers, unions, industry associations, educational institutions, and other levels of government) for the benefit of youth
• Culturally appropriate Indigenous supports such as access to networks and Indigenous social services (for example, healing centres, counselling, healthcare, shelters, resource centres, restorative justice)
• Activities associated with meeting the reporting requirements of the YESS Program
• Other activities that support the objectives of the YESS Program

Ineligible projects and activities:

• Projects consisting of activities that take place outside of Canada
• Partisan political activities
• Activities that contribute to the provision of a personal service to the organization
• Fundraising activities to cover salary costs for the youth participant
• Projects or activities that:
  • restrict access to programs, services, or employment, or otherwise discriminate, contrary to applicable laws, on the basis of prohibited grounds, including sex, genetic characteristics, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression
  • advocate intolerance, discrimination or prejudice
  • actively work to undermine or restrict a woman’s access to sexual and reproductive health services

Eligible Costs:

• Overhead costs, including costs related to central administrative functions of the recipient organization that are drawn upon to support agreement activities (such as shared postage, telephones, IT maintenance and head office support)
• The costs of materials and supplies
• Wages and Mandatory Employment Related Costs (MERCS)
• Staff training and professional development costs
• Honoraria and hospitality costs
• Printing and communication costs
• Travel costs (international travel must be specifically authorized)
• Professional fees (such as consultants, IT, technical expertise, facilitation, legal, research, audit, assessment and evaluation)
• Capital costs, including small repairs or renovations to support the participation of youth facing barriers. (Capital costs for the construction of a building or the purchase of land or buildings are not eligible)
• Participant costs (such as living expenses, dependent care, scholarships/bursaries, transportation and accommodation) within the established limit per participant of up to $50,000 per project

Ineligible Costs:

• Capital costs for the construction of a building or the purchase of land or buildings
• Entertainment costs
• Fines or penalties
• Depreciation of fixed assets
• Board membership fees
• Purchase of motor vehicles
• Costs associated with fundraising activities
• Canada Revenue Agency or payroll penalties
• Parking and traffic violation fines
• Legal fees and court awards for inappropriate dismissal, or for other inappropriate or illegal activity
• Membership fees for private clubs, etc. unless part of existing, non-monetary employment benefits package
• Staff salary bonuses if not originally negotiated in the agreement
• Costs of illegal substances or goods
• Costs of alcoholic beverages or other such recreational substances
• Amounts paid to an employer for the supervision of participants in a work experience
• Excessive gifts or payments for recognition
• Costs incurred for ineligible participants
• Gift cards, cash, and coupons, unless duly pre-approved by ESDC and verified for compliance with eligible costs

Please note that ESDC may identify other ineligible costs on a case-by-case basis.

The project will directly serve youth furthest from employment

Your application must clearly demonstrate how the project will directly serve youth aged 15 to 30 who are facing barriers and are among youth furthest from employment. Youth furthest from employment includes youth who are chronically not in employment, education, or training (NEET), and who have other unmet basic needs that undermine their employability (for example, income and housing security, disability, health, etc.). Youth furthest from employment also experience broader systemic barriers and discrimination that negatively impacts their ability to find and keep employment. Other youth who often face barriers to employment can include, early leavers from high school, single parent youth, recent immigrant youth, and youth living in rural and remote areas. These barriers often intersect, further complicating these youth’s inclusion in the labour market.

Priority may be given to projects that serve youth furthest from employment who are also underrepresented in the labour force, including Indigenous, 2SLGBTQI+, Black and other racialized youth, and youth with disabilities.

For youth with disabilities focused projects, your application must clearly demonstrate how your project will serve youth aged 15 to 30 who self-identify as having a disability.

The project will assist youth to gain the skills, tools, information, or work experience needed to transition into the labour market or return to education

Your application must clearly demonstrate how the project will assist youth to gain the skills, tools, information or work experience needed to transition into the labour market or return to education by providing details on the different interventions that would be offered, including eligible activities/interventions aimed at empowering and supporting youth in their career development. Interventions may include skills development, paid work experiences, mentoring, and efforts to build connections between stakeholders for the benefit of youth. Applicants are expected to clearly identify how proposed activities/interventions will directly support youth transitions into the labour market or educational interventions.

The project will engage with employers to inform the design of programming or facilitate successful conditions and opportunities for quality work experiences for youth facing barriers

Your application must clearly demonstrate how the project will engage with employers to inform the design of programming or facilitate successful conditions and opportunities for quality work experiences for youth facing barriers. This can include a plan for creating and maintaining strong relationships with employers, having employers’ input into the design and development of youth employment programming, offering guidance to employers on creating an inclusive workplace, how to effectively support youth once on-the-job, paid quality work experiences, etc. Activities could also include coaching and direct support to employers to increase employer capacity to support youth facing barriers.

For projects focused on youth with disabilities, your application must clearly demonstrate how your project will foster inclusive, safe and accommodating work environments for youth with disabilities.

The project demonstrates how the organization will work towards using an intake mechanism to identify and assess the needs of each youth participant to determine how to best support individual needs and address employment barriers

Your application must clearly demonstrate how your organization will use, or work towards developing, a formal assessment for eligible participants that identifies their individual needs and supports the development of a plan for how to best support their needs and address their specific employment barriers. For projects focused on youth with disabilities, your application must clearly demonstrate that you have an intake mechanism that will identify intersectional barriers faced by youth with disabilities and take into account both their needs and strengths.

The project provides participants with access to individualized, wrap-around supports

Your application must clearly demonstrate how the project will provide youth participants with individualized wrap-around supports that respond to individual youth needs by addressing intersectional barriers to employment. For example, this could include mental health supports, accommodations, mentoring, coaching, and many other supports that increase the likelihood of a youth’s success. It is expected that youth will have access to wrap-around supports for the duration of a project, and if applicable, once they have secured employment.

For projects focused on youth with disabilities, your application must clearly demonstrate how your project will provide individualized, wrap-around supports focused on the unique barriers faced by youth with disabilities (for example, transportation, technology, mental health, etc.)

Organizational capacity to manage the project

The proposal must demonstrate your organization’s capacity to manage the project by including a detailed description of the following structure and processes:

• Governance
• Human Resources and policies
• Financial Management
• Funding Distribution

The proposal must clearly demonstrate your experience or expertise to carry out the proposed project activities by providing information that demonstrates experience and expertise in delivering projects related to youth facing barriers to employment and having successful results with past projects. You may:

• Describe how your organization, or organization staff has worked with or delivered programming to youth facing barriers to employment, including the number of years of experience
• Describe how your organization has had successful results with past projects
• Describe how your organization’s experience enables you to carry out the project activities

Project Objectives

The proposal must clearly demonstrate that the project will:

• address the needs of youth facing barriers to employment
• deliver skills-based training, supports or work experiences
• take into consideration youth intersectional identities
• provide youth with access to comprehensive, individualized supports

The proposal must also identify specific outcomes the project is designed to achieve in order to help youth overcome barriers to employment, develop a broad range of skills and knowledge in order to participate in the current and future labour market, and to promote education and skills acquisition as being key to labour market participation.

Project Activities

The proposal must demonstrate how project activities support the program objective to “help youth overcome barriers to employment, develop a broad range of skills and knowledge in order to participate in the current and future labour market, and to promote education and skills acquisition as being key to labour market participation”.

The proposal must clearly:

• Describe project activities that are eligible, outputs and outcomes including expected number of participants
• Describe the type of interventions
• Describe a participant intake mechanism
• Describe how employers will be engaged in program design or supported in creating inclusive work environments
• Explain how project activities will support the program objectives
• Explain how the project’s expected results supports the program objectives

The proposal must also include detailed timelines and milestones that are clearly established and feasible:

• Time allocated must allow a participant to benefit from the intervention
• Proposed type of work experience must correspond to the participant target group
• Activities and timeframe must be able to accommodate the expected number of participants
• Timelines are without unexplained gaps within the proposal’s timeframe                                                                                          

Project Results and Impact

The proposal must clearly demonstrate your organization’s ability to measure project progress by:

• Describing the project’s expected results (outputs and outcomes)
• Articulating how project outcomes meet the program objectives
• Providing expected results that are specific, concrete, and measurable
• Demonstrating and explaining how results will be collected, monitored and reported
• Including risk mitigation strategies
• Including a participant follow-up strategy (such as the use of a system or process of tracking participant’s progress, including before and after skills assessment)

The proposed project activities must align with the expected results. You must:

• Explain how expected results are linked to project objectives
• Explain how expected results are linked to project activities
• Describe participant monitoring and outline reporting schedule

Project Budget

The proposed project costs are eligible, reasonable, and detailed, as well as support the project to achieve its expected outcome.

The established limit per participant is $50,000 per project. This includes all project costs with the exception of disability-related costs. This can include costs associated with career counselling, training, mentoring, coaching, wrap-around supports, administrative costs, staff wages, etc.

This is calculated by dividing the ESDC contribution (minus any participant disability supports) by the number of participants. 

For Example

• If the ESDC contribution is $5,000,000 and there are 250 participants and no disability supports, the calculation is as follows: $5,000,000 ÷ 250 = cost per participant of $20,000.
• If the same agreement has $240,000 budgeted for disability supports, the calculation is as follows: ($5,000,000 - $240,000) ÷ 250 = cost per participant of $19,040