Community Funding Program
The Community Funding Program invests in non-profit community social service agencies that offer services for residents facing the greatest needs and barriers.
Community Funding Framework
In 2019, the City of Ottawa approved a new, updated Community Funding Framework with a new vision, mission, mandate, funding priorities and funding streams.
NOTE: due the evolving COVID-19 situation and the focus of both agencies and the City on responding to it, the implementation of the new Community Funding Framework is postponed to 2022. The current Funding Framework will remain in place for one additional year in 2021, and the allocation processes for all the funding streams under the new Framework will begin anew in 2021, starting with the Sustainability Fund (renewable, 5-year) in January 2021.
Vision
Ottawa has a strong and sustainable non-profit social services sector working collaboratively to ensure an equitable and socially inclusive city for all residents.
Mission
Community Funding improves community well-being by investing financial and capacity building resources in the non-profit social services sector to address the root causes of poverty and increase equitable access to services for residents facing the greatest needs and barriers in our community.
Mandate
Community Funding invests in a sustainable social infrastructure of community non-profit social services that:
- provides equitable access to programs and services;
- responds to community needs;
- demonstrates measurable outcomes and financial accountability;
- collaborates to build community capacity and development; and
- aligns with City of Ottawa strategic priorities
Guiding Principles
Guiding Principles for community funding are:
- Equitable and Inclusive: Applying an intersectional Equity and Inclusion lens in all decisions and steps.
- Strengths-Based: Focusing and building on the strengths of individuals, communities and organizations
- Forward Looking: Prioritizing forward-looking approaches such as prevention, promotion, and awareness building
- Systems Focused: Recognize residents’ lived experiences and structural issues as interrelated and work to improve both
- Collaborative: Prioritize collaborative approaches to improving residents’ lived experiences and addressing social issues
Priority Groups
-
Francophone: Persons with French as their first official language spoken and persons who understand French but can no longer conduct a conversation in that language. This definition was adopted by the Ontario government in 2009.
-
Immigrants/Newcomers: Immigrants are defined as those who landed in Canada in the last nine years, while newcomer includes those who landed in Canada in the last five years.
-
Indigenous: Persons who identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuk (Inuit) and/or those who are Registered or Treaty Indians and/or those who have membership in a First Nation or Indian band. Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
-
LGBTQI2+: Individuals who identify as belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, or Two-Spirit communities.
-
Older Adults: The City of Ottawa uses the term “older adult” to refer to a stage of life rather than a specific age-based category of people (though this would certainly include individuals in their fifties and up). On the other hand, the term “senior” is used when exclusively referring to people 65 years of age or over.
-
People with disabilities: The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act defines disabilities as including ‘vision disabilities, deafness or being hard of hearing, intellectual or developmental, learning, mental health issues, cardiac or diabetic conditions, balance, cognitive, etc.
-
People living in poverty: Poverty is deprivation of the resources, choices, and power necessary for civic, cultural, economic, political and social participation in society.
-
Racialized: Persons who are ascribed a non-white racial, ethnic, and/or cultural identity because of the colour of their skin and who experience racism, discrimination and/or stigmatization as a result of this ascription.
-
Rural: Residents of Wards 5, 19, 20 and 21 as identified by the City of Ottawa.
-
Women: Persons who identify with the female gender.
-
Youth: Residents between 13 and 29 years of age.
Funding Priorities
- Poverty Reduction: Poverty is deprivation of the resources, choices, and power necessary for civic, cultural, economic, political and social participation in society. Poverty reduction involves both addressing the root causes and alleviating the effects of poverty in the community.
- Community Development: Community development is an inclusive process whereby community members become engaged, educated and able to generate and implement collective solutions to shared concerns.
- Social Infrastructure: Social infrastructure refers to facilities, assets, and services that help residents and communities meet their social needs, maximize their potential for development and enhance community resilience and wellbeing.
Funding Streams
- Sustainability Fund: 5-year operational and program funding (renewable).
The purpose of the Sustainability Fund is to maintain a strong social infrastructure and sustainable community non-profit social sector that ensures equitable provision of services for residents facing the greatest barriers/challenges.
- Community Fund: 1-year and 3-year project funding
The purpose of the Community Fund is to build the capacity of the non-profit social services sector to respond to unmet, complex and/or emerging community needs and pressures.
- Emerging and Emergency Needs Fund: one-time funding (including capital)
The purpose of the Emerging and Emergency Needs Fund is to respond to emerging community needs and emergency or unforeseen organizational and capital needs.
More details on the Community Funding Framework can be found here: