CITY OF VANCOUVER

POLICY REPORT

 

Date:

September 23, 2003

 

Author:

Rick Gates

 

Phone No.:

604-871-6036

 

RTS No.:

03575

 

CC File No.:

2151

 

Meeting Date:

October 9, 2003

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

Director of Social Planning

SUBJECT:

Revisions to the Community Services Grants Program

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of A to D.

COUNCIL POLICY

On September 30, 1993, City Council approved, as policy, the criteria and priorities which are used in assessing Community Services Grants applications. Minor revisions were adopted by Council on October 24, 1995.

On November 22, 1994, Council adopted the Reconsideration Process that is used by applicants for Community Services Grants and Cultural Grants, who disagree with the staff recommendations for these grants. Included was approval of the policy that reconsiderations will be considered only if they are based on one or both of the following premises:

· that the eligibility criteria and priorities have not been properly applied; or
· that the financial situation of the applicant has not been properly assessed or understood.

In June, 1993, City Council decided that rent subsidies to social service or cultural organizations occupying City-owned property, held in the PEF, will be provided as grants; rent subsidy grants must meet the same eligibility criteria as regular Community Services Grants.

SUMMARY

The Social Planning Department has completed an extensive review of the Community Services Grants program. The purpose of this review was to determine what revisions, if any, are needed for this grants program to ensure that it is relevant and responsive to the current social services environment. The outcomes of the review were heavily influenced by the input received from community groups that took part in consultations at various times throughout the process.

Coming out of this review are recommended changes to four aspects of the grants program:

The creation of three categories of grants, each with its own eligibility criteria, will clarify and simplify the grant application and assessment process by making it possible to compare and make judgements among similar types of functions - organizations will be compared to other organizations, and social services will be compared to other social services.

The current priority for continuous, stable funding will continue for the Neighbourhood Organization and Organizational Capacity Building Grants. These grants support this component of Vancouver's social infrastructure, which needs stability and certainty to be effective.

However, the provision of social services needs to be somewhat more flexible and responsive to changing needs. A list of six priorities for City-funded social services is being proposed. These focus more on generic needs and the strategies for meeting needs, rather than listing specific services that are deemed to be more important than others. The most significant outcome of this approach is that staff recommendations for Direct Social Services Grants will be based on the applicant's priority rating, not on their funding history.

Finally, we are recommending that a formal evaluation process be developed for all three types of grants. Staff will work with grant recipients to define objectives and outcomes, and measures to determine how well these are being met. This will significantly improve upon the accountability of the grants program, to help ensure effective and appropriate use of City funds. Staff recognize most other funders have already introduced various types of evaluation programs, and have made a commitment to the community groups that we will try, as much as possible, to make use of the existing frameworks, rather than attempting to impose yet another, completely different process on them.

There are a number of aspects of the current program that don't require changes, including: Basic Eligibility Criteria (that apply to all grants), Core Funding Policy, Rent Subsidy Grants, and the Reconsideration Process.

Also, to remain unchanged is the list of Ineligible Services. Consequently, City grants would continue NOT to be available for services that come within the legislated mandates of other levels of government , nor could they be used to replace funding that has been cut by other levels of government.

The proposed changes can be implemented within the context of the current CS Grants budget. There may need to be a slight increase in the amount given to Neighbourhood Organization and Organizational Capacity Building Grants, which would result in less being available for Direct Social Services Grants. The community groups have told us that new needs are emerging as a result of Provincial funding and policy changes. These may result in increased demand for funding for new or expanded social services. However, we will not know the extent of this demand until all applications are received in early December.

As soon as Council makes a decision on the recommended changes, the application and assessment process for the 2004 CS Grants program will be initiated.

PURPOSE

With this report, we are seeking Council endorsement of the proposed changes to the Community Services Grants program so that they can be implemented by the beginning of the 2004 Community Services Grants application and review process.

BACKGROUND

City Council formally established the Community Services (CS) Grants program in 1978 (along with the Cultural and Other Grants programs). Since then, various aspects of the program have been reviewed and changes have been made.

The most recent review took place in 1993. As a result of that review, Council adopted, as policy, the criteria and priorities which are currently used to assess applications for CS Grants. Minor revisions to the criteria and priorities were adopted in 1995.

In 2003, City Council approved 95 CS Grants, totalling $3,072,808 to 81 non-profit organizations. Council also approved four rent subsidy grants, totalling $67,007 and set aside $20,000 from the CS Grants budget for the Partners in Organizational Development grants, which will be dealt with before the end of this year.

The new Provincial Government initiated a Core Services Review process in 2001 that was to identify provincial program and service priorities. Concurrently, all Ministries prepared three-year budget and service plans, based on the objective of 25% budget reductions in all Ministries, except Health and Education. These new service plans and budget reductions began to be implemented in 2002 and have been on-going since.

The Provincial policy and funding changes have had a profound effect on the social service environment in Vancouver and across the province, both at the individual resident level and at the non-profit social service agency level. Approximately 75% of the agencies that are funded by the City through CS Grants also receive provincial funding. Cuts in Provincial funding are affecting and, in some cases, jeopardizing the on-going functioning of many of these groups. Also, a high proportion of the people served by City-funded groups have been directly affected by the changes in Provincial policy and funding. This has resulted in increased and changed demands for services from these agencies.

In addition to the changes being initiated by the Provincial government, there have been other significant changes in the social service environment over the past ten years. The demographics of the service users have changed (e.g. the population is aging; the immigrant population has grown and changed) and subsequent service needs have changed both at the city-wide and neighbourhood levels.

The non-profit sector has been evolving with growing sophistication in many areas. New models of services delivery have been developed. Many of the larger groups have gone through a formal accreditation process, which often results in significant increases in organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Within the context of all these changes, Social Planning staff decided that it was necessary, at this time, to review all aspects of the CS Grants program. The objectives for this review include:

DISCUSSION

The CS Grants Program Review Process

Staff developed a workplan for the CS Grants program review approximately a year ago. It included the following steps:

Background information on the current and past CS Grants was compiled and analyzed in the Fall of 2002. Some of the key findings are attached as Appendix B.

In November, 2002, three focus groups of community agency representatives and Social Planning staff took part in facilitated SWOT exercises to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current CS Grants Program, and to look at some of the opportunities and threats or challenges that may have an influence on the program. The key messages from this exercise are included in Appendix C. Of particular note was the high priority that the City placed on providing stable, on-going funding. This was seen, by the community groups, as an extremely important feature of the program. On the other hand, this practice of funding those who had been funded previously, within the context of a fixed budget, was seen as a weakness because it limits the City's ability to fund new applicants.

The CS Grants program review was then temporarily put on hold for the first part of 2003, as the applications for 2003 CS Grants were assessed and recommendations prepared for Council consideration.

In May, 2003, representatives from community groups were invited to attend a series of five meetings to develop a common understanding about:

More than 60 people attended these sessions. Detailed notes were kept of what was said, and these notes were sent out to all meeting participants, City Council and others in July, 2003.

Prior to these meetings, Social Planning convened a meeting of women's groups to gather information on how Provincial changes have affected and will affect women's advocacy groups. Information gathered at this meeting was added to the information compiled at the meetings noted above to give a comprehensive picture of the changed social service environment. The key messages from all these meetings are included in Appendix D.

The community groups told us of two distinct types of effects of the changes - those that are happening to individuals, and effects on non-profit agencies that deliver services, often to these same individuals. More people are having trouble meeting their basic needs; accessing the social safety net is becoming increasingly complex; and many are experiencing cuts from several ministries. The overall result is that more people are at risk with less services being available to support them.

The agencies themselves are also feeling the effects of all the changes. They are under increasing pressure to provide supports to deal with and/or compensate for the reduced services and supports being faced by individuals. In instances where they might otherwise be working with the service users and other community residents to develop appropriate responses and solutions, they are finding themselves overwhelmed with crisis management and new administrative requirements from the major funders.

Meeting participants generally understood that Community Services Grants represent a relatively small proportion of the total funding available for social services. Within this context, they understood the reasons for the Council policy not to fund services that are the responsibility of other levels of government, and were not pushing for the grants to be used to replace cut services. Rather, they hoped that a revised Community Services Grants program could assist organizations in getting out of crisis mode and providing support for new and innovative services that have been developed to address the emerging needs.

Using the information and feedback described above, Social Planning staff looked at all aspects of the CS Grants program in order to try to find ways of meeting the objectives of this review. While the present program has many strengths, maintaining the status quo is not recommended because the structure of the present program has some inequities and makes it difficult to respond to rapidly changing service needs. Nor are we recommending radical change, such as expanding the boundaries of the program to pick up service areas not previously funded, or to pick up, in any significant way, services downloaded from the Province.

The recommended program keeps most of the positive aspects of the current program, while being more responsive to changing needs and introducing a greater level of fairness and equity in the assessment of grant applications. It can be implemented within the parameters of the current budget, albeit with a probable small increase in funding to support and enhance community organizations and a concomitant reduction in the level of direct social services that are funded by the City.

A detailed summary of the proposed changes to the CS Grants program was mailed out to almost 100 community groups, along with an invitation to provide feed back at one of four meetings that were held in early September, 2003. A total of 63 people, representing 57 organizations, took part in these meetings. A summary of the comments received at these meetings is provided in Appendix E.

The meeting participants were generally supportive of the proposed changes. Even though these changes may result in some of them losing City funding, they said that they understood and supported the reasons for making these changes.

A number of suggestions were made to clarify the intent and implementation of the new program, and these have been incorporated, where possible.

A few people commented that the timing for making changes to the City's grant program was not very good, given the major changes being introduced by the Province and other funders. However, it was also acknowledged that changes are needed now in the City's program to be able to adequately respond to the other changes.

Proposed Changes to the CS Grants Program

To meet the objectives of the program review (listed on Page 4) and to be able to responsibly respond to the needs and situations arising from the changes in the social service environment, we concluded that a revised Community Services Grants program should have the following characteristics:

The current Community Services Grants program focuses on supporting and strengthening the City's social services infrastructure by directly funding social services and supporting the non-profit organizations that deliver these services. It is proposed that this focus continues, as reflected in the following goals statement:

Community Services Grants Program Goals

CS Grants are a tool to meet Social Planning Goals of:

CS Grants are provided to:

While maintaining this overall direction, the revised program will have significant changes in four areas - program structure, eligibility criteria, service priorities and service evaluation.

1. CS Grants Program Structure

Although there is currently only one category of Community Services Grants, with a single set of objectives, criteria and priorities, there are three identifiable, unique functions carried out by groups which the City funds. We are proposing that three grant categories, reflecting these functions, be created.

The proposed grant categories are:

A. DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICE GRANTS - support for the provision of services and/or programs which are designed to address specific current social problems and issues. Funding may be provided for:

B. NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS - provide on-going, sustainable funding for neighbourhood-based organizations to ensure that they can continue to be engaged in a variety of activities which strengthen their local neighbourhoods and address a range of social issues. These organizations are culturally accessible and provide services/programs that are generally preventative in nature. NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS may only be used for core staff salaries, not for specific services, programs or program expenses

C. ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS to non-profit organizations whose purpose and mandate is to support other non-profit agencies to improve their ability to deliver social services, address social issues, and navigate change. The capacity of these agencies can be enhanced by:

Under the revised program, funding will continue to be provided for each of these three types of grants. Any organization could potentially make applications for funding in more than one category.

It is also proposed that we continue to set aside funding within the grants budget for emergencies/unforeseen circumstances throughout the year and for the Partners in Organizational Development (POD) program.

2 Criteria

To be eligible for Community Services Grant funding, organizations must meet two levels of eligibility criteria - the basic eligibility criteria which apply to all three categories, and specific criteria for each category.

Basic eligibility criteria - applies to all 3 categories of grants (basically the same as the current "Basic Eligibility"). In summary, these criteria are:

The organization must be a registered non-profit society, in good standing, with an independent, active governing body composed of volunteers. The organization must extend services to the general public, and shall not exclude anyone by reason of religion, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, language, disability or income. It must primarily serve Vancouver residents and have a proven local track record of efficiency, effectiveness, and stability.

The detailed basic eligibility criteria, including proposed minor changes, are included in Appendix A.4 (unchanged sections of the CS Grants program)

Proposed Criteria for each grant category

The current CS Grants program has a single set of eligibility criteria which focus on the organization delivering the social service or program. This approach made sense for some services, but did not work well with others. In the proposed Grants program, there is a set of criteria that are specific to the type of grant, with a direct relationship between the type of grant and what it is intended to do. The criteria for DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICE GRANTS and ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS are focused on the services themselves, whereas the criteria for NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS are focused on the organization, not the services per se.

A) DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICE GRANTS - to be eligible for funding in this category, the proposed service or program must meet the following criteria, in addition to the basic eligibility criteria:

B) NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS - to be eligible for funding in this category, the organization must meet the following criteria, in addition to the basic eligibility criteria:

C) ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS - to be eligible for funding in this category, the proposed service or program must also meet the following criteria, in addition to the basic eligibility criteria:

One consequence of this application of criteria is that a few organizations that received grants in the past for particular services may no longer be eligible for funding because the services themselves do not meet the new criteria.

3. Service Priorities

Because the social service needs of residents change over time, priorities will be set for the DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICES GRANTS to ensure that the available funding is directed to meeting these needs in a timely and appropriate fashion. These priorities will be reviewed at least once every three to five years to ensure that they continue to reflect the current needs.

Note: These priorities do not apply to NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION or ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS. The need for funding for these types of resources does not change appreciably over time; if anything, there is a greater need for stability in this area as the service needs change.

The following are the proposed priorities for DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICES GRANTS:

These priorities are somewhat generic and deal with the various approaches to dealing with social service needs. These approaches, for the most part, can be applied to any population sub-group (e.g. youth, refugees, children, Aboriginals, etc.) The fifth priority specifically identifies particular types of services to families, seniors and women, as these are not covered by the more generic priorities.

A major shift will be in how these priorities are applied. Under the current system, any organization which met any one of the listed priorities could be deemed to be a high priority and there was no formal process for determining relative priorities. It is now proposed that establishing the priorities for funding will be cumulative - that is, services which meet a number of priorities will be deemed to be a higher priority for funding than those that meet just one. The determination of priority will also be on a weighted basis; that is, services which are primarily directed to meeting the priority will be rated higher than those where meeting the priority is only a part of the service objectives. For instance, services that are directed primarily at disadvantaged residents will be rated higher than those where only a small portion of their clients are experiencing disadvantages.

Another significant difference is that all applications, new and previously funded, will be rated against current priorities. Recommendations for funding will be based on the relative priority rating of all applications, with no preference given for previously funded services. If there is insufficient money available to fund all applications (as is usually the case), the priority rating of all eligible applications will be used to determine which ones can be recommended for funding and which cannot. This will result in increased opportunities for new applicants, but a greater possibility of currently-funded, lower priority services not receiving a grant.

4. Evaluation

Staff are proposing the implementation of a formal evaluation process for all three types of grants for the following reasons:

A separate evaluation process will be developed for each grant category, as described below:

A. DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICE GRANTS

A "logic chain" model will be used (assumes cause and effects relationships - inputs are applied to activities that produce outputs. Short, intermediate and long-term outcomes flow from the activities and outputs.) The framework used by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority SMART fund, the Vancouver Foundation, the United Way and other funders is based on this model. As much as possible, we will try to use these existing frameworks, the same data and reports as the other funders require to minimize work required of the agencies. Staff will continue to work with the other funders to develop standardized formats and requirements.

Objectives and outcomes will be established for each service, with specific reference to the need that the service is intending to address.

B. NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS

In consultation with the affected organizations, Social Planning staff will develop an evaluation model that looks at:

For groups that have gone through the accreditation process, we will investigate the possibility of using some of the criteria and the results of part of that process to help measure the effectiveness of the organization, again to minimize the duplication of effort for the effected agencies.

C. ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS

As with the Direct Social Services grants, a "logic chain" model will be used with these types of grants (assumes cause and effects relationships - inputs are applied to activities that produce outputs. Short, intermediate and long-term outcomes flow from the activities and outputs.)

Long-term outcomes, which will apply to all agencies receiving this type of grant, will be developed in consultation with the agencies receiving the grants, as well as with a sample group of the recipients of the capacity building services. We need to consider issues such as what kind of capacity has been enhanced and how to measure it (need appropriate indicators, such as community mobilization skills, outreach capacity, strategic partnerships, advocacy effectiveness, etc).

(Relatively) Unchanged Aspects of the CS Grants Program

Staff are recommending that a number of aspects of the CS Grants program remain as they are or with a few minor changes, which are intended to clarify, not fundamentally change, these parts of the program. These aspects are working well and support the proposed changes described above. The details of the unchanged sections of the program are described in detail in Appendix A.4. In summary, the following sections will remain relatively unchanged:

Note that "Ineligible Services" is included in this section. By Council policy, services on this list cannot receive City funding even if the application meets all of the eligibility criteria. Included on this list are recreational or educational services; medical treatment; maintenance or rehabilitation programs; residential programs or housing; capital expenses; direct welfare supports; conferences or workshops, etc. The detailed list of ineligible services, including proposed minor changes, is included in Appendix A4 (unchanged sections of the Community Services Grants program).

Staff are recommending that this list remain. However, this recommendation has significant implications for the grants program because two items on the list limit the City's ability to respond to funding and/or service cuts from other levels of government.

The first is a restriction on the use of Community Services Grants to fund services that comes within the legislated mandate of other levels of government or departments (e.g. health, education, job training, settlement programs). The second item is a restriction against the replacement of funding previously provided by other levels of government. A few organizations appeared before Council in 2003 to argue for City funding in situations that contradicted those two policies. As the Provincial government continues to implement its budget cuts and restructuring, it is likely that there will be even more demands for City funding to replace or compensate for the loss of Provincial funding.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

All of the changes to the CS Grants program, as outlined above, can be implemented within the context of the current grants budget, albeit with some re-allocation of funds between grant categories and funding cuts to low priority services, with concomitant increases in funding to high priority services. However, there are some situations that could arise next year that will be difficult to deal with within the current budget limitations.

Emergency Reserves

In most years, a small amount in the CS Grants budget ($5,000-15,000) has been set aside for emergencies and unforeseen circumstances. Staff are recommending that this continue so that we can fund short-term, one-off grants for emergencies, emerging critical needs (that can't wait for the regular grant cycle), and transition periods as organizations find other funding sources. This funding needs to be accessible throughout the year, not just at one fixed date.

There are a number of significant changes in funding and policy that have been announced by the Province, but not yet implemented. These may have an effect on some of the agencies that we fund, with a resultant need for additional funding assistance from the City. Because of the uncertainties around this situation, it is not possible to budget for such eventualities. If the need for additional emergency funding does arise during the year, staff will report the situation to Council at that time

Partners in Organizational Development (POD)

Partners in Organizational Development (POD) was initiated in 1989 as a jointly funded partnership of the Vancouver Foundation, United Way, Secretary of State and the City, to help non-profit organizations deal with common organizational problems. In 1994, additional Federal and Provincial partners agreed to also provide funding to this program. For the past number of years, $20,000 from the CS Grants budget has been set aside as the City's contribution to the POD funds.

POD aims to strengthen community organizations' capacity to work more effectively and efficiently. Small grants, averaging $4,000 per group, are given to assist in the development of strategic plans or to bring about organizational change. This is a very successful program, with increasing demand every year.

However, POD funding has not been available for a number of situations which are becoming much more prevalent lately; in particular, assistance to enable organizations to deal with mergers, coalition building, crisis management, rebuilding after a meltdown. To meet the on-going needs for POD, in addition to the newly emerging needs, could require a substantial addition to the funding that is available for POD grants. This situation is the topic of on-going discussions with the other POD funders. Any required changes to this program, including changes in the level of funding, will be reported to Council later in 2004.

Funding levels among grant categories

If any NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS need to be increased to provide on-going, sustainable funding to these organizations to ensure their continued viability (a likely scenario), this increase would most likely come from the amount allocated to the Direct Social Service Grants; thus reducing the amount available for social services. With the new priority setting system in place, funding reductions for social services will be implemented by reallocating from, or not recommending funding, to lower priority services, thus ensuring that adequate funding remains in place for the higher priority ones.

Transition

With the new priorities, it is possible that City funding to some lower priority groups will be terminated and new applicants which are rated as higher priority services will be newly funded. While there is no specific policy with regards to terminating funding, the practice has been, in most instances, to give six month terminating grants. Since grants are not approved until several months into the year, it is not necessary to give a full twelve month funding for new grants. Nine months should usually be sufficient.

Consequently, there cannot be a straight substitution of terminated grants with new ones - an additional three months funding will usually be needed for each such situation. Depending on the number of new grants and terminated grants, the required transition funding could range from $5,000 to $50,000. To stay within the overall grants budget, this would have to come from a reduction in the amount available for social services.

Downloading

Current policy is that CS Grants cannot be used for services that come within the legislated mandates of other levels of government or replacement of funding previously provided by other levels of government. Staff are recommending the continuance of these policies. However, some community groups will make submissions to Council asking that the City pick up funding that has been cut by the Province over the next year or two as further Provincial cuts are phased in.

Last year, the Province provided more than $18 million to the same organizations that received City CS Grants. If the Province's objective of an average 25% budget reduction is realized, this could result in a reduction of more than $4.5 million in provincial funding to these groups. Clearly, it is beyond the scope of the CS Grants program to pick up any significant amount of these funding cuts without jeopardizing the overall intent of the CS Grants program.

In conjunction with the direct cuts outlined above, community representatives have told us that Provincial cuts and policy changes are creating new social problems and needs. Providing funding for these additional services is a form of indirect downloading, which is contrary to City policy of "no replacement funding". However, ignoring the impacts could, in the long run, have much greater implications to the City. At this point, it is not possible to calculate the cost of meeting the needs created by the Provincial changes. Staff will continue to monitor the situation.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS

CS Grants are an important tool for the City to work with the community and other levels of government to address social problems and bring about positive social change. In the midst of a rapidly changing social service environment, it is not possible for the City, on its own, to fund all the needed services and programs. However, staff feel that adjusting the CS Grants program in the ways proposed in this report will enable us to strengthen our partnerships with community groups and, together, make some significant improvements in the social services sector. A not insignificant spin-off effect will be that local neighbourhoods will be strengthened and social sustainability will be enhanced.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Once Council has approved the proposed changes to the CS Grants program, new information sheets and application forms will be prepared over the subsequent two to three week period. The usual timetable for initiating the following year's grant process can then begin - application forms will be sent out to community groups in early November; the deadline for applying will be in early December, and staff will review all applications and make recommendations in the first two months of the following year.

CONCLUSION

Social service needs and the non-profit agencies that deliver social services have changed significantly over the past ten years. The rate of change has accelerated recently with the funding and policy changes that have been introduced by the Provincial government.

The proposed changes to the CS Grants program will assist in maintaining some stability in this sector and help the non-profit community to come up with the most effective ways of dealing with the situation.

* * * * *

A.1 Proposed CS Grant Categories

A. DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICE GRANTS - support for the provision of services and/or programs which are designed to address specific current social problems and issues. Funding may be provided for:

B.) NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS - provide on-going, sustainable funding for neighbourhood-based organizations to ensure that they can continue to be engaged in a variety of activities which strengthen their local neighbourhoods and address a range of social issues. These organizations are culturally accessible and provide services/programs that are generally preventative in nature. NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS may only be used for core staff salaries, not for specific services, programs or program expenses

C) ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS to non-profit organizations whose purpose and mandate is to support other non-profit agencies to improve their ability to deliver social services, address social issues, and navigate change. The capacity of these agencies can be enhanced by:

A.2 Proposed Eligibility Criteria for each of the grant categories

A. DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICE GRANTS - to be eligible for funding in this category, the proposed service or program must meet the following criteria, in addition to the basic eligibility criteria:

B. NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS - to be eligible for funding in this category, the organization must meet the following criteria, in addition to the basic eligibility criteria:

C. ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS - to be eligible for funding in this category, the proposed service or program must also meet the following criteria, in addition to the basic eligibility criteria:

A.3 Priorities for Direct Social Services Grants

The following are the proposed priorities for DIRECT SOCIAL SERVICES GRANTS:

A.4 Unchanged components of the CS Grants program

Basic Eligibility Criteria

Organizations must meet all of the following criteria in order to be eligible for consideration for a Community Services Grant:

Ineligible Services (applicable to all three categories of grants)

City Council has established, by policy, that certain types of services and programs are not eligible for funding from the Community Services Grants program. Therefore, grant funding will not be recommended, nor approved, for any of the following:

Organizations receiving Community Services Grants may provide one or more of the services noted above, but the City's grant cannot be used for these purposes.

Application and review process

Amount of the Grant - limitations

Staff consider each application within the context of the overall Community Services Grants program, particularly with regards to:

Core Funding Guidelines

In organizations where the primary goal and activity of the organization is to provide services or programs which are eligible for City funding, consideration will be given to providing grants to support core staff, as these are the staff positions which enable the effective and efficient delivery of these services.

As noted above, funding for the NEIGHBOURHOOD ORGANIZATION GRANTS category will only be for core staff.

In organizations where a substantial proportion of the services provided, or where the primary purpose of the organization is to provide services which are not eligible for City funding, core funding will not be provided; grants will only be for the specific services eligible for City funding.

Rent Subsidy Grants

Organizations which are renting their premises from the City, and the property is held in the City's Property Endowment Fund, may apply for a Community Services Grant to provide a rent subsidy. The organization must meet the same eligibility criteria as for a Community Services Grant. Social Planning's recommendation for or against such a grant will be based on the grant criteria and priorities noted above. Note: rent subsidy grants can be applied for at any time during the year.

Terms of Community Services Grants

The term of a Community Services Grant is one year - from January 1 to December 31; however, grants are disbursed as quarterly payments beginning in April.

Conditions on Grants

In certain circumstances, Council will place conditions on some grants that must be met before payment is authorized.

Reconsideration Process

A copy of the Social Planning Department's recommendations for grant allocations will be sent to all applicants, usually in February or March.

Applicants who disagree with the Department's recommendations may be entitled to a second review and reconsideration of their application. The procedure for doing this will be explained when recommendations are sent out.

Note, however, that reconsiderations will be considered only if they are based on one or both of the following premises:

City Council then considers the recommended grant allocations (but not those in the reconsideration process) in March. Payment of the first portion of approved grants usually follows within about two weeks.

Recommendations arising from the reconsideration process will be dealt with by Council about a month following the initial decision. All applicants will receive a notice of the time and place of the Council meeting at which the report will be discussed. Payment of the first portion of grants approved under the reconsideration process usually follows within about two weeks.

The City contributes 7.75 % to the total operating budgets of Community Services Grants recipients. The Province contributes the most at 51% of the total. Note also the very large contribution from fund-raising, more than double the City grants amount.

CS Grants SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) exercises -
Nov 12, 19, 25, 2002

Summary of points raised (that pertain to the grants program goals, objectives and/or rationale):

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Challenges (threats)

Common themes or messages from Enviro-scan meetings:
May 12, 14, 21, 22, 2003

Key Themes from January 28, 2003 meeting of Women's Groups

Summary Of Comments Received From Community Groups
September 4 - 10, 2003

Definitions

Community capacity building - developing the skills and abilities of members of the community and involving them in collective efforts to meet the needs of individuals and the community as a whole

Community development - involves bringing people in a community (geographic, community of interest, defined population sub-group) together to solve social problems, bring about positive social change, and to extend participatory democracy. The way that the CD work is carried out is as important as the end product - the process stresses the need to develop community awareness, engender group cohesiveness and promote self-reliance and collective action. CD expresses values of fairness, equality, accountability, opportunity, choice, participation, mutuality, reciprocity and continuous learning.

Core staff - includes the person (or persons) who is/are responsible for the on-going administration, management and supervision of the entire organization, and the person (or persons) who is/are responsible for the initiation, coordination and implementation of all the programs and services offered by the organization, and the administrative or clerical support staff assigned to work for and with the positions noted above on the overall administration and programming for the organization. For example, typical job titles for core staff include: Executive Director, Manager, Director, Coordinator, Program Coordinator, Office Manager, Executive Assistant, Programmer, Secretary to ..., etc. Note, however, that the core is defined by function, not title.

Cultural competency - agencies and systems which understand, accept and respect cultural differences and which involve people, who are reflective of the diverse groups in the community, in the development of policies and services which are appropriate and relevant to them

Multicultural organizations - a multicultural organization values diversity, adopts an inclusive approach and strives to provide culturally competent services to all groups, regardless of gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, income or religious differences.

Neighborhood - a geographically-defined area of the City, similar in size and composition to one or more of the 22 City-defined local areas.

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