SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 2
CS&B COMMITTEE AGENDA
FEBRUARY 22, 1996
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: February 1, 1996
TO: Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets
FROM: Manager of Community Services, Social Planning
SUBJECT: Allocation of 1995 Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants
CONSIDERATION
THAT Council approve Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants to the
following organizations, the source of funds being a $18,000
reserve in the 1995 Community Services Grants budget:
a) a grant of $7,044 to Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House;
b) a grant of $2,550 to Big Sisters of B.C. Lower Main-
land; and
c) a grant of $7,700 to SUCCESS.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services submits the foregoing
for CONSIDERATION.
COUNCIL POLICY
Approval of grant recommendations requires eight affirmative votes.
PURPOSE
This report describes the purpose and funding criteria for Cross-
Cultural Expertise Grants (which are part of the Community Services
Grants), and recommends grants to three projects.
BACKGROUND
On March 28, 1995, Council approved a reserve of $18,000 in the 1995
Community Services Grants budget for Cross-Cultural Facilitation. The
City had received requests from several immigrant-serving groups for
funding to support their work with "mainstream" groups on cross-
cultural issues. Staff recommended the reserve rather than immediately
funding the applications at hand, because while we believed the work
was important, we thought it was necessary for the prospective
partners to develop a shared understanding and objectives for such
work.
Staff met over several months with a group of immigrant-integration
agencies, community service organizations and other funders to develop
the grant criteria (Appendix A). Briefly, the Cross-Cultural
Expertise Grants provide short-term, result-oriented funding to help
groups undertake projects which will increase cross-cultural
expertise/understanding. Groups must be eligible for Community
Services Grants, must work in partnership with another group, and must
be prepared to use the results of the work to improve partnerships and
make programs and organizations more accessible.
The program description was sent to all Community Service Grant
recipients in early November. Five applications were received and
three are recommended.
Staff intend to recommend a reserve in the 1996 Community Services
Grants budget for the continuation of the Cross-Cultural Expertise
Grants. We will monitor the progress of the first round of grants and
use the feedback to make any needed modifications in the 1996 program.
We should know by the end of 1996 whether this approach is effective.
RECOMMENDED GRANTS
Each of the projects is a partnership between two agencies. Although
there is no formal funders' partnership on the Cross-Cultural
Expertise grants as yet, two of the projects being recommended have
cost sharing from other funders.
- Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House: recommended grant $7,044. This
project is a partnership between Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House
and Thunderbird Community Centre Association to involve First
Nations families in Hastings-Sunrise in developing program
approaches and services in both agencies which are relevant to
First Nations people. This project will run for 8 months. It is
being cost shared with United Way, Special Projects, which has
approved a grant of $7,478.
- Big Sisters: recommended grant $ 2,550. This project is a
partnership between Big Sisters and the Squamish Nation Social
Development Department to recruit First Nations big sisters and
to strengthen and develop cultural understand-ing between the two
agencies and their clients. The recruitment and training will
happen both on the North Shore and in Vancouver, through the
various native housing projects. Canadian Heritage is
recommending a grant of $4,000, to complete the needed total cost
for this project of $6,550.
- SUCCESS: recommended grant $7,700. This project is a partnership
between SUCCESS and Family Services of Greater Vancouver to share
and develop expertise between the two agencies in management and
administrative systems, cultural outreach and front-line staff
development. The longer term goal of this work is to increase
the accessibility of mainstream services and strengthen the
family support networks for non-English speaking residents.
The two grant requests not recommended for funding were a request from
South Granville Seniors and Hispa-Seniors; and a request from North
Shore Family Counselling and Immigrant Services Society (Appendix B).
The former, which was to develop South Granville's handyworker service
in the Spanish-speaking community was a sound idea for service
development but did not, in the opinion of Social Planning staff, have
the component of organizational learning intended for these grants.
The North Shore Counselling application was not sufficiently developed
to consider.
Staff are hopeful that the Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants will be a
tool for result-oriented, strategic work to increase integration, and
that the increased coordination among agencies will help to support
and strengthen the City's social service network.
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October 26, 1995
CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERTISE GRANTS
Council reserved $18,000 in the 1995 Community Services Grants budget
toward the development of an approach to sharing cross-cultural
expertise among social service organizations.
The following principles and funding criteria have been developed
through a series of meetings involving immigrant-integration agencies,
community service organizations, other funders and Social Planning
staff.
The intention of Social Planning staff is to test these
principles/criteria on a pilot basis, by inviting the first round of
applications in November 1995. We will review the applications and
present a report to Council on the new program together with our grant
recommendations, as early as possible in 1996. We will review the
progress and results of the initial work. Subsequent changes to or
development of this funding approach will be based on the results
obtained.
Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants
Purpose:
Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants (CCEG) are to support the
implementation of initiatives which share and develop the cross-
cultural expertise of social service organizations in Vancouver.
This grant has the same basic eligibility criteria as any Community
Services Grant (e.g. non-profit, social service agency, serving
Vancouver residents).
A CCEG grant differs from other Community Service Grants in that:
- It provides short term, developmental funding rather than ongoing
program/ service delivery funding.
- The focus is on sharing and developing expertise, not on service
delivery.
Principles:
- The grant is primarily for the implementation of new initiatives
which will share/increase cross-cultural expertise/ understanding.
(There may be a planning phase, but we are assuming that
organizations applying for this grant have already done basic work
such as issue identification, barrier identification, assessment of
policies and practises with respect to being culturally
accessible.)
- Partnership or collaboration between agencies is an essential
component of the project.
- The work responds to real, demonstrable needs.
- Both (all) parties learn or benefit and the end result should
benefit the broader community.
- The work results in transfer of knowledge/ability, and to
demonstrated systemic change within the organization, e.g.,
revisions to staff training, program modifications, etc.
- There must be evidence of appropriate ongoing funding or staff
commitment on the part of the agency that will be maintaining the
initiative.
Examples of work:
Social service organizations may find many ways of working together to
increase cross-cultural expertise. The following three projects are
not intended as blueprints but as examples:
- A woman's centre which wants to be more accessible partners with an
immigrant-integration agency. With the help of a consultant, they
develop an inter-agency team, and train this team to be an ongoing
resource for service delivery. This example is interesting because
it includes the provision of service, which is not, in itself, the
focus of the CCEG grants. This project would be eligible because
it is highly collaborative, involves a skill exchange between two
organizations, and makes systemic changes.
- A social service organization and an immigrant-integration agency
which already have individual volunteer recruitment/ training
programs, plan and develop a mutual volunteer training and support
program. The goals of this work respond to specific issues/needs
in both organizations.
- A neighbourhood-based organization which wants to be more
accessible to residents of a specific cultural community works with
an organization which has expertise in and connections with that
community to plan and carry out activities which will connect the
organization and community. The information/learning that results
from the activities is then acted upon, in making organizational
changes.
We will not fund:
- Basic planning activities that can be funded through Partners in
Organizational Development (POD) and other sources
- Activities/costs that are part of ongoing operations
- Projects that are primarily service development
- We will not fund retroactively.
How to apply:
Please keep in mind that for the pilot of this grant, the City has a
total budget of $18,000. If necessary for the scope of the work, we
encourage applicants to seek out other sources of funding. You should
be able to complete the project -- or a clearly defined phase of the
project -- within one year.
Submit a proposal (2-3 pages) outlining:
- the project idea
- the issue/problem being addressed
- each partner's role in the work and the resource/strength they
bring to the project
- outline of tasks
- timeline
- estimate of costs, e.g., outside consultant, seconded staff, other
costs
- if applying to other funders, note the amount requested and the
tasks covered
- the expected results
- how you will measure these results
- strategy for using/embedding the results
- evaluation process and criteria.
This proposal should be signed by a Board and staff member from each
involved organization.
Social Planning will review each proposal, and meet jointly with the
applicants to review the proposal, before making recommendations to
Council.
Deadline for submission of proposal to Social Planning: November 24,
1995
1995 Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants not recommended
- South Granville Seniors Centre/Hispano-American Seniors: request
$4,700 for development of Spanish-speaking handy-workers to assist
Spanish-speaking seniors. Project included recruitment and
training of workers and develop-ment of "how-to" booklet, for use
by other agencies.
- North Shore Counselling Centre/Immigrant Services Society: request
for $1,000 to provide case supervision and access to NSCC
educational opportunities for Immigrant Services' family support
worker.
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