Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

Director of Community Services, Social Planning Department

SUBJECT:

Allocation of Cross-Cultural Expertise Grant

 

RECOMMENDATION

COMMENTS

POLICY

Approval of grant recommendations requires eight affirmative votes.

PURPOSE

This report recommends allocation of the last of the 1998 Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants.

BACKGROUND

On March 24th, 1998, Council approved a reserve of $20,000 in the Community Services Grants Budget for the Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants. These grants are to assist organizations in sharing and developing cultural expertise, and increasing the degree to which community service agencies effectively serve people from diverse cultural backgrounds (Appendix A: Program Criteria). Council approved two grants totalling $15,000 on July 23, 1998. Staff requested Westcoast to defer their application to the Fall, in order to further develop their First Nations partnerships.

DISCUSSION

The application from Westcoast Child Care Resources Centre: Multicultural & Diversity Services and the Native Education Centre will assist pre-school services to understand and provide better information about First Nations cultures, by sharing curriculum and resource ideas with a range of service providers and involving participants in learning circles. The project will include both Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal participants. The applicants are requesting a grant of $4,000, which staff recommend.

*****

cs981119.htm

CITY OF VANCOUVER
SOCIAL PLANNING DEPARTMENT

1998 CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERTISE GRANTS

_______________________________________________________________________

INFORMATION SHEET

Council reserved $20,000 in the 1998 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.

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 practices 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 blueprints but are intended as illustrative examples.

· Four neighbourhood agencies work together to develop a new approach to early intervention family programs in the South Asian community. With the help of workers from the community and from the parents themselves, they develop ways of approaching family issues that correspond to community needs and also make good use of their own staff resources.

· A neighbourhood agency which delivers parenting programs works with a leading ethno-cultural agency to develop a parenting program that can attract parents who might previously have gone only to the ethno-cultural agency for assistance.

· Three neighbourhood agencies work with representatives of gay and lesbian groups and with their own staff, to make their organizations and programs more accessible to gay, lesbian, bi- and transsexual youth.

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 the City has a total budget of $20,000. 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. Upon completion of a project we require a final report on the outcome and achievements of the project.

Submit a proposal (2-3 pages) outlining:

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: Friday, May 29, 1998.

* * * * *

cs981119.htm

Comments or questions? You can send us email.
[City Homepage] [Get In Touch]

(c) 1998 City of Vancouver