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 1999 Cross-Cultural Expertise Grant
 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

PURPOSE

This report recommends a grant to one project intended to share and develop cultural expertise and increase the degree to which community service agencies effectively serve aboriginal women who are victims of violence.

BACKGROUND

On March 16, 1999, Council approved a reserve of $20,000 in the 1999 Community Services Grants Budget for the Cross-Cultural Expertise Grants. This is the fifth year of the program, which was developed in collaboration with immigrant-serving and general community service organizations, to increase cross-cultural understanding and to make organizations and programs more culturally accessible (Appendix A: program criteria).

In the first year of the program, projects included an initiative in Hastings Sunrise which developed better connections between Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, Thunderbird Community Centre and First Nations families in the area; and a partnership between SUCCESS and Family Services to share cultural and professional expertise in family counselling and support services. Subsequent projects funded included development of a culturally inclusive model for volunteer recruitment and participation at Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House, in collaboration with the Pacific Immigrant Resources Society; a collaboration among five service agencies in the South Vancouver area to develop a multicultural drop-in childcare program; and an inter-agency staff training program on sexual abuse prevention program for diverse communities.

This year, three proposals were received and one is recommended at this time. Later in the Fall, staff will be consulting with immigrant integration agencies, community service agencies and other funders to review and explore the long term feasibility and impact of cross-cultural collaboration and partnership. Staff will also assess the grant program objectives in determining whether the program is meeting the needs of the community service and immigrant service sectors.

RECOMMENDED GRANTS

The grant requires that each project is a partnership between two or more organizations. Staff are recommending grant to the following agency:

… Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW)

Request: $20,000 Recommendation: $18,000

This is a collaborative project among five agencies: WAVAW, the Aboriginal Women’s Action Network, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, Battered Women Support Services, and Women Breaking the Silence Project. It is primarily a collaborative anti-violence research project which will increase cross-cultural understanding of urban aboriginal women’s issues by sharing and enhancing community expertise on anti-violence initiatives. After initial research and information gathering, the project will offer a 12-part workshop to front line staff and clients of the participating agencies. Feedback from workshop participants will be incorporated into a Final Report, which will be made available on the Internet to a wide range of service organizations and groups. The project will assist the partner agencies to develop more inclusive and relevant services and policies for their aboriginal clientele, and will provide additional resources and educational materials for other non-aboriginal organizations or institutions which provide services to aboriginal women and their children. Total project cost is $58,670, with the partners sharing the balance of the costs.

GRANTS NOT RECOMMENDED

We received two other applications which are not recommended. These were more service-oriented than oriented toward systemic change, and do not meet the cross-cultural grant program criteria of sharing organizational expertise or demonstrating systemic change and sustainability.

… a project to increase community participation of seniors of various ethnic backgrounds in the Collingwood- Renfrew neighbourhood (Collingwood Neighbourhood House);

… a project to run a parent-child program with a focus of assisting some of the parents to gain new parenting skills as well as knowledge of community resources (Little Mountain Neighbourhood House).

CONCLUSION

One grant is recommended at this time in this year's Cross Cultural Expertise Grants program.

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INFORMATION SHEET

Council reserved $20,000 in the 1999 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.

Please call Anne Kloppenborg (871-6031) or Baldwin Wong (871-6637) to discuss your project before finalizing your application.

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, July 30, 1999.

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