Grants Awarded 2005
Total disbursements for 2005 under the Metcalf Foundation’s Community Program were $1,200,000. The following is a list that includes grants to qualified donee organizations and contracted services for specific charitable work to be carried out on behalf of the Foundation.
Communities in Action
The Communities in Action Program supports people and organizations to create comprehensive collaborative long-term solutions to issues of poverty.
ACORN Institute of Canada – $25,000
In support of ACORN Toronto’s work with low-income residents in high-rise buildings to organize to improve housing and safety standards. Efforts will focus on improvements within individual buildings as well as engaging with the City of Toronto and provincial authorities to create systemic changes that will ensure safe, liveable, affordable housing. Leadership training and civic engagement opportunities will be offered to enable effective resident participation.
Agincourt Community Service – $39,000
To assist the work of the Scarborough Civic Action Network (SCAN) to host an annual summit and ongoing action planning for residents to identify issues, community priorities and strategies to promote positive change. SCAN will engage in community planning, civic action, capacity building of residents and other strategies to improve the quality of life and opportunity locally.
Canadian Women's Foundation – $100,000 (year 4 of 5)
To support the Economic Development Collaborative Fund which assists low-income women to achieve greater self-reliance and economic independence through micro-enterprise, self-employment training, community-based business or cooperative strategies. Funds will be used to provide grants, technical assistance, convening and research to community-based agencies working in the field of economic development.
Dixon Hall – $18,900
To support the Regent Park Neighbourhood Initiative to offer training in community animation and planning to a group of multi-generational, multi-lingual local residents. This will support ensuring the diverse community has a strong voice and vehicles to participate in issues affecting their lives, particularly throughout the Regent Park redevelopment process
East Scarborough Boys and Girls Club – $38,495
In support of the civic engagement work of the East Scarborough Storefront to undertake a series of community conversations and action planning sessions to address issues of poverty in East Scarborough. Education and training will also be offered to strengthen the ability of residents to organize and participate in public institutions and processes.
For Youth Initiative – $20,000
To provide leadership, anti-oppression and workshop facilitation training to extremely marginalized youth to support their development of skills needed to be active FYI Advisory Committee members, staff and catalysts for change in their community.
North York Community House – $49,000 (year 1 of 3)
(Partnership with Jane Finch Community & Family Centre and Delta Family Resource Centre)
To transform the three neighbourhood centres from a service delivery model to one emphasizing social change, resident leadership and community mobilization in order to take collective action on issues of poverty in North York.
Parkdale Community Legal Clinic – $50,000 (year 1 of 2)
In support of the Workers’ Action Centre to strengthen the capacity of contingent workers to act individually and collectively to address workplace practice, employment standards and labour legislation that negatively affects them. This grant will also support the Workers’ Action Centre to create new membership and committee structures that enable leadership and active participation of workers directly affected by precarious employment, low wages and employment standards violations.
Phoenix Community Works Foundation – $30,000
To assist Toronto Environmental Alliance in partnership with the Low-Income Energy Network, tenants and other stakeholders to develop and build support for a comprehensive policy and program approach to energy poverty in Toronto.
St. Christopher House – $78,529 (year 4 0f 5)
To support the Children, Youth and Families program to: influence public policy to create a stable, coherent funding framework for this constituency; foster community-wide planning; develop grassroots parent leaders; engage in community development activities; and stabilize and grow the agency's Children, Youth and Families program.
Street Health Community Nursing Foundation – $30,000
To implement the Street Health Survey, a community based research project to explore and report on the current health status and needs of homeless people in Toronto. Advocacy, dissemination and public education will be key elements of the initiative.
The Stop – $55,000
(Partnership with the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre)
To increase the capacity of the Davenport West community to address income security and chronic unemployment issues through grassroots leadership, resident engagement, and multi-sectoral dialogue and action.
Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement – $30,000
To create a bursary program for Toronto community agency staff and residents’ who are forming and managing collaborations to affect positive change in order that they may participate in a new training Institute focused on community engagement practice. Tamarack will also provide customized support to Toronto agencies working on issues of poverty reduction in such areas as planning, strategy development, leadership and evaluation.
Toronto East End Literacy – $50,000
To enhance the skills, knowledge and resources of newcomer women to analyze systemic issues, and organize and participate in local organizations and public institutions so that they may lead in improving conditions in their communities.
Toronto Neighbourhood Centres – $15,000
To create a dialogue about community development practice in Toronto in order to enhance the social services sector’s capacity to become more engaged in social change regarding poverty.
West Hill Community Services – $77,500 (year 1 of 3)
To implement a strategy of resident engagement and leadership building in order to enhance West Hill’s capacity to get at root causes of poverty. This strategy will include an organizational change process to integrate community development approaches, such as organizing and advocacy, across their programs and services.
Leadership in Action
Leadership in Action’s goal is to contribute to fostering a reflective, diverse, robust community sector capable of responding to complex social challenges. We offer three distinct learning and leadership opportunities: Emerging Leaders- a Management and Leadership program, Innovation Fellowships, and Renewal Fellowships
York University Foundation – $83,250 (partial payment of a multi-year grant)
To support the work of the Emerging Leaders Program, a joint initiative of Metcalf, United Way of Greater Toronto and the Schulich School of Business. This program builds the management skills and capitalizes on the inherent leadership abilities of middle managers in the social services sector. The long-term goal of the program is to assist the entire sector with succession planning and leadership diversification.
Innovation Fellowships
Innovation Fellowships support research and development of new ideas, models and practices that have the potential to positively benefit low-income communities and the charitable sector. Fellowships cover costs associated with salary and research expenses and can last up to one year.
This year’s Innovation Fellows are:
Sherri Torjman, Vice-President of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy.
Sherri will use her Fellowship to examine the application of the concept of “resilience”, widely discussed in the environment and psychology fields, to communities and vulnerable neighbourhoods. It will try to answer the question of what are the factors in to households and communities that make the difference between risk and resilience. This research will also explore the types of infrastructure (such as recreation, culture, education, public space) that are necessary within communities to support people and places to be healthy.
Lynn Eakin, Principal of Lynn Eakin & Associates
Lynn will examine the most effective strategies for creating changes in the regulation and financing of non-profit community organizations in Ontario. Research will identify promising reform objectives and change strategies.
Gabriella Micallef, Program Manager with St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society
Gabriella will research and develop a new model of supportive housing for a mixed tenancy of low-income and working poor and people with histories of homelessness and institutionalization.
Tom Zizys, Consultant
Tom will explore the feasibility of a social enterprise operating as a deconstruction business, focusing initially on the opportunities generated by the redevelopment of Regent Park. This study would examine the business case for such an enterprise, identify proponents and partners for the initiative, and propose the means and steps for putting such an operation into effect.
Renewal Fellowships
Renewal Fellowships provides a sabbatical opportunity for senior leaders in the sector to support their professional development and replenishment. Fellows receive fully paid sabbaticals for up to six months.
This year’s Renewal Fellow’s are:
Margarita Mendez, Executive Director of the Jane/Finch Community & Family Centre.
Margarita has worked for more than 25 years addressing issues of poverty in El Salvador, Mexico and Canada. Margarita will use her fellowship to explore how social service organizations can integrate social change strategies in their work to support disadvantaged communities. This will involve literature review and dialogue with others such as Frances Kunreuther, Director of the Building Movements Project who is currently undertaking research in this area across the U.S. She also plans to participate in silent, guided retreats at Loyola House and in other activities to support both her personal well-being and professional growth.
Keith McNair, Executive Director of Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre
Keith has been working in the community sector in various capacities in local agencies, community colleges and at the City for more than twenty years. Over the years Keith has successfully managed to integrate his passion for community arts with his work for positive community change. He will use his Renewal fellowship to pursue exploring the establishment of a community art fund to support a Community Arts Institute in Toronto. An institute would be a “playground”, a place to support skills building, training and creative experimentation for artists, local residents, non-profit agencies, and others that enable expression and civic participation. He plans to visit successful community arts enterprises to learn how they operate including Oxford House (London) and UfaFabrik (Berlin) and to research how to establish and manage a viable Community Arts Fund.
Chris Cavanagh, Program Officer, The Catalyst Centre.
Chris has worked in the field of popular education practice locally, nationally and internationally for the last 25 years. He incorporates community organizing and education, organizational development strategies, as well as the use of art, story-telling and popular theatre into his work in order to support democratic social change. Chris will use his sabbatical to reflect on the 30 year history of popular education in Canada and to strengthen his capacity to continue contributing to this field of practice. To enhance his future writing on popular education Chris will join a writer’s workshop at University of Toronto and attending a writer’s retreat offered at Tatamagouche Centre in Nova Scotia. He will address issues of personal renewal through pursuing his passion of storytelling, bookbinding and attending a personal retreat in California and in British Columbia.
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