2022 Community Vitality Grants Announced!
2022 Community Vitality Grants Announced!
This year, thanks to generous support from unrestricted donations to the Community Fund, LCF has granted over $1million to 5 organizations to improve the quality of life for people living in and around London.
(London, ON) – Five organizations that are addressing London’s most pressing issues received over $1 million in grants from London Community Foundation’s Community Vitality Grant program. Funded by LCF’s Community Fund, this program supports high-impact, innovative, and collaborative initiatives that tackle issues identified in the Foundation’s Vital Signs report.
The chosen organizations and the projects they’re running are:
Community Vitality Grant recipients are chosen through a months-long deliberation process in which a panel of community volunteers review project proposals put forward by local agencies. Successful projects must represent true partnerships, demonstrate commitment to collaboration, leverage new or existing funding resources and tackle a need identified in LCF’s Vital Signs report.
This year, $1,084,000 will be granted through the Community Vitality Grant program. However, this is only a fraction of the Foundation’s overall impact. In addition, in 2022 LCF is projecting to further build on the $21.4 million that was disbursed last year through granting and social impact loans, not least due to the innovative Vision SoHo project due to commence this year.
Donors choose to support LCF’s unrestricted Community Fund because they trust LCFs expertise in knowing where the funds will have the greatest impact. This allows the Foundation to be agile in responding to emerging needs in the community.
The power of unrestricted granting means that this years Community Vitality Grants can tackle a range of issues, including providing hands-on housing construction programs to Indigenous youth, supporting permanent housing solutions for some of London’s most vulnerable homeless people, funding mental health services, and helping address food security.
More about the recipients and their projects
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The Building New Futures Together project is a groundbreaking program that overcomes employment barriers, builds new skills, and through practical hands-on experience creates affordable housing for single adults at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation (COTTFN).
Grant: $342,000 for 2 years
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The goal of the project is to provide permanent supportive housing to people who are housing deprived and are the most marginalized, with the highest support needs in our community. London Cares Homeless Response Services is creating a new housing solution to support those who fall through gaps in the current system creating real systemic change.
Grant: $350,000 for 3 years
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This unique partnership offers an innovative community-model that pairs a healthcare provider with police. This provides skilled and compassionate outreach and a rapid response to individuals with mental health and/or addiction challenges who may be at risk of falling through the cracks due to their complex needs.
Grant: $138,000 for 1 year
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The Food for All project is a program of the London Good Food Project, which will greatly enhance and strengthen GCCRC’s ability to provide healthy, nutritious, and more culturally appropriate food to London’s communities in more sustainable ways. The project will also provide sill building opportunities for the people that they serve.
Grant: $118,984 for 3 years
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This unique project will address food insecurity by offering a Traditional Foods Bank for urban indigenous families. This pilot project aims to use food as means of healing and reconnection to culture and will collect valuable information through storytelling. The additional funding will allow for expansion of the current food offering and allow the basic needs cupboard to include more traditional indigenous foods.
Grant: $135,016 for 1 year