Local Poverty Reduction Fund – 2015 successful applicants
Learn more about the organizations and projects that have received funding for community-driven initiatives to prevent or reduce poverty.
The Local Poverty Reduction Fund is a $50 million, six-year initiative created to support innovative, community-driven projects that measurably improve the lives of those most affected by poverty.
Organizations will either pilot new programs and measure their success or evaluate the impact of existing programs. Evidence gathered from these projects will be used to support poverty reduction programs across the province that have been proven to work and that can expand over time.
| Organization | Project descriptions | Location | Strategic pillar | Funding requested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHATS Community and Home Assistance to Seniors | The organization will develop and evaluate a program to help vulnerable seniors who struggle with hoarding stay in their homes and improve their quality of life. Seniors will receive integrated supports, including home support workers and cleaning services. | Aurora | Ending homelessness | $ 205,000 |
| Catholic Family Services of Peel-Dufferin | The organization will strengthen and evaluate its Culinary Training for Youth initiative, which provides at-risk youth who are interested in the culinary sector with food service skills, work placements and other supports to help them build secure careers. | Brampton | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 628,400 |
| Circles® Guelph Wellington | The organization will strengthen and evaluate the Circles program. It provides an innovative, community-focussed support system to help low-income individuals become financially self-sufficient by developing personal plans and bringing together community volunteers to help implement those plans. | Guelph | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 138,800 |
| City of Hamilton - Learning Annex | The City will develop and evaluate a Learning Annex to connect at-risk youth to education and employment services beyond traditional college courses and student support. | Hamilton | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 572,900 |
| Mission Services of Hamilton | The organization will implement and evaluate a new program to identify the housing needs of single mothers and provide them with tailored supports, with the aim of improving their children’s academic performance and helping reduce intergenerational poverty. | Hamilton | Ending homelessness | $ 94,800 |
| McMaster Family Practice | The organization will test an electronic tool that helps physicians work with patients to identify what legal supports their patients may require, so they can be matched with community legal services. | Hamilton | All pillars | $ 89,000 |
| County of Simcoe | The County of Simcoe will provide and evaluate specialized training for Employment Ontario staff to better serve Simcoe’s growing newcomer population. Employment specialists will develop expertise and employer networks to help newcomers find sustainable employment. | Simcoe County | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 230,000 |
| University of Toronto Active Assist | The university will extend and evaluate a program that provides financial assistance to low-income families and individuals to help them participate in physical activity and recreation programs that improve their quality of life and help them contribute to the community. | Mississauga | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 20,400 |
| Community Innovation Lab | The organization will evaluate its Not in Education, Employment or Training Youth program, which recruits local businesses and academic leaders to deliver customized business skills workshops, training and mentoring to at-risk youth. | Oshawa | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 692,000 |
| SEC Boys and Girls Club of York Region | The organization will develop and evaluate an after-school program offering nutrition, recreation and skills-building to local youth from newcomer and single-parent families, to help them succeed in school and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. | Newmarket | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 571,600 |
| Home Suite Hope | Home Suite Hope provides single mothers at risk of homelessness with affordable housing, a childcare subsidy and a fully funded college education and internship. The organization will evaluate the effectiveness of this housing-first approach in helping single mothers find employment. | Oakville | Ending homelessness | $ 355,500 |
| University of Waterloo | The university will develop and evaluate a new web-based tool that will enable local organizations to collect, analyze and share data on poverty and poverty reduction initiatives in Perth and Huron counties. | Perth and Huron Counties | All pillars | $ 300,000 |
| John Howard Society of Belleville and District | The organization will expand, strengthen and evaluate the Quantum Program, which provides coordinated mentoring and skills-development services to youth at risk of leaving high school early. | Belleville | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 92,300 |
| Tungasuvvingat Inuit | The organization will develop and evaluate a culturally appropriate program to reduce poverty among the urban Inuit in Ontario. By bringing together different service providers, the organization will help their clients acquire skills, education, training and work experience to find stable employment and build a more secure future. | Ottawa | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 281,000 |
| The Governing Council of the Salvation Army in Canada, on behalf of Bethany Hope Centre | This organization will create and evaluate a program that will offer young parents wrap-around supports, such as career and leadership training, childcare meals, and housing services, to help them meet their children’s needs while they transition into work. | Ottawa | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 334,000 |
| Canadore College | The college will develop and evaluate a culturally-appropriate, hands-on training program for single Aboriginal women to help them find sustainable employment in the skilled trades industry and become financially self-sufficient. | North Bay | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 201,750 |
| District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board | The organization will implement and evaluate a post-secondary education program to help low-income clients who have a grade 12 education or higher find meaningful employment and become financially independent. | North Bay | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 750,000 |
| City of Greater Sudbury | The project will support and evaluate the addition of client navigators to the Out of the Cold program to assist people to move from the street to a home. Navigators will provide services such as filling prescriptions, getting referrals and connecting people to service agencies. | Sudbury | Ending homelessness | $ 71,700 |
| Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres | The Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres will strengthen existing efforts to help urban Aboriginal clients move towards long-term prosperity by evaluating their service delivery model in seven Friendship Centres across Ontario. | Across Ontario | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 270,000 |
| Shelter, Support and Housing Administration - City of Toronto | The organization will develop and evaluate a tool designed to assess the needs of people who are homeless in order to more effectively match them to housing services. | Toronto | Ending homelessness | $ 50,000 |
| Scadding Court Community Centre | Scadding Court will measure the impact of its Business Out of the Box initiative, which helps low-income entrepreneurs build their businesses by turning shipping containers into affordable, flexible retail spaces. This allows individuals who cannot afford traditional retail space in Toronto to start a business. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 121,500 |
| FoodShare Toronto | FoodShare will evaluate two existing food support programs, which help people living in low-income communities save money and eat healthier by improving their access to affordable vegetables and fruit. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 111,500 |
| Mennonite New Life Centre of Toronto | The organization will evaluate the Building Strengths at Work project, which helps newcomers find meaningful employment and get education and training. This is a holistic approach that assists newcomers at all points in their move away from poverty and includes services such as one-on-one mental health counselling. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 370,200 |
| Toronto District School Board | The Next Steps Employment Centre provides employment supports to job seekers, and services and incentives to employers. The centre will strengthen its services and evaluate their impact on employment levels. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 446,000 |
| Up With Women | The organization will strengthen and evaluate their services to help women who are facing poverty as a result of violence, discrimination or health crisis. Services include coaching, skills development and group support sessions. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 29,800 |
| Margaret’s Housing | The organization will evaluate the impact of its Toronto East Drop-In Centre, which offers supports including daily meals, bed, clothing, nursing care and health services to homeless individuals living in deep poverty. | Toronto | Ending homelessness | $ 287,400 |
| Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office | The organization will develop and evaluate a new Centre of Excellence, including training, mentorship, access to resources and micro loans to help emerging female entrepreneurs build their entrepreneurial skills and grow their businesses. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 353,000 |
| WoodGreen Community Services | The organization will evaluate its Transition to Success program, which supports single mothers affected by poverty and homelessness to transition into employment by providing job search and skills development workshops, housing, free daycare and internship placements. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 288,000 |
| CultureLink Settlement Services | The organization will implement and evaluate the Student Education Attainment Program, a three-year project designed to reduce the high school dropout rate of Somali youth through mentorship for youth and supports to parents. | Toronto | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 752,800 |
| La Passerelle - IDE | The organization will offer and evaluate programming to help Francophone immigrant youth find and retain jobs through employment programs and culturally-sensitive training for youth and employers. | Toronto | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth, Moving towards employment and income security | $ 167,400 |
| East Scarborough Storefront | The organization will build and evaluate the East Scarborough Works program that will connect low-income residents to local employers and provide them with training specific to employers’ needs. | Toronto | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 416,000 |
| City of Brantford | This project will evaluate whether investing in post-secondary savings plans helps students from low-income families develop more positive attitudes toward school, improving their educational achievement and chances of graduating. | Brantford | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 34,200 |
| Western University | Western University will develop and evaluate a tool to assess and treat mental health problems in children aged 0-3. Similar tools exist for older children, but this tool will allow individualized planning and care to happen earlier in life. | London | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 470,000 |
| London Family Court Clinic | The clinic will provide and evaluate the impact of specialized supports for young people who are involved with the justice system. The program aims to improve school attendance, employment rates and mental health in order to reduce crime rates among youth. | London | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 572,000 |
| Western University | Western University will extend and evaluate an existing project that identifies the risk factors among families facing homelessness to determine which strategies are most effective in helping them to obtain and maintain stable housing. | London | Ending homelessness | $ 134,000 |
| Literacy Link South Central | Literacy Link will evaluate their program to help immigrants, persons with disabilities and young men who are not in school or training navigate local supports and services and transition into the workforce by connecting them to literacy upgrading, employment services and apprenticeships. | London | Moving towards employment and income security | $ 275,000 |
| Middlesex London Health Unit | The organization will develop and evalute the impact of a training centre to educate Ontario public health nurses on how to provide the most vulnerable young mothers and their babies with highly specialized supports during pregnancy and early years. | London | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 351,000 |
| Youth Opportunities Unlimited | Youth Opportunities Unlimited will develop and evaluate a project to identify young people who have dropped out of high school and connect them with services, including basic needs assistance, housing, employment skills training, health care clinics and financial literacy. | London | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 595,000 |
| Six Nations Polytechnic Inc. | The organization will use culturally relevant learning to help Aboriginal students gain trades training and skills development opportunities. The project will identify and evaluate what approaches help Aboriginal learners build confidence, skills and feel connected to their communities. | Ohsweken | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 495,000 |
| YWCA St. Thomas - Elgin | The YWCA will strengthen and evaluate a program for homeless and at-risk youth in Elgin County. It will expand its existing services by hiring a social worker and adding an assessment tool to help match young people to housing support services. | St. Thomas | Ending homelessness | $ 360,000 |
| United Way Centraide Windsor-Essex County | The organization will evaluate On Track to Success, a program that is currently being piloted in Leamington. The program helps students from low-income families in rural areas graduate from high school and enrol in postsecondary education by addressing financial barriers to academic success. | Leamington, Essex County | Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth | $ 88,000 |
How applications for 2015 were reviewed
All applications were subject to the same review process:
Review teams of ministry staff representing policy and program areas related to the Poverty Reduction Strategy reviewed and assessed applications against the eligibility requirements listed below. Assessments were audited to ensure reliability across review teams. An inter-ministerial committee of senior ministry officials vetted the process and made recommendations for project funding. All recommendations were subject to financial analysis and due diligence. Considerations such as regional representation to address Ontario’s diverse population and geography were applied as appropriate.
Assessment Criteria
The assessment process was developed based on best practices by Ontario government grant programs. Each application was scored against the following criteria included in the 2015 Call for Proposals Program Guidelines:
Project Overview
- innovation
- alignment with the Poverty Reduction Strategy
- focus on the Poverty Reduction Strategy’s target populations and indicators
Business Case
- program theory / potential impact
- literature review / interjurisdictional scan
- community snapshot of local poverty issues
Evaluation Approach
- identifies research question
- outlines causal linkages
- qualitative / quantitative research design
- desired outcomes and indicators
- experimental and control variables
- partnership with third-party evaluator
- partnership and collaboration
- new and strengthened partnerships
- benefits of partnership
- community service integration
- avoid service duplication
Project Delivery / Organizational Capacity / Sustainability
- project planning
- history of activity in service area
- risk identification and mitigation
- sustainability plan
Contact
If you want to learn more about the fund, please contact the Poverty Reduction Strategy Office at PRSO@ontario.ca.
Updated: June 15, 2022
Published: November 23, 2015