ONTARIO — Last week, the Power to Play (P2P) grant program opened for submissions and will remain so until March 7, 2022 at 11:30pm (EST) from Indigenous communities and organizations located in Ontario.
The P2P grant will provide opportunities for Indigenous communities to access various resources that will help with participation in physical activity, athlete and sport-specific skill development, increase accessibility to sport opportunities, and encourage exploration of organized sports and pathways.
P2P was developed to provide sport and recreation resources through financial means to Indigenous communities/organizations in Ontario. The P2P grant is intended to create opportunities for Indigenous athletes to train and compete within the Indigenous community, to build skills and competition preparedness, and to reduce barriers for Indigenous Peoples to participate in organized sport.
The P2P grant is available to eligible applicants who may apply for financial support of up to $5,000 to procure their own sporting equipment. Applicants may choose to use 20% of the funds to support the certification and/or training of sport leaders to help support sport programs in the community, or to cover the cost of a facilitator to run a sport program, which will utilize the equipment.
The goals of the P2P program are to: Reduce barriers for Indigenous communities to participate in recreation and sport activities. Increase accessibility to sport opportunities for Indigenous youth. Provide resources to assist communities with introducing new, organized sport programming that include coaching and/or leadership components. Build capacity of coaches and facilitators to provide effective sport and recreation programming. To support active and healthy lifestyles for Indigenous Peoples in Ontario.
To be eligible to apply for the IWSO P2P grant program, the applicant must be located in Ontario, an Indigenous band or community, established Indigenous youth group, Indigenous not-for-profit organization (including Indigenous schools in Indigenous communities); an Indigenous government, provincial territorial organization or tribal council; a not-for-profit club or association that directly delivers organized sport projects in Indigenous communities, in consultation and collaboration with those communities, at no cost; and is not already an ISWO Community Sport Fund (CSF) recipient in the same year.
Eligible applications will be evaluated by a review committee consisting of ISWO Board and Staff members, and representatives of its advisory committee. The committee will base their recommendations on the eligibility and assessment criteria described in these guidelines but reserves the right to recommend an application that falls outside of these guidelines if the project still supports the overall goals of the grant project. It is anticipated that more applications will be received than can be funded, and therefore only eligible applications will be reviewed; however, please note that meeting all the eligibility criteria does not guarantee funding. Applicants may be contacted to provide further information regarding their proposal before final funding selections are confirmed. ISWO is unable to fund expenses incurred prior to receiving your application. If you incur expenses for your request before receiving written confirmation of your funding approval, you will be doing so at your own risk. For more information, check out: https://iswo.ca/event/power-to-play-p2p-grant-program/.