The City and the Foundation are working together to stimulate green innovation, encourage local solutions, and build new community connections in support of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan. Over the next four years, the Greenest City Fund will support youth-led initiatives, neighbourhood-based projects by residents and green programs developed by charitable organizations through the following programs:

1. Greenest City Generation Green Grants
2. Greenest City Neighbourhood Small Grants
3. Greenest City Community Grants

Check the website
For more details about each of the programs and to apply, go to www.vancouverfoundation.ca/greenestcityfund ************************

Greenest City Generation Green Grants
The Greenest City Generation Green Grants encourage youth ages14 to 24 to take part in the effort to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020.

Grants of up to $10,000 will be available for projects that support the goals of the Greenest City Action Plan.

We’re looking for cool ideas for youth-led projects that will help Vancouver become the greenest city by 2020. Check out our website to get more information and to apply: www.vancouverfoundation.ca/greenestcityfund/generationgreengrants

YPC will give out more money! This year, we will grant more than $200,000 to youth led projects! Our grants will range from $1,000 — $10,000.

We’re still funding the arty, peer support, anti-racism and other cool youth projects across Metro Vancouver, but this year YPC is also handling the Generation Green Grants for youth-run environmental projects (these projects were called Generation Green Awards last year.)

The 2012, Generation Green Grants have a special focus on sustainable food. Examples include growing and sharing local food; ensuring equitable access to safe and healthy food or using less energy for food production.

To apply, follow the steps listed in our “getting a grant” section on the YPC website (http://www.vancouverfoundationypc.ca/) and feel free to contact Pegah (YPC Coordinator) at 604.688.2204 if you have any questions.

And there’s more! Stay tuned for Mini Grants happening in the spring of 2012.

WORKSHOP DETAILS

Date: Saturday, October 30, 2010
Time: noon - 4pm (from noon to 2pm: YPC members will be there to help you out and you can sign up for a time in the afternoon to pitch your idea)
(from 2 to 4pm: pitch your idea to YPC… kinda like a 5-7 minute presentation about what you want to do and why you want to do it)
Location: Roundhouse Community Centre which is located at 181 Roundhouse Mews. The best way to get there is take the Canada Line skytrain and get off at Roundhouse Station.

FUNDING GUIDELINES

Who can apply?
-Youth between 12 to 24 who live, work, play, volunteer or go to school in Vancouver
-Youth applicants must partner with a non-profit organization or school. If you’re not connected to a community organization, give us a shout and we can help.

How much and for what?
-Mini grants are up to a maximum of $500
-Projects should address 1 of the 4 priority areas identified in the Youth Vital Signs report.
These 4 areas are: 1) Poverty 2) Youth Housing & Homelessness 3) Safety 4) Going Green
We encourage you to check out the Youth Vital Signs report online at www.youthvitalsigns.ca to learn more about these 4 areas, find out what organizations are doing work in each area and maybe get some inspiration for your project.

What YPC CAN’T fund:
-student exchanges or trips to conferences
-third party fundraising (this means we can’t give you funding so you can then donate the money back to another organization)
-retroactive funding (if your project already happened or took place a while ago and you’re looking for some funding to recover the costs, sorry, we can’t do that)
-office equipment or furniture (this includes purchasing computers or laptops)
-registration fees for conferences, events or extracurricular activities
-school field trips
-amatuer and school sports teams
-activities of religious organizations that serve primarily their membership and/or are for direct religious purposes
-paying yourself
-mini grants are NOT “party” grants

If you still have questions after reading all of this, no worries, just pop us an email at: ypc@vancouverfoundation.ca. We’re here to support you so don’t be shy!

SEE YOU ON OCTOBER 30th!

Letter Of Intent Deadline: September 16, 2010
A letter of intent is a one-page description of what you plan to do, an outline of your proposed goals and activities and how much money you need to do it. We ask that you fill out the online letter of intent form which you can find if you click on “Getting A Grant” on the left hand side. Once you’ve clicked on that, hit the “Start Now” button and get started on telling us what you’d like to accomplish with your project and how it will benefit the youth community.

Once we’ve received your letter of intent, we will give it a read and if it is a fit with YPC’s goals and objectives, we will invite you to complete a full funding application.

Grant Application Deadline: October 7, 2010

For more information on the step-by-step process of how to get a grant from YPC, check out the “How It Works” section under the “Getting A Grant” tab. Before you do that, please make sure you’ve read over YPC’s goals and funding guidelines to see if your project would be a fit. And of course, if you’re not sure, give us a shout or email.

That’s it for now but keep checking back for more updates and opportunities!

Space is limited to sign up early and spread the word. The Surrey Youth Forum is brought to you by the following event sponsors: Point Youth Media, Vancouver Foundation, PeerNet BC and SFPIRG.

The deets:

Saturday September 19, 2009
11am-3pm
Surrey Nature Centre (located at 14255 - 96TH AVENUE)

For more information, contact: surreyyouthforum@gmail.com

We hope you are having a great summer so far! It is that time of year again and we have a couple of updates and announcements:

First off, YPC is accepting letters of intent for project funding. So if you have an idea that will spread youth voice and make your community a better place for young people, consider applying for a grant. Deadline to submit your letter of intent is September 17, 2009. Before you submit your project idea though, make sure you read through our funding guidelines in order to know what is and is not eligible for funding. You can find this by clicking our “getting a grant” tab on the left hand side. After we’ve read through all the letters of intent, we will send you the full grant application to fill out.

Second, we’re looking for some new, vivacious, members to join the Youth Philanthropy Council. An information session will take place in early September so keep your eyes posted for the update. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about YPC or how to get a grant from us, feel free to email us at: ypc@vancouverfoundation.ca

Wishing everyone a fantastic remainder of the summer!

Oh yeah, there’s a party happening this Thursday June 4th as well, to celebrate Youth Vital Signs. The details:

Wise Hall
1882 Adanac Street, Vancouver

With live performances by SWEATSHOP UNION, KUTAPIRA AND ZULU NATION THROWDOWN, you know it’s going to be good. AND it’s FREE. So reserve your tickets as soon as possible by sending an email to: info@youthvitalsigns.ca

See you all there!

Many of you have been asking about YPC’s funding for 2009. Due to the economic downturn, Vancouver Foundation, like any other community foundation or organization with investments, has been impacted. Vancouver Foundation will only have one funding cycle in Fall of 2009. At this time, we would encourage you to keep checking out YPC’s website for updates. If you would like to know more about Vancouver Foundation or read about the economic impact, please visit Vancouver Foundation’s wesite at www.vancouverfoundation.ca

If you have any thoughts, ideas, questions or comments, give us a shout at ypc@vancouverfoundation.ca or call us 604.688.2204