Low-income families often face barriers that keep their children from experiencing Hamilton’s vibrant arts community. Supported by HCF, the art club at Cathy Wever School enabled students to receive 20 weeks of instruction from two local artists, visit studios on James St. North and mount their own public exhibition complete with opening night reception.   

 

Resources

Small Project Funding Toolkit

INTRODUCTION

From 2002 to 2008, Hamilton Community Foundation operated the “Growing Roots….Strengthening Neighbourhoods” program.  This provided the opportunity to fund small, resident-led projects in four high-need Hamilton neighbourhoods.  In 2008 this program was integrated into TPTII: Building Strong Communities.  Within each of the six “neighbourhood hubs” funded through TPTII, funds have been made available to continue to support these important resident-led initiatives. 

Through our experience and the research we have studied, we believe that supporting resident-led neighbourhood projects benefits the individuals involved through the acquisition of new skills, increased self-esteem, reduced social isolation and an overall greater sense of citizen empowerment.  Neighbourhoods benefit by using small seed grants as leverage to bring in additional resources to the community, by increasing the neighbourhoods capacity to deal with problems, and by helping to ensure that the neighbourhood benefits from a strong and active resident “voice”.

We are providing the information contained in this “toolkit” in hopes that it will assist the local planning teams with administering this funding and ensuring that the small projects continue to contribute to the vitality of their neighbourhoods.  This toolkit was put together specifically for the neighbourhood hubs as selected through the TPTII: Building Strong Communities funding initiative. 

Included you will find:

• How do we make this happen?  The process of administering small project funding
• Ideas for resident-led initiatives
• A sample assessment tool
• A sample application form including budget form
• A sample reporting form

Please feel free to call with any concerns or questions.