Chestermere City Council carried the Human Services Advisory Board (HSAB) funding allocation recommendations during the March 1 Regular Meeting of Council.
The city facilitates a grant-making program, and the HSAB is responsible for supporting the enhancement of Chestermere’s social infrastructure, manager of community support services corporate services Danielle Fermin said in the council meeting.
Local charities and not-for-profit organizations are encouraged to submit their program or service proposal that aligns with the city’s Social Investment Framework to the city for the opportunity to receive grant funding from the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and United Way funding.
The framework has the goals of achieving healthy, connected, and engaged individuals and families, vibrant, connected, and engaged neighbourhoods and communities, and positive mental health.
The 2022 call for proposals commenced at the end of June 2021 with final recommendations made in fall 2021. The project start time for the approvals was January 2022.
“Overall, there continues to be high interest from local and regional services providers who seek funding and formal partnerships with the city, meaning there’s high interest in funding, and that continues to be more than what is available for councils’ consideration,” Fermin said. “It does limit the board’s ability to provide a wider array of offerings at the requested amounts.”
The board is appreciative of the proposals that were submitted, and they were evaluated through an approach aimed to fill in gaps in the community and meet the needs of residents.
The board has put forward the recommendation of 12 projects this year, with an investment cost of $179,894.
$129,894 has been allocated from the overall 2022 FCSS budget and $50,000 from the United Way budget.
“The city is in agreements with respected funders, and funding has been secured. For FCSS this agreement ends at the end of 2022, and for United Way, the agreement ends in 2023 with possible renewal,” Fermin said.
The city commits $116,801.00 to the provincial FCSS program’s contribution of $467,203.
“For 2022, community support services recommended a $190,000 budget for externally funded initiatives. $50,000 is sourced from United Way and $140,000 is portioned from the overall FCSS budget,” Fermin said.
On September 15, 2021, the HSAB recommended initiatives including, Accredited Supports to the Community “Healthy Families,” Camp Chestermere for “Helping All Campers Succeed,” “CLTD Teen Leadership” and “Volunteer Mentorship Program Coordinator,” Chestermere Food Bank “Diversity and Inclusion Hampers,” and “Good Food Box,” Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta “Financial Literacy, Work Readiness, and Entrepreneurship for Chestermere Youth,” Lakeridge Community Church “The Unpacked Podcast and Live Events Series,” Synergy “Connection and Care,” “Mental Health Coalition” and “SHOUT,” and Trellis “Youth Space,” to be offered in 2022.
“The city receives two grant sources, FCSS and United Way, we do state how much funding is available from grant steams, but we do receive more funding requests than for what is available,” Fermin said. “There’s more funding needed to meet the needs of the community than what is available through our current grant-making structure.”
Council approved the HSAB 2022 funding allocations and will provide administration direction on city funding to be released quarterly to the FCSS budget for better cash flow throughout the year.
Mayor Jeff Colvin was unavailable for comment.
