Top 10 for 2004
Nanaimo Foodshare
Nanaimo, British Columbia
Nanaimo Foodshare runs a number of programs aimed at increasing Food Security on Vancouver Island, including a Good Food Box that helps families stretch their food dollar while accessing good local produce, cooking skills programs for youth, active living and healthy eating workshops, a program that matches those with excess produce with those who can make good use of it, and a summer lunch program in public parks.
The Stop Community Food Centre
Toronto, Ontario
The Stop Community Food Centre strives to increase people’s access to nutritious food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds community and challenges inequality. They provide programs and advocacy to some of the most vulnerable people in the City of Toronto, addressing problems of hunger and poverty by focusing on the ways food can bring people together to break down social isolation and improve their quality of life. In 2004, over 7000 people accessed food, information and advocacy as well as social and recreational activities at The Stop. Two thousand pounds of fresh organic produce was harvested from their community garden for use in their food programs.
YWCA Vancouver (National Child Care program)
Vancouver, British Columbia
Active municipally, provincially, and federally, YWCA Vancouver is a lead advocate for an accessible and robust federal child care system in Canada. Working with many other non-profits, charities, and citizen groups across Canada, YWCA will be taking a strong stand on the need for quality, accessible child care.
Light Up the World
Calgary, Alberta
Light Up The World Foundation (LUTW) is an international humanitarian organization affiliated with the University of Calgary dedicated to illuminating the lives of the world’s poor. It is the first humanitarian organization to utilize solid-state lighting technologies to bring affordable, safe, healthy, efficient, and environmentally responsible lighting to people currently without access to proper lighting. LUTW remains the world’s leader, globally active and setting standards in this field.
Falls Brook Centre
Knowlesville, New Brunswick
Falls Brook Centre’s local and international projects are focused on curbing the climate change trend and reducing rural communities’ vulnerabilities to the associated changes. Located on 400 acres of Acadian forest and farmland, the Centre acts as a demonstration site and basis for outreach, complete with a strawbale museum, organic gardens and orchards, and a solar conference centre. Successful regional and international programs support local communities in adapting to a sustainable future, focusing on the promotion of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, eco-forestry, and other income-generating sustainable livelihoods.
The Sustainability Network
Toronto, Ontario
The Sustainability Network does crucial capacity building work with environmental non-profits in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan to make them more effective and efficient. By improving management and leadership skills and fostering organizational development, the Network helps to strengthen the environmental community. In the past, workshops have focused on social marketing, fundraising, media training, volunteer management, legal issues and many other NGO management topics. .
Eva’s Phoenix
Toronto, Ontario
Eva’s Phoenix- a project of Eva’s Initiatives - is an innovative transitional housing and training facility in the King and Strachan area of Toronto. Up to 50 youth ages 16-24 may live at Eva’s Phoenix for up to one year, while up to 160 youth ages 16-29 may participate in its employment and pre-apprenticeship programs. Working with business, labour and community partners, Eva’s Phoenix provides homeless and at-risk youth with the opportunities needed to develop life skills, build careers and live independently.
FCJ Hamilton House
Toronto, Ontario
FCJ Hamilton House Refugee Project offers temporary housing for women and children refugee claimants, training programs and publications for frontline workers and refugees about the refugee system, and legal information and referrals for refugee claimants, especially those who do not have legal aid.
Tides Canada’s Drug Policy Reform Fund
Vancouver, British Columbia and national.
More and more, serious drug use is being acknowledged not necessarily as a cause of social instability, but rather a symptom of social inequity. Drug addiction and its accompanying effects are being seen more as health and social justice issues, and less as criminal issues. Drug policy reform is about acknowledging that the prevalent focus on criminalization and incarceration is lacking in its ability to solve problems in the long-term.
The Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver has become Canada’s unfortunate poster child for the vicious cycle of addiction, poverty, disease, homelessness, and tragic violence. But it is also the neighborhood that can lead the country in actively demonstrating effective solutions to be emulated throughout Canada.
Grants from this collaborative fund are directed to Canadian charities working on diverse aspects of drug policy reform: harm reduction, treatment, policy alternatives, legal aid, and education. The fund is focused on, but not exclusive to, charities in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
To learn more or to contribute, please contact:
Lesley Anderson
Director of Philanthropic Services, Tides Canada
604-647-6611 ext 245 / 1-866-843-3722
Lesley@tidescanada.org
Tides Canada’s Canadian Boreal Fund
National
Our Canadian Boreal Fund is directed towards charitable projects that sustain the ecological and cultural integrity of the Canadian Boreal region.
In the past year grants have been made to key Canadian organizations working to preserve the Canadian section of this global forest. These include the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and Ducks Unlimited for their work in Saskatchewan, and the Wildlands League for their work in Northern Ontario.
To learn more or to contribute, please contact:
Lesley Anderson
Director of Philanthropic Services, Tides Canada
604-647-6611 ext 245 / 1-866-843-3722
Lesley@tidescanada.org
Toronto360-215 Spadina Ave.
Toronto, ON M5T 2C7
T 416-481-8652
F 1-866-780-6611
