Question Period Note: Social Development Partnerships Program - Children and Families - Social Inclusion and Financial Empowerment

In January 2021, the Government of Canada approved the launch of two Calls for Proposals (CFP) providing up to $39M in funding for projects that benefit vulnerable communities under two themes: Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Children and Youth and Financial Empowerment of Low-Income People.

• The applications were assessed based on a rigorous assessment process of the mandatory criteria outlined in the applicant guide. Given the large volume of applications, only the applications that scored highest in the assessment process were recommended for funding.

• The higher then anticipated volume of applications received led to the need for additional time to assess and identify eligible projects against the established criteria.

• The Government of Canada is committed to conducting fair and transparent assessments of all applications for funding and committed to promoting and investing in projects that help equity-deserving populations experience better quality of life.

IF PRESSED
• The approved and recommended projects all scored numerically high in the assessment process (over 75%) and met the stated considerations in both the applicant materials and parameters of the Calls for Proposals.

• The Government of Canada received 228 applications for Financial Empowerment and 655 applications for Social Inclusion. Due to the high volume of applications, additional time was needed to ensure due diligence in the screening and assessment of all applications.

• Recommended and funded projects represent a diverse and inclusive cohort, applying the priorities of the published applicant materials while also giving due consideration to equity and fairness in geographic spread including vulnerable adults, rural and remote communities and Official Language Minority

In January 2021, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen approved the launch of two Calls for Proposals (CFPs) providing up to $39M in funding over five years for projects that benefit vulnerable communities under two themes: Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Children and Youth and Financial Empowerment of Low-Income People.

On May 25, 2021, the Government of Canada launched the two CFPs as part of the Children and Families component of the Social Development Partnerships Program. The CFPs were open for a period of six weeks, and closed on July 6, 2021.

The CFPs invited eligible organizations to apply for up to $3 million in funding to support projects that focus on one of two objectives:
• Financial Empowerment: services and supports to help increase the financial wellbeing of low-income adults; or
• Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Children and Youth: services and supports to help increase the social inclusion of children and youth who may be experiencing impacts to their physical and mental wellbeing due to social isolation.

The Government of Canada received 228 applications for Financial Empowerment for a total funding request of $363.7M and 655 applications for Social Inclusion for a total funding request of $1.58B.

The publically communicated information on the Department’s website advised that decisions would be made in fall 2021. Due to delays resulting from the large volume of applications, applicants were notified in December that they could expect results as soon as January 2022 for Financial Empowerment and as soon as February 2022 for Social Inclusion projects.

On February 9, 2022, 11 projects were approved under the Financial Empowerment CFP totaling $11.6M.

On February 16, 2022, applicants under the Social Inclusion stream were notified of further delays with expected results to be communicated as soon as March 2022.

As of April 5, 2022, a decision on the Social Inclusion stream is outstanding.

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