Toronto Downtown East Residents Grant

The City’s Community Funding Unit, Community Infrastructure Unit and The Neighborhood Group’s Trustee Hub have partnered to launch the Downtown East Residents Grant. The grant will be distributed to community or resident-led groups based in the Downtown East Area for activities or projects that support the Downtown East Action Plan priority of Safe and Inclusive Communities – to increase access to spaces or supports that promote a sense of safety, dignity or belonging for marginalized individuals in the Downtown East in a way that also maintains or enhances safety and inclusivity of the neighborhoods overall.

We are looking to fund time-limited projects or activities that are:

• Temporary, time-limited projects or activities that will take place between August 18th, 2023, and March 31st, 2024.
• New activities or new enhancements of ongoing initiatives. Note, if applying for new enhancements of ongoing initiatives, describe how the enhancements will conclude after the funding period has ended, or how you will continue to sustain the enhancements after the grant funding ends.
• Designed to engage a diversity of community members during the planning, implementation and evaluation phases of the work. We encourage inclusion of populations well represented in the Downtown East, including Black, Indigenous, and equity-deserving people and people with lived experience in the communities or populations their programs will be serving.
• Focused on the Downtown East, an area that is bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Front Street to the south, Bay Street to the west, and the Don Valley Parkway to the east, including an expansion up to 21 Park Rd, north of Bloor due to the respite site at that location.
• Priority will be placed on activities or projects that are delivered in the following neighborhoods within the Downtown East: Church/Wellesley,Yonge/Dundas, Dundas/Sherbourne/Moss Park, Allan Gardens, and St. James Town.

Click the Learn More link to review the 2023 Grant Guidelines and to access the application form.