In early 2012, the
Sustainability Network awarded "mini-grants" to six Ontario environmental nonprofits. The grants were presented to organizations made up of, or actively working with, under-represented communities. Now, just under a year later, each grantee has produced a one-hour webinar to show other organizations what they've learned.
The "mini-grants," so-called because the money awarded was relatively minimal (a maximum of $5000 per organization), are part of a larger Sustainability Network Initiative called the
Environment and Diversity Project. Launched in 2009, the initiative helps Ontario's environmental NGOs better reflect a diversity of communities.
"The Environment and Diversity Project is a four year project that officially ended in December 2012" says Victor Reyes, project manager at the sustainability network. "Because NGOs and environmental NGOS in particular don't really reflect the true diversity of say the GTA, we knew that that was an issue that needed to be addressed. We consider ourselves an environmental NGO but instead of being a grassroots activists group we're a capacity building group...so the Environment and Diversity Project fits perfectly into what we do."
The Sustainability Network will stream the video series, titled 'Environment and Diversity' on their website from January 16th to February 20th. The hour-long webinars each have specific time-slots and cost $5 per participant. View the full list of videos and times
here.
"The webinars will allow the organizations to share their experience in regards to the various projects they have implemented" says Reyes.
Toronto-based food security NGO the
Afri-Can Foodbasket (AFB) is among the six organizations presenting webinars. AFB's video 'Culturally Specific Food Security Curriculum' examines AFB's work fostering urban agriculture and community gardens in some of Toronto's low-income and racialized communities.
"Our granting committee thought the [Afri-Can Foodbasket] project was amazing" says Reyes. "The project is about connecting people to food through culture. Their project is really about focusing on a curriculum to help connect young people with their culture and food and how that food gets to their table."
Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Victor Reyes, Sustainability Network, Project Manager