Our Work:
Civic Engagement for Social Change

Our Funding Objectives

Civic engagement for social change fosters active citizenship and personal and community transformation to strengthen democracy and promote a more inclusive, just and sustainable society.

This funding stream was previously known as Adult Education. We have renamed it to use language that is more accessible and understood. We continue to support initiatives adopting a popular education process where individuals, as the source of knowledge, voice their experiences and needs to define goals to work as a group toward community action and change.

Adult education as a model builds on collective knowledge and strengths and offers opportunities for more equitable power-sharing, especially for groups systemically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social and civic life.

Our Approach

The Foundation supports projects that use adult education or popular education processes to assist equity-seeking groups to collectively name the racism, poverty, violence or other forms of exclusion and oppression they experience.

CDF funds initiatives that engage those underserved groups to develop a critical analysis of the social, political or economic roots of problems they experience and then develop strategies for change by recognizing their group strengths and organizing for systemic change.

We encourage groups that develop leadership, communication, organizational skills and participatory research allowing equity-seeking people and allies to develop and implement strategies for change, particularly initiatives that amplify voice and strengthen community response and democracy.

What We Look For

We look for participatory processes:

• Where everyone teaches and everyone learns
• That begin with the experience of the group engaged in the program and
• Involve a high level of participation, critical dialogue and reflection that helps develop new knowledge, consciousness, attitude, leadership and skills
• Culminating in action for empowerment and social and systemic change

The Foundation also embraces the significant role faith can have in motivating and sustaining social action for change. As a result, we consider multi-faith projects that draw upon religious and spiritual traditions in support of social change, such as work for peace, human rights, equity, and social justice. Such projects could take place within a specific faith community, multi-faith or secular context.

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Successful Funding Examples

Some successful funding examples include:

• Workshops, learning circles as well as arts-based and other types of collective learning activities that aim explicitly to address issues such as racism, sexism/violence against women, poverty, social exclusion and marginalization
• Activities to promote active citizenship
• Training programs for social movement activists and/or leaders

Recent funding cycles include the support of organizations that boldly work to create a more equitable and just society. Among the organizations supported was Inspiring Communities’ Changemakers program, a Nova Scotia-based initiative delivering connections, leadership skills and funding to under-resourced residents to create new community programs. Black Lives Matter and Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism in Toronto, meanwhile, offered mentorship and other supports for formerly incarcerated Black people through employment and volunteer opportunities in the Earthseed Community Garden program.

In Yellowknife, NWT, meanwhile, Dene Nahjo’s on-the-land Hide Tanning Mentorship was supported in their work to advance social and environmental justice for Northern peoples, while promoting youth leadership along with Indigenous values, climate action and modern land claims.

And in Ottawa, the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity will gather racialized, queer, and/or religious storytellers from across Canada to facilitate workshops that speak to their lived experience and relationship with religion, faith, spirituality, and queerness. Through Pride in Faith and Spirituality leaders will learn tools to build allyship with marginalized 2SLGBTQ+ people in their communities.