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New grants help community services charities meet immediate needs + build future resilience

Victoria Foundation administers local share of national Community Services Recovery Fund
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Funded by the Government of Canada and administered locally by the Victoria Foundation, the Community Services Recovery Fund will support both immediate and future needs of non-profits working in the community services sector.

A $400 million federal investment in charities and non-profits across Canada will help meet current needs and build resilience here at home.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the Community Services Recovery Fund is a collaboration between Canadian Red Cross, Community Foundations of Canada and United Way Centraide Canada.

Designed to support both immediate and future needs of non-profits working in the community services sector, the initiative provides funding to non-profit organizations, Indigenous governing bodies and registered charities located in Canada.

Here at home, the Victoria Foundation will administer grants locally, supporting applications to the ‘Investing in Systems and Processes’ project focus area on Southern Vancouver Island.

(The local organization notes that the federal Community Services Recovery Fund is a separate program from the Victoria Foundation’s own Community Grants Program – formerly the Community Recovery Program.)

As charities and non-profits focus on how to adapt their organizations for pandemic recovery, this $400 million investment recognizes the key role they’re playing in addressing persistent and complex social problems Canadians are facing.

Community service organizations are invited to apply for the grant program from Jan. 6 to Feb. 21, 2023. For more information, including frequently asked questions and registration for a Jan. 12 webinar, view the additional resources here, or contact the Victoria Foundation at 250-381-5532 or by email at grants@victoriafoundation.bc.ca

Vital Victoria explores the great outdoors + mental health

The latest episode of the Vital Victoria podcast explores the connection between our mental health and wellness and the experience of being in nature.

Host Lucky Budd welcomes David Segal and Katy Rose, co-founders of Human Nature Counselling, to explore how working in partnership with the natural world, and how the connection to our “near-nature” can help many individuals’ mental health and well-being.

Nature’s impact on our mental health became even more pronounced during the pandemic, as people were cut off from their usual social connections and looked for opportunities to escape home and technology, at least for a little while. Greater Victoria’s parks and greenspaces afforded ample opportunity to do that – safely.

But even before COVID, concepts like nature-based therapy and forest bathing were gaining prominence as a way to reconnect with the natural world.

“That’s part of our approach, this idea of nearby-nature,” says Rose. This can include a creek, a trail, or even a portion of a park for a young child. “When it’s our nearby nature, we have this bigger sense of belonging and attachment to it that is really powerful.”

Fortunately for those here in Greater Victoria, nature is quite literally on our doorstep.

Learn more and listen to the podcast here.

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Since 1936, the Victoria Foundation has connected visionary donors with causes that truly matter. Today, it works to effect positive change in Greater Victoria and beyond by inspiring giving, by thoughtfully caring for the assets entrusted to them, and by investing in people, ideas and activities that strengthen our communities. Learn more at victoriafoundation.bc.ca