Upcoming Funding Dates

This stream will next open for applications in October 2025. Please check back here for more information, and review previous funding guides (at the bottom of the page!). 

Description

The Medium Funding Stream will provide funding of up to $30,000 to Indigenous youth-led projects and groups of non-profits that seek to create impactful community change and increase the wellness, resiliency and engagement of Indigenous youth. Projects must be led by 2+ Indigenous youth (ages 15-29) who are meaningfully involved in project guidance, planning, implementation and/or evaluation.   

There is a priority in this stream to support: 

  • Indigenous grassroots groups and collectives  
  • Groups that have experience running programming and projects, but are looking to scale to a new level or try something new  
  • Projects that have an appropriate scale and scope for the funding provided (i.e. engagement numbers and frequency make sense for the funding requested) 
  • Projects that are multi-dimensional (i.e. are doing more than just one thing, and are looking to improve wellness overall)  

Focus Areas

We’re looking to fund projects that focus on one or more of the following areas:

Projects will focus on assessing community and youth needs, doing feasibility projects and engaging the community in consultation.

Projects that increase access to arts, art-based workshops, cultural knowledge, traditions and ceremony

Projects will support youth groups in accessing capacity-building, knowledge mobilization and funding resources. Projects will focus on innovating healthcare systems, developing solutions to infrastructure and resource challenges (such as access to clean water and sustainable food sources) and increasing access to technology.

Projects will engage multiple age groups and should help to enhance the sense of community (i.e. projects where youth participate in programs with Elders, families, adults, etc).

Projects will focus on organizational development in Indigenous agencies. The intention of this focus area is to increase leadership, governance, capacity and opportunity for Indigenous organizations to impact communities and systems. Projects can include organizational enhancements (i.e. training, website development, strategic plan development, consulting projects, purchase of supplies, etc).

Projects will focus on enhancing community wellness and can include one-off events or long-term programs and any type of programming related to wellness (i.e. workshops, teachings, gatherings).

Eligibility

Creation will prioritize funding grassroots youth groups consisting of a minimum of 2 Indigenous youth. Please note: for the purpose of this program, IYR defines Indigenous as status and non-status First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada, living both on and off-reserve. 

Eligible groups and projects include: 

  • Unincorporated/grassroots youth groups and collectives 
  • Incorporated youth groups 
  • Youth Councils

Ineligible groups and projects: 

  • Individuals 
  • Projects that are not youth-led (or where the majority of leadership is 30+) 
  • Non-Indigenous organizations 
  • Projects taking place outside of Canada 
  • For profit corporations and businesses 
  • Groups that have an organizational budget of over $1,000,000

Examples of Funded Projects

Learn about some projects that have been funded in this stream:

Guardians in Training youth network enables ʔaq̓amnik youth to strengthen ʔaq̓am self-governance and development through participation in the development of a sustainable Youth Governance structure. The Water/Climate Gathering will promote water literacy and empower youth to take action in climate change, by learning about land and water stewardship career paths from experts in the field. This project engaged over 300 Indigenous youth and over 400 community members.  

Letters to the Land will host a series of letter writing workshops and conversation spaces to help youth unpack their relations with land and hold space for grief while empowering each other. LttL will provide emotional/wellness support on site for all events, including smudging materials, open art activities, sensory experiences, and closing spaces with sharing circles facilitated by Elders. This project engaged over 1,200 Indigenous youth and over 600 community members.

Takla Nation Chil’keh Youth Group want to continue their Meals on Wheels programming in their community. Youth gather twice a week to deliver hot meals for elders in the community, once a week they gather all together to share a meal in the cabin. It has provided a safe space for youth and elders to share cultural knowledge, teaches youth to take care of elders, and assist when needed. This project engaged over 20 Indigenous youth and over 55 community members. 

Kaska youth will establish weekly programming for youth to reconnect to their culture, land, identity, and Elders to build healthy community. Weekly meetings will also function as a healthy living support group, for accountability to follow their wellness and self care plans. Each week will have a different topic (such as traditional skills, wellness, culture, language, mental health, harm reduction, life skills, sports, and ceremony). The workshops will include tufting, beadwork, drum-making, medicines, soap making, entrepreneurship, nutrition. This project engaged over 80 Indigenous youth and over 30 community members. 

WAYC will increase the capacity of their own organization and 5 other youth-led organizations through the provision of training, capacity building programming, governance and leadership development initiatives and strategic planning sessions. As part of this project, they will assess gaps in the area through community consultations, strategy sessions with other youth groups and the collection of data directly from youth. This project engaged over 30 Indigenous youth. 

Stream Specific FAQ

See the general FAQ here.

Absolutely! There are no limitations on how much of your budget is allocated to salaries or to honorariums.  
 
If your application is for a project (as opposed to core funds), make sure you have enough funding resources to carry out your project activities! If you are looking to us for salary support, and have funders for your project activities, please include that in your application!  

Absolutely! In our smaller streams (like Youth Empowerment and Youth and Community Wellness) there is a priority to find new and emerging projects, but for Medium Project we are often looking to fund projects where the group’s running them (or the youth leaders) have more experience running projects. Having received a grant previously is a great way to demonstrate that you have experience runnign projects and initiatives.  

Of course! While most projects we fund in this stream run over the course of 8-12 months, we have funded projects that were shorter.  

Please let your Grant Coordinator/Grant Mentor know and they will talk through options! Generally speaking we’ll work with you to support those funds being spent on future project implementation. This might look like purchasing extra supplies or materials for your group going forward. We always aim to keep those funds in community first, so we’re happy to brainstorm with you what that looks like!   

Stream Impact & Reports

IYR has run 7 rounds of the Youth Empowerment Funding Stream. In total $2,334,000 in funding has been given to 86 projects. Funded projects have reached 18,096 Indigenous youth. What excites us about this stream is that we’ve been able to provide both core support to organizations and fund beautiful community-based projects. 

2021 Stream Overview

2020 Stream Overview

Past Medium Stream Funding Guides

2024

July View English Guide  |  View French Guide

2023

March/August View English Guide  |  View French Guide

2022

May/August View English Guide  |  View French Guide

2021

August View English Guide  |  View French Guide

Grant Contact Name and Pronouns

Patricia Eve Martin

(she/her)

Grant Coordinator