Applications are open for the city's community grants, with two new options for local non-profit organizations.
“We use the community grant to provide workshops for youth," said Crisis Centre of Northern BC executive director Riley Skinner. “Most of these workshops are focused on mental health, suicide prevention and self-harm, topics that youth don't usually interact with unless it's like out in the ether, like Instagram, TikTok. So we try to get ahead of those messaging streams and teach youth how to interact with their mental health and also how to interact with each other. The grant itself supports us in making sure that those workshops are completely free so that we can reach as many people as possible with no cost to the community schools or youth that we interact with.”
The centre received a MyPG Community Grant of $5,000 last year.
All three grants are meant to benefit the community through the financial support of non-profits but differ in objective and funding.
- The updated MyPG community grant aims to fund events and projects promoting and improving the city. Applications are accepted twice per year with a due date of March 15, and Oct. 15, at 4:30 p.m. Successful grants are allocated up to or less than $10,000.
- The new Quick Response (MICRO) Grant’s goal is to provide support to registered not-for-profits with smaller, more time-sensitive projects. Applications open in January on a first-come, first-served basis. Allocations are generally less than $2,500.
- The new Capacity Building Grant supports registered not-for-profits with assistance in upgrading the skills and knowledge of staff and volunteers. It is also open in January on a first-come, first-served basis, and allocations are in most cases less than $1,500.
The MyPG Community Grant doesn't require a start or end date for its funding requirements, meaning projects like the Crisis Centre's workshops can have time to grow.
The grants are available until the program's budget is depleted for the year, the city states in its announcement.
To be eligible, organizations must be a registered non-profit, the projects must be within the City of Prince George's boundary and applicants must ensure there are other sources of funding to support the project.
So far more than 40 non-profit organizations in Prince George have benefited, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern BC, which received a MyPG Community Grant of $2,000 in 2024.
“This grant from the city last year, we started using it in September 2024 to buy gift cards,” said program director Bob Schroeder. “These are $45 each for our volunteers to spend exclusively on their matches. They do things like buy baking supplies so they can then go in and bake cookies with their little brother, or little sister. Or if they want to do something special, maybe something above and beyond, they can go somewhere to get some more expensive stuff. So it is being funnelled directly right to our matches in the in-school program to help essentially build those relationships.”
To find out more information or to apply visit the City of Prince George's website.
