By Cleome Wilkinson, Communications Coordinator

We are happy to announce that thanks to another year of incredible projects across Western Canada, Urban Matters has directed over $450,000 back to communities as part of its annual contributions for 2023!

As a Community Contributions Company (CCC), our vision is to co-create inclusive communities where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. For us, this means not only working with municipalities and organizations as community consultants, but also using our dollars to help community groups take action and implement solutions.

Our annual community contributions therefore represent more than mere collaborations; rather, they signify our team’s shared vision and commitment to creating a more inclusive and equitable world.

This year’s round of community contributions supports six outstanding community organizations:

• Community Action Initiative (CAI)
• Penticton Substance Use Systems Change Project
• New Power Labs
• Employ to Empower
• Just-In-Time Tutoring
• Tea Creek Farm

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Community Action Initiative (CAI)

$100,000

Urban Matters is contributing $100,000 to CAI for the third year in a row to support the momentum of its micro-grant program and other impactful initiatives. The micro-grant program funds small but mighty community projects that may otherwise be overlooked for financing. By injecting funds into these projects, we can help uplift people with lived and living experience to lead social change in their communities.

Our continued partnership with CAI is one we are proud to nurture, having proven the value in building trusting relationships to deliver sustainable impact year over year and gain new insights along the way.

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Penticton Substance Use Systems Change Project

$125,000

The Penticton Community Action Team (CAT) is dedicated to co-designing solutions to the drug poisoning crisis in Penticton and the South Okanagan.

In 2021, the Penticton CAT partnered with the City of Penticton and Urban Matters CCC to embark on a mapping journey of the substance use system of care in the South Okanagan. The project explores how we might shift the substance use system of care from a one-size-fits-all model to one that embraces nuance and diversity and offers multiple pathways for care. Using this funding, we can support efforts to design a better system of care and remove the financial obstacle during the testing phase.

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New Power Labs

$100,000

New Power Labs is a collaborative platform helping to find new approaches that will flow capital funds more equitably into social change spaces in Canada. We are excited to mark our initial involvement with a $100,000 contribution in 2023 which will support social finance initiatives in underfunded and overlooked communities. We are also working in partnership to launch a Mothers with Lived and Living Experience Fund, which aims to mobilize finance capital and disrupt typical power dynamics to support the healing journeys and foster belonging for mothers and their children who have lived and living experience of homelessness and/or substance use.

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Employ to Empower

$65,000

Employ to Empower is a non-profit organization that operates in the Downtown Eastside to help individuals who face employment and social barriers to cultivate community connections through entrepreneurship and self-advocacy opportunities. Their goal is to give every person the opportunity achieve self-reliance, financial well-being, a sense of belonging, and contribution to the community. Using its contribution funds from Urban Matters, Employ to Empower will support 13 participants to access programming including the Business Skills and Mentorship Programs as well as other resources as needed.

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Just-in-Time Tutoring

$40,000

Just-In-Time Tutoring is a new offering from Cariboo-Chilcotin Partners for Literacy Society. This after-school tutoring service employs a social enterprise model to connect children and youth in the region with subsidized tutoring services focused on boosting literacy. After delivering adult programming for nearly 25 years, CCPL are excited to have launched their first youth-focused initiative to great results in the pilot run of three sessions during the 2022-2023 school year. Urban Matters recognizes this organization’s commitment providing equitable access to education and beyond the $40,000 contribution are providing strategic guidance to secure the sustainability of their program moving forward.

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Tea Creek Farm

$20,000

Tea Creek Farm aims to revitalize the culture of economic interdependence and food production that was a central part of life for Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. Focused on providing culturally safe, hands-on training for Indigenous people, they aim to enhance the resiliency and health of Indigenous communities and economies. The team at Urban Matters will be supporting Tea Creek in building staff capacity and training, particularly around leadership and program management.