The Emergency Community Support Fund (ECSF) is a $350M investment from the Government of Canada to support charities and non-profit organizations serving vulnerable populations as they manage the impacts of COVID-19. 

The need for an emergency response to COVID-19 is significant. In communities across Canada, the demand for the ECSF activated through Community Foundations of Canada has exceeded the funds available. Community Foundations of Canada continues to advocate for additional emergency and stabilization funding.

The Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion received funding to address the impacts of COVID on the Black community specifically youth. We worked with the Hamilton Black History Council to provide immediate needs to Black youth as they prepared to go back to school during the pandemic.

Our goal is to support the back-to-school transition for Black youth by mitigating some of the impacts of COVID-19. Overall, the project had a wide reach and exceeded the budget that was initially put forward. In assessing the impact, it’s clear that this project fulfilled the needs of many Hamiltonians and supported our initial goal. Although we did not envision a specific target number of individuals that would access this project, the demand clearly exceeded our capacity. By the end of this program, we assisted 413 Black students and families. We worked to meet the needs of these families within the goals and structure of this program.