Youth Employment Skills Strategy Program – Strategic Collaboration projects

Who can apply

Applicants invited by ESDC

Only specific organizations can apply.

Organizations may only submit one application for funding under this call.

ESDC is using a competitive, solicited call for proposals to fund projects. We will solicit proposals from groups with the following specific expertise:

Expertise in cross-sector collaboration:

The organization has experience leading or participating in successful collaborations with organizations that represent different sectors (e.g., service providers, employers, academia, innovation, knowledge mobilization) to address a challenge.

Expertise in strategic partnerships & networks:

The organization currently holds strategic partners and networks that could facilitate collaboration related to a theme within and across the youth employment and or youth with disabilities and employment spaces.

Expertise in research and development (R&D), experimentation or innovation, in the past five years:

The organization has been significantly engaged in R&D, experimentation, or innovation in the past five years.

Expertise in at least one of the following themes:

General themes:

A. Strengthening youth voices:

This theme emphasizes the importance of including young people in decision-making processes; it focuses on supporting organizations to involve youth more meaningfully in the design and delivery of services and programs intended for their benefit.

B. Integrating employment supports into social and health services hubs/networks for marginalized youth:

Youth with complex needs must often independently navigate a complicated and disconnected web of services (e.g., shelters, foodbanks, counselling), and can struggle to access employment supports. This theme focuses on integrating employment services for youth furthest from the labour market within existing health and social service hubs, to better support them in making progress towards their goals.

C. Improving impact measurement:

This theme focuses on strengthening capacity to use data among youth employment organizations. Better quality data and data analysis will support organizations to identify the diverse and unique needs of youth and demonstrate what works well for youth in different contexts. This in turn helps generate learnings that can inform program and service improvements.

D. Building sectoral capacity for sensemaking: Shared learning, analysis, and action:

This theme aims to improve sector-wide knowledge sharing and coordination through methodologies like ‘sensemaking’ and ‘collective intelligence’. Building the sector’s capacity to work together to identify emerging trends, document effective practices, and align efforts to address shared challenges will ultimately lead to more relevant and effective employment services for youth.

Youth with Disabilities Stream themes:

E. Strengthening employer capacity to create barrier-free workplaces:

Even though there are resources and tools available to help employers to create disability-inclusive workplaces, youth with disabilities continue to report facing challenges in getting and keeping jobs. Projects under this theme seek to remove barriers and encourage disability-inclusive workplaces by scaling up high-impact practices.

F. Improving service provider responsiveness to youth with disabilities’ intersectional needs:

All youth have “intersectional identities”, meaning that different parts of who they are, like their race, gender, and types of disabilities, overlap and affect the barriers they may experience on their pathways to employment. This theme focuses on improving service providers’ ability to respond to the intersectional needs of youth with disabilities. By building the ability of youth-serving organizations to offer culturally appropriate and disability-inclusive employment supports, projects aim to ensure that youth with disabilities receive tailored services that reflect their different needs, ultimately enhancing their opportunities for success in the workforce.

Eligible applicants

Groups eligible for this funding process must be located in Canada and include:

1. Not-for-profit organizations (including registered charities, voluntary organizations, and foundations)
2. Municipal governments
3. Indigenous organizations (including band councils, tribal councils, and self-government entities)
4. For-profit organizations (provided that the nature and intent of the funded activity is non-commercial and not intended to generate a profit)
5. Public health, educational, and cultural institutions
6. Provincial and territorial governments, institutions, agencies, and Crown Corporations.