Accessibility Projects Grants

Accessibility Projects Grants 2024/2025
Promoting Inclusion and Accessibility for People with Disabilities

NOW CLOSED

Dec 2nd, 2024: Today, Disability Alliance BC (DABC) has announced the recipients of the 2024/2025 Accessibility Projects Grants. Read the press release here.

Background

As part of the Province’s goal to improve accessibility for people with disabilities in BC, Disability Alliance BC was selected by the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (MSDPR) to distribute funding to community based “Accessibility Projects” beginning in 2018. Since then, over 90 projects have been funded.

This year the program provided $450,000 in up to $40,000 grants to fourteen BC-based not-for-profit organizations for projects focusing on one of the following objectives to increase accessibility for people with disabilities:

  • Accessible employment;
  • Accessible emergency planning and response;
  • Accessible arts, culture and tourism;
  • Accessible sports and recreation;
  • Accessible education and learning;
  • Accessible community participation.

This Year’s Funded Projects

This year’s successful projects include:

  • Sunshine Coast Community Services Society – Sunshine Coast: $29,311.96 for the Accessible Emergency Response for All Project. Empowering people with mental health disabilities to have equitable access to emergency response planning.
  • Pride in Art Society – Vancouver: $35,950.32 for the ASL Interpretation and Translation of Exhibits and Community Programs Project. Increasing the accessibility of Queer Arts Festival programming for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.
  • BC Wheelchair Sports Association – Richmond and Victoria: $8,700 for the Junior WC Rugby Program Expansion Project. Expanding the junior wheelchair rugby program.
  • Opportunities Career and Legal Advocacy Services Society – Campbell River, Port McNeil and Port Hardy: $37,248 for the Regional Disability Benefits Navigator Pilot Project. Fostering financial empowerment and equitable access to benefits for individuals with disabilities within the North Vancouver Island region.
  • Mayday Club Youth Choir for Autism Advocacy Society – Abbotsford $23,158.9 for the Radio Broadcasting, Voice Acting, Sound Engineering Project. Supporting neurodivergent and disabled youth in the Fraser Valley area to learn sound engineering, voice acting, and radio broadcasting.
  • Periods For All – Vancouver: $38,500 for the Menstrual Matters: Understanding Menstrual Health in ASL Project. Providing accessible and informative content on menstrual health using ASL.
  • Employ to Empower Foundation – Vancouver: $40,000 for the Leave No Entrepreneur Behind: Empowering Low-Income Entrepreneurs with Disability Project. Supporting low-income entrepreneurs who live with disabilities to progress their business.
  • Salt Spring and Southern Gulf Islands Community Services Society – Salt Spring Island: $25,545 for the (ART) Art and Recreation Together Project. Providing a dynamic and inclusive activity-based program for developmentally disabled children and adults, focusing on expressive arts, sports and celebration.
  • Prince George Sexual Assault Centre Society – Prince George/Northern BC: $40,000 for the Together We Can Project. Providing a peer-led all-gender support group for survivors of gender-based and sexual abuse/violence.
  • Women Transforming Cities International Society – Provincial: $16,280 for the Civic Education Workshops for Accessible Participation in Local Government Project. Providing civic education workshops to demystify local government processes so that people with disabilities can shape their cities and towns into inclusive communities where they feel a strong sense of belonging.
  • VIDEA – Provincial: $40,000 for the Leaders of Today Project. Enhancing the leadership capacity of youth and young adults ages 16-35 with disabilities across BC.
  • Mental Health Recovery Partners Society – South Vancouver Island: $40,000 for the Training by and for Lived Experts Project. Offering accessible Peer Support Training and upskilling for current or aspiring peer supporters
  • Crimson Coast Dance Society – Nanaimo: $40,000 for the Mixed Abilities: DanceAble Project. Providing accessible dance and creative movement programming for people with disabilities and collaborating in presenting a group performance at a public theatre.
  • OneAbility Foundation – Provincial: $40,000 for the OneAbility Games (OAG) Community Project Resource Kit Project. Co-creating an open-source program resource kit that participants can access leading up to the inaugural OneAbility Games in May 2026.

Past Successful Projects

See information about past successful projects at the links below:

Future and Other Grants

For updates on future grants, please scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your email where it says “Click here to sign up for DABC’s newsletter”. If we receive funding for the Accessibility Projects Grants again for 2025/2026, it will likely be announced in late spring, with applications opening in late summer 2025.

To be eligible for these grants, an organization must be a BC-based not-for-profit, with a democratically elected volunteer Board chosen by its membership. Governmental bodies, including municipalities, First Nations bands, and public-sector organizations are not eligible as they are targeted by other funding streams. Individuals are also not eligible to apply.

These funds are for projects focused on community engagement. Large capital costs are not eligible. Large capital costs are defined as fixed one-time expenses to purchase or upgrade land, buildings, technology and other equipment, and include accessibility improvements to buildings or outdoor spaces.

For questions or a list of other accessibility-related granting streams (including for projects focused on large capital costs), please contact the Accessibility Projects Grants Coordinator at ap@dabc.ca.