For partners...

Who we fund

Find out how LITE has invested in inner city CED initiatives for 2009-2010:
Grant partners
  Purchase partners
Disbursement Criteria (2008)
  Help for LITE partners...

Childminding Program – West Central Women’s Resource Centre (WCWRC) **

$5,000

The Childminding training program was set up to address the lack of safe occasional childcare resources for non-profits, government and community organizations. The program simultaneously offers training, employment and respite childcare, ensuring that women can participate in community meetings and events, and offering West End parents training in positive parenting and education. The program has also generated employment for people who may have otherwise had to rely on social assistance as their only means of income.    WCWRC's website

Self Employment Program for Aboriginal Women (SEPAW) - Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc.

$7,000

SEPAW provides the opportunity for low income Aboriginal women who have limited formal education or work experience to develop small business enterprises, worker cooperatives or social enterprises. The program provides opportunities for the women to gain leadership capacity, money management skills and business development training. SEPAW integrates culturally-based and women centered programming with business/economic development programs.     Ka Ni Kanichihk's website

Sewing Training Program - Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute

$7,000

The Sewing Training Program (STP) aims to provide culturally sensitive training and employment to marginalized Muslim women and to build self-esteem and capacity. The program works with immigrant and refugee women, often single parents from the central area of Winnipeg. Upon graduation from the Sewing Training Program, graduates are given the opportunity to access paid employment through Sew Fair, a niche market manufacturer and social enterprise.    Canadian Muslim Women's Institute website

Inkster Work Readiness Project - Nor’West Co-op Community Health Centre

$5,000

The Work Readiness Program is a new project that will enable 20 Inkster residents to develop the necessary and appropriate skills needed to seek employment and become employed. The program combines a soft skills (negotiating, conflict resolution etc.) component with on the job training at local businesses from the Inkster neighbourhood. By working with local businesses, the program aims to help residents gain potential employment contacts and opportunities within their neighbourhood after the training is completed.    Nor'West Co-op Community Health Centre website

Newcomer Skills Building: Multi-Cultural Painting and Maintenance Project – Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM) **

$3,000

Building on the success of the project over the past 2 years, the Newcomer Skills Building: Multi-Cultural Painting & Maintenance Project will give newcomers, including at-risk youth, the opportunity to gain valuable experience in the areas of painting and maintenance. Through hands-on experience assisting with maintenance projects and outdoor painting at IRCOM and other housing maintenance projects, the participants not only gain painting skills and work experience, but also contribute to the beautification of their home and the home of nearly 300 other newly arrived immigrants and refugees.    IRCOM's website

Community Renewal Annual Project - SSCOPE Inc.

$5,000

The Community Renewal Annual Project is a pilot project that aims to provide low income individuals with mental health disabilities the opportunity to gain employment in the area of community maintenance and revitalization in Winnipeg’s West End. The project will give the participants the opportunity to gain valuable on the job training allowing them the opportunity to enhance their skills and demonstrate work readiness.    SSCOPE's website

Housing Renovation Trainee – Ogijiita Pimatiswin Kinamatwin Inc.(OPK) **

$5,000

Through its innovative housing renovation program, OPK offers Aboriginal youth, who have been involved with the justice system, the opportunity to acquire new technical skills, gain basic life skills, attend traditional Aboriginal ceremonies and adjust to employment. OPK provides trainees with the opportunity to support their families by earning wages that are higher than minimum wage and by learning skills that can translate into meaningful and sustainable employment.

The Soup Bee - West Broadway Development Corporation (WBDC)

$2,700

The Soup Bee is a new social enterprise that employs low-income individuals from the West Broadway neighbourhood to produce gourmet soup made from locally sourced ingredients, sold fresh to customers who preorder. The Soup Bee aims to provide work experience and supplemental earnings to Good Food Club participants and West Broadway residents while emphasizing environmental sustainability and food security.    WBDC's website

The Tesfa Project - Eritrean Community in Winnipeg

$7,000

The Tesfa Project is a brand new project working with low income, single moms from the Eritrean community. Tesfa, which means hope in the women’s primary language, aims to build the capacity of these women and support them in creating a sustainable supplementary income to enhance their futures. LITE funding will help train 15 Eritrean women, mostly new immigrants or refugees, in basic bookkeeping, personal financial literacy, food handling and basic small business skills. It will also give them the opportunity to save up funds to startup a small collectively run social enterprise focused on community catering and the rental of ceremonial equipment.     Eritrean Community of Winnipeg website

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Neechi Foods Community Store **

$35,000 – Christmas hamper food purchase

Neechi Foods Community Store is a full-range grocery store and Aboriginal specialty shop on Dufferin Avenue. Neechi Foods is a worker co-operative that provides employment, training and collective business ownership to 7 inner-city residents. Neechi has been in business since 1989 and is widely known for its leadership in Community Economic Development.

Food Connections Project – Wolseley Family Place **

$2,100 – cookie purchase

The Food Connections Project blends pre-employment programming and Community Economic Development (CED). This project has four components: a cooking class, a breakfast club, a community store and a catering business, and it employs up to ten community members. The Food Connections Project provides supported employment to single parent mothers with little or no employment experience who participate in Wolseley Family Place.    Wolseley Family Place webpage

Fort Whyte Farms *

$600 – honey purchase

Fort Whyte Farms provides 50 youth with training and knowledge in various farm and business skills every year. Eight students are employed full-time during the summer, and about 25 work on the farm for a stipend on a weekly basis during the school year. Students learn bee-keeping, honey collection, processing and packaging, verma-composting, gardening, aquaponics (underwater agriculture combined with hydroponics), bison meat cutting and packaging, and the marketing and sale their products.     Fort Whyte Farms webpage

Native Women's Transition Centre **

$3,570 – cookie purchase

The Native Women's Transition Centre is a long-term residential safe house for Aboriginal women and their children. The centre's catering provides employment and training to 15 women who live at the centre. Training includes preparing budgets, purchasing, food safety and handling and cooking. LITE’s purchasing program supports NWTC’s catering business through annual an annual order of baking for Christmas Cheer Board hampers.     NWTC's website

Star Blanket Project - Northern Star Workers Co-operative

$5,129 – blanket purchase

The Northern Star Worker Co-op is owned and operated by First Nations and Metis women who hand sew a range of traditional and contemporary quilted blankets. For the past seven years, LITE has purchased blankets from Northern Star to donate to other community organizations for use in their fundraising activities. This year 11 community organizations received blankets, providing sustained support for Northern Star through direct purchasing and exposure, and allowing LITE to support a wide range of community organizations.

* Project working only with children and youth
** Project with direct benefits to children and youth

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Our disbursement criteria ensure that we pursue our mission "to promote community economic development by supporting inner-city initiatives in Winnipeg that build capacity and provide jobs."

We believe that the future of our inner-city lies in promoting local initiatives that use innovative, long-term, social and economic strategies to implement solutions for individuals and their communities.

1. We fund initiatives that directly create jobs, or leverage new jobs, and that include skill development for inner city residents who are unemployed or underemployed. Individuals participating in these initiatives face multiple barriers to full employment (for example, at-risk youth, single mothers, ex-offenders, etc).
2. We give priority to those initiatives that create sustainable and long-term employment, or to initiatives that develop skills and experience that increase the capacity of individuals to get good, long-term jobs.
3. Given our limited funds, we select projects that most critically require our support to operate.
4. We fund projects which are well organized, have effective leadership, and have a clear project plan already in place.
5. We divide our funding between Purchases (mostly of Christmas hamper goods) from inner-city co-ops (about 50%), and Grants to non-profit initiatives (about 50%).

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Is your organisation or business seeking funding?
Download an APPLICATION form to apply for 2010 (Deadlines: February 5, 2010 - Grants; September 30, 2010 - Purchases).

If you are already a LITE partner, do you need to report on previous funding?
Download a REPORTING form to report on 2009 (Deadline: June 25, 2010 - Grants and Purchases).

Do you have questions about applying or reporting? If so, please contact us.

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