Three Streams Close
Infrastructure, Community Projects, Scholarships
“The Community Fund is a key legacy program of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society. The Fund aims to provide Japanese Canadians with grant opportunities to strengthen and reset community through scholarships, infrastructure, community projects, arts & sports, and intergenerational wellness. The fund is built on the knowledge that the forced uprooting, internment, dispossession and dispersal of 22,000 BC coastal dwelling Japanese Canadians caused loss of identity, and the intergenerational impacts of that history echo throughout the country.
“In doing this work we recognize the many Japanese Canadian leaders and organizations who have worked decades to build community, and are humbled by the stories like the 75 Japanese families in Toronto who mortgaged their homes in the 1960s to purchase land for the first Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. Or the many Japanese Canadians who worked for years and years to achieve federal redress. We walk in their shadows and always in honour of our elders past and present.” – Susanne Tabata, CEO, Japanese Canadian Legacies Society
Today we announce the close of three grant streams of the Community Fund and thank the individuals, organizations and groups who applied for: Scholarships (intake 2); Infrastructure; and Community Projects. We are truly gratified by the level of interest shown across the country, from diverse communities large and small. We have engaged with members across the country, and now report that the community has responded resoundingly to the call for grant applications.
With the closing of Community Projects on October 31 and the closing of Infrastructure and Intake 2 of Scholarships on November 1, we are now preparing to turn the applications over to the assessment teams that have been set up to assess the hundreds of applications that we received over the past several months. Those teams will remain anonymous until assessment has taken place.
Subject to review, the following numbers of applications have been received:
Infrastructure Total: 36 applications
Category 1 | Building Improvements 22 applications
Category 2 | Capital Purchases 14 applications
Community Projects Total: 89 applications for 99 separate projects
Category 1 | Japanese Canadian Organizations 37 applications for 47 projects
Category 2 | Non-Japanese Canadian Organizations 8 applications
Category 3 | Unincorporated Japanese Canadian Groups 44 applications
Scholarships intake 2 Total: 305 applications
Category 1 | Undergrad or Vocational and Career 254 applications
Category 2 | Graduate 32 applications
Category 3 | JC Legacy Scholarship 19 applications
Note that all numbers are preliminary and subject to review, and are not to be used for any purpose other than giving a broad overview of the number of applications received. Of these applications, not all will be partially or fully-funded.
As we continue to press forward with the remaining streams – Intergenerational Wellness, Sports, and Arts – we’d like to take a moment to thank the many, many people who work behind-the-scenes to operate the fund.
We owe a continuous debt of gratitude to the advisory teams across the country whose guidance and input continue to keep the fund purposeful and grounded. Huge thanks goes out as well to the assessment teams who are doing the hard work of adjudicating the applications. The team charged with assessing Intake One of Scholarships was made up of George Iwama, Kirsten McAllister, Bev Ohashi, Richard Kobayashi, and team lead David Moritsugu. It was an enormous job. Thank you!