After a lengthy delay, the federal government launched on June 25th the Canada Student Service Grant first announced April 22nd. Though substantial issues have been raised about the program -- and more on that below -- Pillar Nonprofit Network is committed to making sure you have the information you need to decide whether the CSSG program is an opportunity to strengthen your organization and your better pursue your critical mission.
What you need to know about the newly-announced Canada Student Service Grant program
- Nonprofit organizations may now post volunteer positions through the Government of Canada’s “I Want to Help” portal to be matched with post-secondary students who will be applying to take advantage of monetary incentives from $1k-$5k as reward for their community service efforts.
- Your current volunteers who otherwise are eligible are also able to include their existing positions with you for consideration counting some hours retroactively (from June 15th in one version, June 25th in another, or 'up to 20 accrued hours' in another description), but you must also apply to have your organization uploaded into the “I Want to Help” database.
- Note especially, there is a lot of flexibility around the ‘workload:’ hours are counted from June 15th (or June 25th) to October 31st.
- There is volunteer management support, funding, and administrative support available through the program to help you support your volunteers.
- The main “I Want to Help” portal divides into a nonprofit applicant stream and a student applicant stream, but you will find the information you need to consider and apply for this opportunity at these links:
- Eligibility
- Suggested Volunteer Placements (including positions like Engaging your Existing Student Volunteers or Amplifying your Digital Presence)
- Existing Nonprofit partnerships with CSSG
- FAQs for nonprofit orgs
What Pillar is hoping for: A strong local response for a resilient London
- If the program survives the recent scrutiny more or less intact, we’re hoping that our members and local post-secondary students will be able to support each other through these trying times to enhance the resiliency of our sector and young people in our region.
- If you have new volunteer positions, please do continue to post them on the Pillar Volunteer Board using your member login and apply to the program so that your eligible volunteers can choose to be matched with you.
- For our part, we’ll continue to encourage post-secondary students in our network to seek positions with local organizations that they already care about and then apply to have their service included. This will include a social media campaign drawing attention back to the Volunteer Opportunities board.
What else can we tell you?
- As above, members of our network have already identified some issues with the Canada Student Service Grant around such things as the hybrid work/volunteer model paid at thresholds of $1000/100hrs; the exclusion of students who’ve collected CERB payments (important: students who’ve collected CESB remain eligible); the exclusion of international students; and the sidestepping of existing local volunteer matching platforms. You can read Volunteer Canada's statement on the program here and it is worth noting that there is a petition calling for reallocation of the program funds to the Canada Summer Jobs program. The national media has also identified issues with the process by which the contract was awarded to WE Charity.
- Though these are very concerning to us, we also recognize that ‘extraordinary times’ have called for ‘extraordinary measures’ -- by all of us -- and that there may still be some opportunity for benefit to our network, our critical missions, and our local economy.
- Pillar will continue to advocate for the sector and for better outcomes for people but, if participation in this program can help you better achieve your mission and help local post-secondary students too, please do give the program due consideration. It’s why we're making sure you know about it.
And please always feel free to get back to us with any questions, concerns, or success stories. Pillar serves the membership best when we know what’s happening for you and we really do care. Stay in touch!