2024–2025 Call for Proposals to Counter Domestic and Family Violence in Indigenous Contexts

Over the past few years, government action concerning Indigenous women and girls has changed, given numerous recent events that have highlighted major issues about gender-based discrimination and exposed vulnerabilities experienced by Indigenous women and girls in particular.

The Secrétariat à la condition féminine (SCF) is launching a call for projects to counter domestic and family violence in Indigenous contexts, with the aim of supporting Indigenous communities in developing concrete 
responses to these issues. This initiative will continue the work carried out under the 2021–2022 call for intent on sexual, domestic, and family violence in Indigenous contexts.

The general objectives of this call for proposals are as follows:

Support impactful projects aimed at preventing domestic and family violence or meeting the needs of First Nations and Inuit women and girls in urban areas and communities who are victims of this type of violence;

Support the development of culturally appropriate projects related to domestic and family violence projects for First Nations and Inuit men and their families.  

Projects must address one or more of the following priorities:

• Promotion, awareness, and prevention regarding domestic and family violence: In particular, this priority aims to support impactful projects that promote awareness of the causes and consequences of domestic and family violence experienced by Indigenous people, as well as encouraging non-violent behaviours.
• Support for victims of domestic and family violence and those around them: Among others, this priority aims to support projects aimed at developing or consolidating aid, self-help, and mentoring services, as well as initiatives to ensure the safety of Indigenous people who have experienced domestic and family violence.
• Recovery and healing: This priority aims to support projects that use culturally appropriate activities to promote the well-being of Indigenous women and men who have experienced domestic and family violence, their entourage, or the community as a whole.
• Knowledge development and transfer: This priority aims to support projects that promote cultural skills and knowledge related to preventing and responding to domestic and family violence in Indigenous contexts, such as projects to teach self-management and relationship conflict management from an Indigenous perspective.

Projects that do not address one of these four priorities, but are relevant and do meet at least one of the two main objectives of the call for projects, will remain eligible. The projects will be chosen based on their quality and expected benefits.

For the project

To be eligible, the project must:

• span two or three years;
• be submitted on a complete form (including the budget), signed and accompanied by all required documents, within the set deadlines;
• meet one of the general objectives of the call for proposals and/or fall within one of the four allocation priorities listed above;
• be submitted by an eligible applicant;
• include eligible expenditures;
• take place in the province of Québec;
• enable one or more of the following activities:
  • awareness activities
  • training activities
  • intervention activities
  • promotional and dissemination activities
  • tool creation and adaptation
  • support activities for people targeted by the project
  • research, action research, and evaluation activities
  • consultation activities aimed at documenting and prioritizing domestic and family violence issues in Indigenous contexts

For the applicant

Eligible applicants are:

• Indigenous non-profit organizations (or their equivalent)
• Non-indigenous non-profit organizations that provide services to Indigenous people
• Cooperatives and Indigenous social economy organizations
• Non-Indigenous cooperatives and social economy organizations that offer services to Indigenous people
• Indigenous communities recognized by the National Assembly of Québec
• The Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador and its commissions
• Post-secondary educational institutions, for expenses not covered by Québec government budget regulations
• Organizations in the health and social services network, and organizations in the education network, for expenses not covered by Québec government budget regulations

Ineligible applicants are:

• Individuals
• Organizations that do not offer services to the Indigenous population
• Organizations that are not established in Québec
• Private companies and for-profit organizations
• Organizations listed in the register of enterprises ineligible for public contracts (RENA)
• Bankrupt organizations

Please note:

• The organization leading the project must exist and not be in the process of being created when the request is submitted. The call for proposals is designed to provide financial support to partners that are firmly rooted in their communities and have expertise in domestic and family violence in Indigenous contexts.
• A non-Indigenous organization may apply, as long as it can demonstrate that it provides services to the Indigenous population or works closely with an Indigenous community or organization.
• An organization may submit more than one project. To do so, it must complete one form per project.

Financial assistance for a single project may not exceed $250,000.

Eligible expenditures:

• Salaries related to project implementation (including fringe benefits);
• Project-related travel expenditures (meals, accommodation, and mileage), following Québec government parameters;
• Expenditures related to the purchase of the materials and tools needed to carry out the project. These tools do not include capital expenditures for project implementation;
• Promotional and communication activities related to project implementation;
• Project evaluation costs, up to 15% of the project’s total cost;
• Professional fees related to the project that are provided by persons other than the applicant’s own staff (e.g., graphic design, conference, or financial audit fees);
• Project management costs, up to 8% of the project’s total cost (e.g., supervision and evaluation of personnel related to project implementation, presentation of the project to partners and donors).
• For universities, up to 27% of these costs are eligible, following the provisions on indirect costs financed by the Québec government in universities under the reform related to full research costs.

These expenditures are eligible as of the moment the Minister signs the letter announcing the acceptance of the project.

Ineligible expenditures:

• Base salaries of the applicant’s staff and partners;
• Running expenses and usual operating costs of the applicant and its partners;
• Capital expenditures (e.g., construction or renovation of premises, construction of a camp on the territory, purchase of a vehicle or snowmobile);
• Expenditures incurred before the letter confirming financial assistance is signed by the Minister responsible for the Status of Women;
• Expenditures covered by budgetary regulations already approved by the Government of Québec;
• Expenditures covered by funding from the Secrétariat à l’action communautaire autonome et aux initiatives sociales (SACAIS) for advocacy activities;
• Portion of taxes for which the recipient of financial assistance is entitled to an input tax credit (ITC); an input tax refund (ITR); or a GST or QST refund, exemption, or waiver.

Submitted projects will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Relevance and quality of the project in relation to the objectives;
• Expected benefits for Indigenous populations;
• Absence of overlap or competition with existing activities or ongoing projects;
• Number and quality of partnerships;
• Support from the Indigenous community;
• Applicant’s ability to carry out the project;
• Credibility of the project timeline, budget forecasts, and overall financial package.

Receipt of financial assistance application forms

All applicants who have submitted a project will receive an acknowledgement of receipt. This does not constitute a promise of financial commitment.

Please note that if you have not received an acknowledgement of receipt, you must resubmit your project to us, as this means that we have not received it.

Eligibility check

Each request for financial assistance is reviewed for eligibility. Requests must be duly completed and submitted within the established deadlines. Organizations with ineligible projects will be notified by December 2024 at the latest.

Analysis of eligible projects

Requests for financial assistance that are deemed eligible and meet the general acceptance conditions will be further evaluated based on the aforementioned criteria.

As part of the project analysis, requests for financial assistance may be forwarded to another ministry or agency for a second opinion on their relevance, among other things.

Decision

Based on the project analyses and relevant opinions (if necessary), the SCF will select the projects and recommend them to the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. At the end of the selection process, and no later than December 2024, the SCF will inform all applicants whether their project was selected.

If the project is selected, a member of the SCF will contact the project representative to explain the next steps. A financial assistance agreement will have to be signed afterwards.

Project kickoff

The selected projects will be able to start work as soon as the Minister responsible for the Status of Women signs the letter confirming the financial assistance.

This is expected to happen in December 2024.

Information sessions will be held on May 7, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. (in French) and May 8, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. (in English) to answer any questions you might have about submitting your project proposal.

When submitting a request for financial assistance, applicants must include the following documents and/or any other documents deemed necessary by the SCF.

Documents to provide

• Application form for financial assistance (PDF 1.09 Mb);
• Project budget (the document must show all eligible project expenses related to the grant requested). Use the Excel file for two years (XLSX 66 Kb) or three years (XLSX 68 Kb);
• Letter(s) of commitment from key partner(s), if applicable (fill in the form (PDF 1.20 Mb)).

In the case of an organization or cooperative:

• A copy of the most recent financial statements
• A copy of the latest annual report adopted by the organization or cooperative
• A resolution by its competent authorities to apply for financial assistance (see the template (DOCX 35 Kb))

In the case of an Indigenous community or the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador and its commissions:

• A copy of the latest annual report adopted by the band council or municipal council (or equivalent)
• A resolution by its competent authorities to apply for financial assistance (see the template (DOCX 35 Kb))

In the case of organizations in the health and social services network and post-secondary educational institutions:

• A copy of the latest report adopted by the organization or institution
• A resolution by its competent authorities to apply for financial assistance (see the template (DOCX 35 Kb))

Requests submitted after the deadline below will not be considered.