About the Upstream Funding Model
Inclusive and Equitable Funding Practices
Together, with community, the Region is setting a new standard for inclusive and equitable funding practices that focus on collaboration over competition, removes barriers to funding, and puts the community at the centre.
And the Upstream Model was born!
About the Upstream Funding Model
The “Upstream Funding Model” is the process that distributes the Upstream funds and Community Capacity Building fund. This model was built with community and responds to discussions on safety and wellbeing.
In those conversations, we heard that resources, decision making, and funds need to be redirected to historically marginalized communities including, First Nations, Inuit and Métis, African, Caribbean, Black and racialized communities who continue to be underserved, under-resourced and face ongoing systemic barriers.
The Three-Step Upstream Funding Model
With each step of the funding process, the Upstream model centres community.
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1. Open call and engagement: Self-determined communities
During the open call and engagement step community collaborative events across Waterloo region bring interested community members, leaders and grassroots community organizations together to share, learn with, and from one another.
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2. Decision making: Shifting Power to Community
A Community Change Committee (CCC) consisting of diverse community members with a variety of skills and living experiences come together to make decisions and allocate the Upstream and CCB funds.
In this way, decisions are made by the community, for the community, to help funds go where they’re needed most.
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3. Sharing stories and impact: The power of trust
Storytelling focused on sharing, learning and encourages organizations to share impacts in the ways that are most meaningful for them and through the stories of impact that will resonate with the community.