Overview
Grants and contributions from the Veteran and Family Well-Being Fund allow private, public or academic organizations to conduct research and implement initiatives and projects that support the well-being of Veterans and their families.
- Grants: up to $250,000 per fiscal year
- Contributions: up to $1 million per fiscal year
To be eligible, an organization must be a non-profit organization or a for-profit organization provided that the nature and intent of the activity is non-commercial, not intended to generate profit, and supports program priorities and objectives. Eligible organizations can also be research organizations/institutes, educational institutions, public health and social services institutions, or an Indigenous organization.
Organizations for 2018-2019
Veterans Affairs Canada is awarding a total of $3 million to organizations selected out of 155 applicants to the Veterans and Family Well-being Fund. The 21 organizations selected and their initiatives are as follows:
1. Old Brewery Mission
The Old Brewery Mission is a non-profit organization based out of Montreal. Their mandate is to provide various forms of support to combat homelessness. The funding that this organization receives from the Veteran and Family Well-Being Fund will go towards Opération Chez Toit, a program to help homeless Veterans with issues of shelter, employment, mental health, transition into life after service, and more.
2. Les YMCA du Québec: Programme Dialogue
The Quebec YMCA is a non-profit, community based organization. The funding will be used to create exercise alternatives for the Veteran community. Specifically, the goal is to create a space for individual and group physical activity for homeless or at risk Veterans.
3. Légion Royale Canadienne Filiale 10
The Légion Royale Canadienne Filiale 10 is a place where Veterans and their families can receive help to improve their quality of life. The Légion Royale Canadienne Filiale 10 will research physical rehabilitations and mental health in order to find new ways to pull Veterans who are in a state of isolation back into their communities and provide them with more incentive to work on their mental and physical wellness.
4. Mood Disorders Society of Canada
The Mood Disorder Society of Canada is one of our country’s best-connected mental health non-government organizations. Their mandate is to forge and maintain meaningful and sustained partnerships with public, private, and non-profit organizations around Canada to champion the cause of mental wellbeing. They are using their funding from the Veteran and Family Well-Being Fund to investigate the impact of the Project Trauma Support program on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
5. Wounded Warriors Canada
Wounded Warriors Canada, established in 2006, is the country’s leading, independent Veteran’s charity focusing on mental health. Wounded Warriors Canada will implement the COPE program which is a form of couple’s therapy that assists Veterans suffering from operational stress injuries and their spouses/partners. This is a two-phase program wherein the first phase is a five-day, retreat-style therapy where the couple will meet with COPE Alumni and a variety of therapists. During the second phase, a Professional Family Coach is assigned to Veteran and their spouse/partner for six months and will keep in contact by phone.
6. RESPECT Campaign
The RESPECT Campaign Works to support homeless Veterans and those suffering from PTSD by publicizing events and raising awareness to the general public. RESPECT will create the Respect Forum Initiative which addresses the issue of homeless Veterans. The initiative aims to hold forums in 11 or more Canadian cities twice per year to raise awareness and support for the issue of Veteran homelessness.
7. Veteran Emergency Transition Services Canada
Veteran Emergency Transition Services Canada is a federally registered non-profit charity that works within Canadian communities to identify homeless Veterans, provide them with emergency support, and quickly re-establish the bond that exits between soldiers. Veteran Emergency Transition Services Canada will bolster their everyday operations and continue their program, A Beacon of Hope, which provides support for homeless Veterans including former RCMP. Their main areas of focus are homelessness, mental health, suicide prevention, transition to life after service, and more.
8. Sunnybrook Foundation: Neuromodulation Research Program
The Sunnybrook Foundation has the largest Veterans’ care facility in Canada that offers long-term and complex care to 475 Veterans from the Second World War and the Korean War. The funding that this organization receives from the Veteran and Family Well-Being Fund will go to the Sunnybrook Research Institute’s new Neuromodulation Research Program for Veterans with PTSD and their families.
9. The Vanier Institute of the Family: Early Childhood Educators
The Vanier Institute of the Family is an organization that seeks to understand how Canadian families are impacted by, and interact with, social, economic, environmental and cultural forces. The funding they receive from the Veteran and Family Well-Being Fund will be used to support their Early Childhood Educators program working with Veterans and their families.
10. Canadian Virtual Hospice
The Canadian Virtual Hospice provides support and information about palliative and end-of-life care to a variety of stakeholders in Canada, including patients, their families, health professionals, researchers and educators via their web-based platform. The Canadian Virtual Hospice will work with VAC, grief experts, Veterans and their families to develop a series of online learning modules in both official languages that are tailored to the unique grief experience of Canadian Veterans (CAF and RCMP) and their families.
11. Clinemetrica Inc.
Clinemetrica’s primary goal is to help people attain the best possible physical and mental health throughout their life. Clinemetrica will develop and implement the Canadian Veterans AgeWell Challenge. The program will be a proof-of-concept research study to evaluate the effectiveness of an evidence-based, digital program to provide health promotion, disease prevention, therapeutic support, and social connectivity to Veterans and their families on a national scale.
12. Klassen Rehabilitation Consulting; Appelt OT/Mindful Pain Management; JL Smith Occupational Therapy Services Ltd.
This project is being proposed by a group of occupational therapists with training and certification to facilitate mindfulness meditation programs. They use meditation training and practice to help participants regulate their emotions and reduce their pain and suffering. Klassen Rehabilitation Consulting, Appelt OT/Mindful Pain Management, and JL Smith Occupational Therapy Services Ltd. will develop and implement the Mindfulness-Based Chronic Pain Management (MBCPM) program to ease the pain and suffering of people who live with chronic pain. Veterans and their families will learn and practice mindfulness meditation together in a small group. This 12-week course guides participants step-by-step through short meditations and self-exploration intended to reduce suffering and mental and physical pain.
13. Centre of Group Counselling and Trauma (UBC)
The University of British Columbia’s Centre of Group Counselling and Trauma focuses on group-based counselling research and delivery by assessing and treating clients, community engagement, and training clinicians in group counselling sessions interventions. UBC will establish the Veterans Transition Training Centre (VTTC) to train psychologists, clinicians and other medical professionals currently working with Veterans and their families.
14. Queens University
Queens University is a Canadian academic institution located in Kingston, Ontario with 175 years of tradition, academic excellence, and research. Queens will establish the Servicewomen's Salute Online Portal for Research and Resources. The three core goals of this five-year project seek to support female Veterans and still-serving members transitioning out of the CAF to live in Canadian communities, by specifically filling information, understanding, and participation gaps in research and service supports.
15. Team Rubicon
Team Rubicon Canada is a community-based organization that unites the skills and experiences of military Veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams. The funding they receive from the Veteran and Family Well-Being Fund will support the delivery of Team Rubicon’s National Training and Community Engagement Program in 2019. The program will increase and sustain Team Rubicon’s readiness and organizational capacity to effectively respond to disasters within Canada and abroad.
16. The Governors of the University of Alberta
The University of Alberta discovers, disseminates, and applies new knowledge through teaching and learning, research and creative activity, community involvement, and partnerships. the Governors of the University of Alberta plan to test Hand self-Shiatsu—a pragmatic, no-cost, non-pharmacological sleep intervention (NPSI) to improve sleep onset and maintenance for Veteran and family members with self-reported sleep problems.
17. A New Dynamic Enterprise Inc. (ANDE)
ANDE was founded in 2011 out of a recognition that organizational change happens within the context of relationships and opportunities to bring that recognition to workplace environment. ANDE will implement the Transitions Lifeshop. The Transitions Lifeshop is a two and a half day retreat composed of eight to ten participants and one facilitator. The workshop techniques use neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to tap into limiting beliefs, meta-programs and identify unproductive habits, patterns and stress triggers. It is estimated that there will be 300-350 participants.
18. Pacific Coast University for Workplace Health Sciences (PCU-WHS)
PCU-WHS is a non-profit, statutory, degree-granting, special-purpose University offering, among other things, university education in occupational health and safety, disability management and rehabilitation, and other related subjects. PCU-WHS will create return to work opportunities for disabled Veterans.
19. Western University (Department of Psychiatry)
Western University excels in moving research out of the labs and into the lives of people around the world through public—and private—sector partnerships. Western will develop and implement Virtual Reality Wellbeing and Mastery (VRWM) for Canadian Veterans and their families. This program aims to address the critical need for improved psychological treatment of Canadian Veterans with PTSD, and involve Veterans' families in the therapeutic process.
20. Tower Equestrian Association Inc.
Tower Equestrian Association Inc.’s offers equine-based therapy to Veterans and those working in similar fields (police, first responders etc.). Tower Equestrian Association Inc. will develop and implement the Broken Arrow program. The individual programs will be available in 8-week and 12-week formats with the objective of allowing trust to develop between the client and his/her horse. The feedback provided by horses, which are herd animals and so bond with a groomer/rider, allows the client to begin to release tensions, emotions and feelings long buried.
21. Shaping Purpose
Shaping Purpose offers a course that engages Veterans and their spouses to work together to identify their gifts, passions, and personal values as part of helping them define their new identity in life after service. Shaping Purpose will conduct a five-year study to assess the psychological outcomes of the Shaping Purpose program for transitioning Veterans and their domestic partner and develop an evidence-based construct and measurement tool for defining a successful transition from military service to civilian life.
