Rural association partnership program

Until this list is published, the names of successful applicants, jurors and assessors will not be revealed. The identity of unsuccessful applicants remains confidential.

If you are awarded funding you will receive a letter informing you of the amount funded. The result letter will also include the Terms and Conditions form which describes special conditions attached to your grant. Payments will be reimbursed upon submission of a claim form with supporting documentation, such as cancelled cheques, invoices etc.

All results are final. An electronic version of the City logo can be obtained by contacting the Rural Affairs Office at ruralaffairs ottawa. All successful applicants are required to submit an activity report detailing how they used the funding granted to them.

This report must be submitted within three months of project completion. Failure to provide a report will result in your organization being ineligible for subsequent City of Ottawa funding from this or any other City partnership programs.

Ottawa—based - An organization that is Ottawa-based has a significant percentage of its Board and staff living in Ottawa, and delivers its services and events within the Ottawa city limits.

Applications must be received by 4 pm on the deadline date or postmarked on that day. Late and incomplete applications will not be considered. The Rural Community-Building Grants Program is designed to support rural-based community project undertakings by non-profit organizations such as community associations and agricultural groups. Funding is project-based, with a defined beginning and end and measurable outcomes. Assessment is based on the merit of the project, community impact, and organizational effectiveness.

Proposals are accepted on an ongoing basis throughout the year and are evaluated quarterly by a review committee. In accordance with the City of Ottawa Grants and Contributions Policy, funding is limited to organizations that:. Projects must be of demonstrable benefit to rural Ottawa residents. Eligible projects may include local community association activities, facility improvements and agricultural group projects.

Funding requests should have an outline of the project being proposed with all activities and the proposed budget. The proposal should outline the work to be done and detail the goals, objectives, tasks and resources. The plan should be linked to the budget and include the timelines for completion. The project budget should summarize the overall project costs, broken down by budget item. If the project involves purchasing goods and services the applicants must demonstrate that the process for selecting a provider involves open competition, ensures value-for money; and is ethical and fair.

Completed proposals must be submitted directly to the Rural Affairs Office and must include all applicable items below:. The undersigned certifies that all information provided to the City of Ottawa in support of this request for funding is true and complete, and undertakes to provide any further information that may be required for City of Ottawa to render a decision, in a timely manner.

The undersigned also herewith provides consent for the City of Ottawa to make sufficient credit and other enquiries that may be necessary in the evaluation of this request for funding.

The City of Ottawa may request additional information or clarification of the data provided. All information provided will be kept strictly confidential. Further information on assessment criteria, and application process are available from a separate document - Rural Association Partnership Program Guide. The Rural Association Partnership Program objectives are to support economic development projects throughout Ottawa's rural areas.

Projects that may be supported include strategic planning on a local level, research and feasibility studies, tourism initiatives, and events along with small-scale technology or capital projects. Submissions that demonstrate active partnerships are encouraged. Please complete and sign the accompanying City of Ottawa request for funding form and return it with the supporting documentation package to:.

Applications can also be emailed to ruralaffairs ottawa. If the application is approved , the City of Ottawa will prepare a letter of offer with terms, conditions and a funding disbursement schedule. Any questions regarding the application process for the Rural Association Partnership Program should be directed to the Rural Affairs Office at , ext.

Does your organization have a publicly accountable structure with an active Board of Directors that meets regularly? If you wish to have your support material returned, please enclose a self-addressed envelope with the required postage. Do not send originals. The applicant agrees that the City of Ottawa is not responsible for the loss or damage, however caused, of applications or support materials.

Peer assessment implies the use of local community members who have knowledge of Rural Business Organizations, Fairs and Farmers Markets to assess grant applications. Jurors and outside assessors are selected for their knowledge and recognized expertise and productivity within specific assessment criteria items agricultural, community development, marketing, tourism, events programming, logistics, etc. Committee members represent various facets of the rural community they are assessing but not any particular group and have an awareness of a broad range of Rural Business Organizations, Fairs and Farmers Markets.

Key principles of the jury member selection are to ensure balanced representation: 1 The inclusion of a range of sector experience and specialization, and 2 fair representation of official languages, gender, and geographic areas. The Program Coordinator is responsible for the selection of jurors and independent assessors and will consult with members of the rural community, farmers markets, fairs and the tourism and business sector.

City stakeholders and applicants are encouraged to recommend qualified names. If you are interested in participating as a juror, please send your resume to our mailing address or e-mail derrick. The City appreciates the contributions made by jurors and assessors for volunteering their efforts. The assessment process is a competitive system that uses a peer-evaluation process.

This process ensures that organizations are assessed democratically and that funding to organizations who are successful in their application is disbursed according to the level of merit of their programming. Staff do not direct the jury in their decisions about which organizations should receive funding nor the amount they should receive. Once the deadline has passed, staff process and categorize all applications, verifying that activity reports from the previous year have been submitted.

The Program Coordinator reviews each application to ascertain eligibility and to become familiar with the organization, its activities and funding request. During this process, the Program Coordinator may contact your organization for additional information or clarification on certain items. Names of individuals mentioned in applications Board, staff, participating businesses and talent base are noted in order to avoid any potential conflict of interest when selecting jurors.

Peer assessment juries evaluate all applications based on the assessment criteria. The assessment committee consists of three to five members who assess applications according to the publicly stated Assessment Criteria. Jury members review funding applications independently. The committee then meets to review and discuss the applications together. For each applicant, the jury decides its funding priority and recommends an award amount. The purpose of the peer assessment system is to select qualified and knowledgeable jurors and independent assessors from the local festival, fair, and special events sector.

Jurors may well have professional and personal contact with many of the applicants, which could constitute a conflict of interest. All actual or potential conflicts of interest that exist must be disclosed by the potential juror and assessed by the Program Coordinator. Prior to the jury assessment meetings, jurors receive the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy, with a form for declaring conflicts. All jurors must complete and submit this form before the committee meeting. If a conflict has been declared it is assessed by the Program Coordinator in order to determine if this potential juror can be allowed to participate in the process.

Situations of potential conflict exist when:. Assessors and jury members are required to treat both the contents of applications they review and the deliberations of the jury as confidential. At the end of the assessment meeting, all application materials are gathered from the jurors and shredded to protect confidentiality.

At the end of the funding allocation, the Rural Affairs Office will publish a summary of results, listing the names of all funding recipients, jurors and assessors. Until this list is published, the names of successful applicants, jurors and assessors will not be revealed. The identity of unsuccessful applicants remains confidential. If you are awarded funding you will receive a letter informing you of the amount funded.

The result letter will also include the Terms and Conditions form which describes special conditions attached to your grant. Payments will be reimbursed upon submission of a claim form with supporting documentation, such as cancelled cheques, invoices etc. All results are final. Grant recipients are required to acknowledge the support of the City of Ottawa as follows:.

Print materials — By reproducing the City of Ottawa logo or making a written acknowledgement using the following formulation:. Acknowledgement should appear in or on:. In verbal announcements - By mentioning support verbally in:. All successful applicants are required to submit an activity report detailing how they used the funding granted to them.

This report must be submitted within three months of project completion. Failure to provide a report will result in your organization being ineligible for subsequent City of Ottawa funding from this or any other City partnership programs. Your activity report must include the following information:. Information on the Partnership Program.

The proposed program has two parts: grants to support direct activities and projects, and grants to support the organizations responsible for providing technical assistance and capacity to administer the grants. The Rural Prosperity Development Grant Program — the majority of the funding — would offer multi-year, flexible funding designed to offer long-term investments for community-driven rural development.

A second, complementary Rural Prosperity Innovation Grant Program would fund organizations that support Rural Prosperity Development Grant recipients, allowing them to provide capacity and technical assistance.

The RPP offers a new, potentially transformative model for USDA Rural Development that would represent a major win for rural communities and the organizations that serve them. A cornerstone objective of this program is to provide equitable access to federal funding to traditionally underserved rural areas.

The program is built flexibly to fund diverse, community-driven priorities that promote economic resilience and recovery. Grants are multi-year and are available to a range of partnerships, including those between local governments, non-profits, for-profits, institutions of higher education, and other community-based organizations. The program has been designed to minimize barriers to access and reach the communities that need it most.

For example:. The RPP proposal is just that for now — a proposal. With some members of Congress calling for cuts to overall funding in the reconciliation package, the fate of RPP is undecided.