Jen Silverhorse used her Take Action Grant to write a cookbook featuring easy and nutritious recipes made from ingredients typically found in a food hamper

If you had a bit of money, what could you do to make the city a better place? Jen Silverhorse wrote a cookbook that focuses on ingredients typically found in food hampers. Calgary’s Disability Action Hall/SCOPE Society hosted a tour designed to draw awareness to disability access in the downtown core.

Individuals and organizations seeking money for social or environmental projects in Calgary can apply for a financial kick-start through Take Action Grants. The grants are provided by the Arusha Centre’s Calgary Dollars program (calgarydollars.ca), a grassroots currency system that brings together local talents and resources to strengthen the local economy and build community. The grants have been available since 1996, when the currency first came into existence. At first, the grants consisted only of Calgary Dollars (C$). However, since 2006, due to additional funding from The Calgary Foundation, the grants can now include a mixture of Calgary Dollars and federal currency, up to a combined maximum of $2,000.

In 2009, for example, The Calgary Foundation contributed $10,000 to the grant program, and the Arusha Centre and individual Calgary Dollars vendors, like Sunnyside Market and Broken City, contributed a matching C$10,000.

Calgary Dollars co-ordinator Kirti Bhadresa says one of the grant program’s goals is to educate people about complementary currency and increase the amount of Calgary Dollars in circulation, but the most exciting part is “identifying future community leaders.”

“The people we want to support are people who might not get support for their ideas elsewhere,” Bhadresa explains. “We want to support the people as much as the project.”

To be eligible for a Take Action Grant, a project must benefit the local community, and it must fit with Arusha’s mandate “to move environmental and social justice forward in Calgary.” Applicants fill out a form specifying how the project will fulfil that mandate, and provide a detailed budget. Arusha Centre staff reviews the application, an advisory committee approves it and, finally, the applicant presents the project at a monthly Calgary Dollars market and potluck, where attendees vote for or against it.

“It’s not just about handing out money. It’s about teaching the applicant about presentation skills and the Calgary Dollars community about democracy,” explains Bhadresa.

She says the primary reasons some applicants’ proposals don’t get the go-ahead are if they’re not local, if they’re not sufficiently well thought out, or if they don’t have a proper budget.

Silverhorse received a Take Action Grant in 2008 in the amount of $784 and C$171 for her cookbook, titled 101 Recipes From the Hamper. Building upon her experience as a community care nurse and cook, Silverhorse compiled the book to feature easy and nutritious recipes one can make from ingredients typically found in food hampers. Her research involved speaking to seniors who had lived through times of scarcity, such as the Depression in the 1930s, to come up with innovative ideas about using common foods in interesting and healthy ways.

Silverhorse says applying for a Take Action Grant is a first step to developing the confidence and skills necessary to apply for other grants down the road. “It’s a good baby step in terms of getting experience as to what funders want to see,” she says.

Silverhorse says she used the Calgary Dollars portion of her grant to help with her book’s printing costs, and to buy bus tickets for project-related travel (Calgary Transit tickets can be purchased with Calgary Dollars through the Arusha Centre). She used the federal monies to buy food to allow her to do cookbook demonstrations for social service agencies interested in the project. The cookbook has been circulated throughout several social service agencies, such as Calgary Urban Project Society and Aspen.

Calgary’s Disability Action Hall/SCOPE Society received a Take Action Grant in 2009 in the amount of C$625 and $450 for their first-ever Radical Access Tour, which was designed to draw awareness to disability access in the downtown core and grant awards to buildings deemed disability-friendly.

Huston says one of the benefits of a Take Action Grant is that an applicant doesn’t have to face all the bureaucratic barriers erected by other funding agencies, such as requiring an organization to have formal non-profit status before they can apply.

Within the last year, the Arusha Centre has awarded 11 Take Action Grants to projects ranging from a Girls (un)Valentine’s Day Event that included self-defense workshops and skateboarding to promote a positive body image, to urban permaculture workshops, to a photography exhibit about urban transformation.