Ontario’s Community Safety and Policing (CSP) Grant program

Ontario’s Community Safety and Policing (CSP) Grant program is an application and outcomes-based program introduced by the Ford government in 2019-20 to support police services/boards in combating crime and keeping Ontario communities safe.

The program provides eligible Police Service Boards with flexibility, letting them decide which risks are most pressing (eg. youth engagement, crime prevention, or school safety programs) in the community.

It is divided into two distinct funding streams, both of which require a formal application and assessment process:

• Local priorities
• Provincial priorities

Local priorities stream

The local priorities funding stream focuses on addressing risks to safety and well-being that are most prevalent in the community.

Police Service Boards must submit a grant application form that includes their planned initiatives, demonstrated need, activities, partnerships as well as outcomes and performance indicators to secure portion of the program’s total funding allotted to them by the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

Provincial priorities stream

This stream is a competitive application process and projects funded under this stream must focus on addressing at least one of the following provincially identified priorities:

1. Gun and gang violence
2. Sexual violence and harassment
3. Human trafficking
4. Mental Health and addictions, and/or
5. Hate motivated crime

Objectives

All projects funded under the 2022-23 – 2024-25 Provincial Priorities Funding Stream must align with a minimum of one of the grant objectives, which are outlined below:

• Providing police services with the necessary tools and resources to enable the deployment of front-line police officers when and where they are needed most; and
• Supporting police services as they implement public safety and community policing initiatives.

The Ministry will continue to review the objectives of the grant every grant cycle to ensure they meet local and provincial needs.

2022-2025 application guidelines

In order to further support police services/boards in undertaking policing and community safety and well-being initiatives across the province, the Ministry of the Solicitor General (Ministry) is launching another Call-for-Applications under the Provincial Priorities Funding Stream of the CSP Grant program for a three-year grant cycle (i.e., 2022-23 – 2024-25 fiscal years). It will be available to those police services boards that were eligible to receive funding under the 2019-20 CSP Grant program, as well as First Nations police services in Ontario.

Preference may be given to applications that address the following components as part of their initiatives:

Community Safety and Well-Being Plan

When submitting applications for funding through the CSP Grant, police services should consider aligning with and leveraging local community safety and well-being planning efforts. Consideration should be given to supporting initiatives that address priorities identified through the local community safety and well-being plan.

Diversity principle

Initiatives should be developed through a diversity, equity and inclusion lens with consideration towards supports for communities who may be disproportionately impacted by any of the priorities that are prevalent in the local community. This may include taking into consideration how the initiative would serve and meet the unique needs of those who are, but not limited to:

• Indigenous;
  • Note: Applicants may consider The Report and Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, as well as Ontario’s Urban Indigenous Action Plan, to guide development of initiatives that support Indigenous populations.

• Francophone;
• racialized;
• newcomers, immigrants or refugees;
• members of specific ethno-cultural and religious backgrounds;
• children and youth;
• older adults;
• 2SLGBTQQIA+ (including: Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer,
  Questioning, Intersex and Asexual, and Plus persons);
• experiencing challenges with addictions and mental health;
• persons with disabilities;
• residents of Northern, rural and remote areas; or
• experiencing economic insecurity (i.e., homeless, marginally/under-housed, living in
  poverty).