Neighbourhood Small Grants awarded

Have you heard?

This year, the Phoenix Foundation has over $12,830 to give away to individuals who have a great idea to deepen connections in our communities.

Through the Neighbourhood Small Grants, the Phoenix Foundation is able to provide grants up to $500 to individuals to bring their project to life.

The Neighbourhood Small Grants program unites neighbours and sparks creativity; while some of the projects are a one-time experience, some are the beginning of an annual community program that will continue to grow.

Neighbourhood Small Grants is a grassroots program that connects and celebrates our neighbourhoods and communities.

Grants are given to anyone with an idea that contributes to their community – no experience necessary, applications are quick and simple.

For more information about the Neighborhood Small Grants program and how to apply click HERE.

Have a question?

Contact Trudy Hallam @ nsg@phoenix-foundation.ca

The Phoenix Foundation of the Boundary Communities, through Neighbourhood Small Grants programs and BC Housing, has awarded $8,250 in to date in 2023.

Read about the Neighbourhood Small Grants Pumpkin Patch HERE

Read about the Neighbourhood Small Grants Record Ridge Interpretive Hike HERE

Read about the Neighbourhood Small Grants Silver Kettle Village Family Party HERE

Read about the Seniors Pole lessons HERE

Read about the Rossland Writing Workshop HERE

Queering Rossland Project

I first came up with the idea of a “Queering Rossland” mural after learning about some research that had been done in collaboration with young women and queer youth in Rossland, which highlighted a lack of LGBTQ representation in public spaces in our community. It was shortly after this research was presented to me at Rossland City Council that I connected with a muralist who was interested in bringing more public art to Rossland and, coincidentally, also came across a call for applications from NSG. The muralist, Lauren, and I came up with a plan to engage with queer youth and community leaders in Rossland to design a mural that brought LBGTQ representation to a public space in Rossland and the project was made possible by NSG who generously accepted our application. 

In early 2023, we launched the project. It became clear early on in our engagements that the Youth Action Network (YAN) building would make a perfect home for the mural. The building was in a great location (on a major road leading in and out of town), it was sporting a damaged mural that needed updating, and the YAN crew were leaders in LGBTQ inclusive programming in the community and clearly deserved to benefit from this project.

Once we identified the YAN building as the location for the mural, we started working with a group of eight middle- and high-school aged LBGTQ youth and allies who made up the YAN “Queer Club”. We hosted two engagements with the Queer Club over the course of the winter, first to come up with a general concept for the mural and the second to design a symbol that could be incorporated into the mural to represent the youth who were involved. The group decided they wanted the mural to include mountains, bright colours with a rainbow incorporated into the design, and purple (an important colour in the LGBTQ community) butterflies to represent their group. While they wanted the mural to be an expression of queer joy, it was also important to the group that the mural felt inclusive of everyone and celebratory of all of the youth who accessed the YAN building. The muralist then took these ideas and designed the mural, which took a total of seven days to paint and included an afternoon of painting, dancing, and celebrating with the Queer Club. On the last day of pride month (June 30) the mural was installed onto the YAN building for everyone to enjoy! See the Video HERE