Do you have an advocacy aptitude? Are you passionate and informed about language rights? Do you enjoy educating others about the causes you support? Do you have any ideas about advocacy kits that might create an impact at the municipal, provincial or even federal level?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are might be interested to apply for an the MCIS Language Impact Challenge grant ($25,000)!
We are inviting Individuals, non-profit/ grassroots organizations and social enterprises to send us innovative and unique proposals for the development of a LANGUAGE ADVOCACY KIT, a tool for both newcomers to advocate on behalf of their communities and decision makers and influencers to advocate within their organizations. The kit should help to influence policy change around language rights and help those interested in improving language accessibility to understand how to create an effective advocacy campaign.
It should include at a minimum:
- – Information about newcomer communities and challenges and barriers to language they face;
- – General, compelling information on language rights and the importance of overcoming language barriers to improve access to critical information and services;
- – Useful information on various methods of advocacy for (language) rights, when to use each, and how to voice concerns most effectively;
- – Making a business case for risks associated with not providing access to services in languages of choice;
- – A language access plan template to assist organizations that wish to implement such;
- – A comprehensive outreach plan for making the toolkit available to communities and key decision makers across Ontario.
The entries should be submitted between September 1st and October 1st, 2017. MCIS will shortlist the entries to 3 finalists, and a panel of judges will select a the winner who will be announced at MCIS’ AGM (October 18, 2017).
To apply, or get more information, please visit the Language Impact Challenge Page.