Don’t worry. Pooja, our Community Grant Implementor, is here to help. She can walk you through the process, and help you create a strong application. 

For even more support, you can also check out these documents outlining our grant guidelines for both Small Grants and Large Grants.

No. We developed the toolkit to help inspire climate action projects. If you have another great idea, we’d love to hear it!

Yes! All you need to do is find two other community-minded individuals to support your application. 

If you’re having trouble finding like-minded individuals, try reaching out to your friends, neighbours or local Community Association. You can find your Community Association’s contact information here.

Here are three examples to help you think about climate adaptation in your community:

Opportunity: A community is at high risk for severe climate events, and has a vulnerable population of people, who may not be able to respond quickly or effectively in the case of extreme climate conditions.

Possible climate adaptations:

• Host an emergency preparedness workshop to educations the residents about possible threats and how to respond.
• Create a resource map that shows residents where they can find appropriate resources in the case of extreme climate events. Ex. in case of flood, where can they go; in extreme heat, what neighbourhood amenities (shaded areas, rivers, splash parks, etc.) can they use.

Opportunity: A local playground cannot be used during extreme heat conditions. The black asphalt makes the playground equipment very hot, and children can’t play there without getting burned.

Possible climate adaptations:

• Use heat-reflective paint on the asphalt, so that it doesn’t absorb as much heat;
• Build a shade structure over the playground to protect surfaces.

Opportunity: A community has a many active gardeners in their community garden, and, thanks to hot summer weather, there will be abundant food harvests this year.

Possible climate adaptations:

• Host a canning or food preservation workshop to help community gardeners reduce food waste and learn how to properly store food throughout the winter.
• Create a good food box program that donates community harvests to low-income members of the community.

Climate change refers to a long-term change in the average weather patterns.

Climate resilience refers to our ability to cope with, respond to and recover from climate-driven hazardous events or trends, such as extreme heat or cold, floods, droughts, wildfires, etc.  

Climate adaptation is about changing our actions, policies, programs, tools or strategies to help reduce the negative affects of climate change. For people, this means finding ways to live, work and play safely and comfortably even when there are climate-driven hazards (ex. extreme heat or cold, droughts or floods, wildfire smoke, etc.). For nature, it refers to how plants, animals and the environment change to survive in new climate conditions. 

Equity-deserving refers to communities that face barriers (often systemic) due to discrimination or disadvantage, which leads to them experiencing unequal access to opportunities or resources.

Often, these communities are more affected by the impacts of climate change. Equity helps ensure that people who are disproportionately impacted by climate change have equal access to, and can benefit from climate solutions.

Learn more about climate equity at: calgary.ca/environment/programs/equity