Capacity building. Supporting social innovation. Championing change. Leveraging opportunities. Getting unstuck.
The City of Penticton’s Social Development Department offers supports and services for social purpose initiatives, organizations and leaders. This could be as simple as a letter of support to helping identify a potential funding source to a longer-term partnership. The City tries to offer flexible, responsive and impactful services to leaders, organizations and groups working on socially impactful and innovative initiatives.
Below is just a sample of how we may be able work together.
Grants and Financial Supports
The City of Penticton encorages leaders of social initiatives to seek diverse funding sources. If you are seeking support from the Social Development Department or City, you must submit an application via the Municipal Grants portal (not-for-profit organizations), a Partnership Agreement request (for-profits) via email to the Department, or seek a Small Grant (for resident-lead initiatives). You are encouraged to contact the Social Development Department prior to submitting your request.
Letter of Support
Social Development may be able to write a letter of support for a funding application, advocacy initiative, or something innovative. We ask that you submit your request as soon as possible (if possible, four weeks in advance) so there is time to write a high-quality letter of support. Please email the team with your request for a letter and include as much information as possible.
Specific Skills of Team Members
When the Social Development team has availability, we may be able to provide one of our team member's skills to a specific project or initiative. This is an example of some of the high-quality skills our team members currently have:
- Facilitating strategic planning processes
- Planning community/public engagement
- Research papers using academic literature
On-going Engagement
The Social Development Department is always seeking input and ideas from members of the community and community partners. Recently the team was at the Okanagan College Services Fair to understand the priorities of local young people.
Examples of Previous Initiatives
This is a small sample of initiatives that Social Development has previously supported:
- Analyzed data and edited/reviewed the application document for a capital grant application that a not-for-profit organization was submitting to another order of government,
- Co-developed a concept of a program to submit to a grant opportunity,
- Co-facilitated a workshop-style meeting to support a group in making a difficult decision,
- Facilitated relationship building between a land owner and not-for-profit housing developer,
- Mentored a resident to mobilize their community idea,
- Shared a practicum student with a not-for-profit organization, and
- Provided grants for youth to attend a national workshop.
Contact us
We want to hear from you! The above is just a starting point. If you are looking for support, capacity building opportunities, or support with making a social impact in your organization or the community, and it is not listed above, please contact Social Development. We are happy to discuss and explore how we can best support you. Please note that while we try to say yes to every request, there are certain times of years where we may have limited capacity. Please contact us as soon as possible to discuss your opportunity so there is a higher likelihood we can support you.
Social Development
Phone: 250-490-2512, Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m.
Email: socialdevelopment@penticton.ca