Back
Application Deadline: September 12, 2025 (12noon PST)
Program Summary:
Disability Alliance BC (DABC) is a charitable not-for-profit society that has been active since 1977. Their mission is to promote a more inclusive and equitable society for people with all disabilities through their direct services, community partnerships, systemic advocacy, research, and publications.
Accessibility Project Grants projects must have clear, tangible, measurable outputs and outcomes that promote accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities. The Accessibility Projects must advance at least one of the following specific objectives for British Columbians with disabilities:
- Accessible employment;
- Examples include:
- Accessibility Objective: Accessible employment
- Shorter Term Outcomes: 15 people with disabilities are supported and empowered in the workplace. Workplace culture becomes more inclusive of people with disabilities (based on 90% positive survey responses).
- Longer Term Outcome: Improved employment and/or volunteering outcomes for people with disabilities in the Lower Mainland.
- Accessible emergency planning and response;
- Accessible arts, culture and tourism;
- Examples include:
- Accessibility Objective: Accessible arts, culture and tourism
- Shorter Term Outcomes: The work of 20-30 artists with disabilities is available to a larger audience. 20-30 people with disabilities are empowered to create art or participate in cultural activities.
- Longer Term Outcome: More youth with disabilities are able to meaningfully engage in arts, culture, and tourism in Northern BC.
- Accessible sports and recreation;
- Accessible education and learning;
- Examples include:
- Accessibility Objective: Accessible education and learning
- Shorter Term Outcomes: 15-20 people with disabilities are able to access educational opportunities that would not have been available to them otherwise. 2 new educational programs are adapted or developed to address barriers to access for 40-50 people with disabilities.
- Longer Term Outcome: Young adults with disabilities are able to access academic and other educational opportunities in the Thompson area.
- Accessible community participation.
- Examples include:
- Accessibility Objective: Accessible community participation
- Shorter Term Outcomes: New programs are developed that help promote greater community engagement and reduce isolation for 200-300 people with disabilities. 500-600 people with disabilities are better able to contribute to their communities.
- Longer Term Outcome: Stigma and misconceptions about people with disabilities are significantly reduced
Priority will begiven to projects that illustrate progress toward longer term outcomes in addition to shorter term ones. However, particularly strong shorter-term outcomes will also be considered. If you are unsure whether the outcomes of your project fulfill these criteria, please reach out to ap@dabc.ca to discuss this with the Coordinator.
Grant Amount:
Funding up to $40,000.
Eligible Projects:
Grants are awarded to projects that:
- Take place within the next calendar year.
- Have significant project activities in both reporting periods (January-June and July-December).
- Are focused on community engagement (rather than large capital costs – see ineligible projects and costs sections for more information).
- Are self-contained projects, or, if part of an ongoing project or program, demonstrate a clear and specific expansion or innovation that the grant will be used for.
- Promote accessibility for people with disabilities in BC (for more information on accessibility outcomes please see above).
Please note that although we welcome projects that engage intersectional communities/groups, applications should specify how the project primarily promotes accessibility for people with disabilities. For example, if your project is for a seniors’ community, please focus your application on the benefit specifically for seniors with disabilities.
Eligible Applicants:
Eligible Organizations:
- Organizations that have a real or perceived conflict of interest with DABC must declare this on their application.
- Eligible organizations must be not-for-profit organizations based in BC, Canada, that operate primarily for community benefit and whose services are open to the public and not restricted to the organization’s membership.
- Organizations do not need to be a registered charity but must have a democratically elected volunteer Board chosen by its membership.
- National or international organizations may be eligible, but only if they have a base of operations in BC and sufficient capacity to deliver services in BC.
- Governmental bodies, including municipalities, First Nations bands, and public-sector organizations are not eligible as they are targeted by other funding streams. To see a list of public sector organizations that are not eligible to apply, please click here.
- Once an organization has received a grant they can reapply 5 years after their application was submitted for a new project (for example, if an organization applied in 2020 for a grant and did their project in 2021, they can reapply in 2025 to do a new project in 2026).
Want to know more? Check out past successful funded projects for ideas:
- Successful Accessibility Projects (2024/2025)
- Successful Accessibility Projects (2023/2024)
- Successful Accessibility Projects (2022/2023)
- Successful Accessibility Projects (2021/2022)
- Successful Accessibility Projects (2020/2021)
- Successful Accessibility Projects (2019/2020)
- Successful Accessibility Projects (2018/2019)
Information Sessions:
Online information sessions will occur on Wednesday September 3 at 11:30am-12:30pm. At the session, potential applicants will be invited to learn about the application process and ask questions. Live captioning will be available. With two weeks advanced notice, ASL interpretation can be booked on request and other accessibility requests will be accommodated whenever possible.
- To register for the Sept 3 session, please click here.
