Non-profit organizations are used to funding their work through grants and donations. With Laidlaw’s support, Tapestry Community Capital is introducing more organizations to a new financing tool—community bonds—and enabling more investors to support them. The returns are far-reaching.

Community bonds are interest-bearing loans, similar to traditional bonds. Instead of being issued by a government or corporation, they are issued by a non-profit, charity, or co-operative to support projects that benefit the community—everything from affordable housing to schools to renewable energy projects. Community bonds provide organizations with flexibility (the organ-ization sets the term and the rate of return), access to money from new sources, and the opportunity to build longer-term relationships with investors who care about the impact of a project as much the financial return. These bonds give retail investors (individuals) a stake and a sense of ownership in projects that benefit them directly. Tapestry has been promoting and facilitating the use of community bonds since 2018, and the market for them is growing.

Still, too many organizations don’t even know about them. A grant from Laidlaw is changing that. To start, the grant enabled Tapestry to recruit five youth-led and youth-serving organizations into an intensive peer-learning program where they explored the feasibility of community bonds for their own projects. Through conversations, analysis, and investor consultations, participants were able “to understand a new way to finance their projects,” says program co-leader and Tapestry campaign manager Heather Watt-Kapitain. “This was a whole new concept for a lot of them.” Each organization gained valuable insights about their finances, their potential investors, and the work they would have to do before proceeding with community bonds.

One of the five, YMCA BC, gained much more: They were the participant best positioned to issue community bonds right away, and the grant is enabling them to continue working with Tapestry through the next stages of their campaign. A big campaign: $10 million. Furthermore, Tapestry will help YMCA BC to share their story, so they can inspire other non-profits to consider community bonds too. Says Heather, “having a successful bond raise in a sector seems to build confidence for other organizations to follow suit.” Laidlaw’s grant could spark many more community bond campaigns.

Even the most supportive and engaged community benefits from additional tools to fully realize a campaign. Tapestry’s other new venture is Weave, Canada’s first and only fund investing in issuers of community bonds. Through Weave, institutional investors can make large contributions that are spread out across a number of projects. Weave can help to kickstart a campaign or get it across the finish line.  And because Weave invests in no more than 25% of a campaign target, the bulk of any project’s funding still comes from the community, keeping the community in community bonds. Laidlaw has also invested in Weave, as an affirmation of their commitment to aligning their granting and their investments.

If you’ve never considered using or investing in community bonds, perhaps now you will. Both Laidlaw and Tapestry certainly hope so.

PILLAR 1.

Invest in youth-led solutions: Support youth leadership for social change

Laidlaw understands the importance of funding youth leadership to transform, advocate, and advance long-lasting improvements in the areas of criminal justice, education, child welfare, and environmental racism. Laidlaw Foundation remains a youth funder and continues to focus on Black, Indigenous, and racialized youth as they are often the most impacted by these systems, as demonstrated anecdotally and through evidence-based research.

PILLAR 2.

Dismantle systemic barriers to advance equity: Challenge the status quo

Laidlaw Foundation will continue to amplify and champion the work of grantees and those doing work on the ground. Storytelling is a major component of our work as we support grantees to highlight the impact of their work, which increases their access to funding and partnerships. The Foundation firmly believes in supporting youth direct action and organizing and we affirm our commitment to championing grantee-led and community-driven advocacy.

PILLAR 3.

Centre our Mission, Vision, Values, and Theory of Philanthropy: Transform how we operate

As a leader in the youth grant-making sector, Laidlaw believes that community and principles of public good should inform true responsive philanthropy. Ensuring we have strong gover-nance that meaningfully centres Black and Indigenous leadership within our Board, advisors, committees, volunteers, and social procurement is a priority for the next five years and beyond. Laidlaw affirms its commitment to fund grassroots and community-based organizations, advocate for funding of non-qualified donees, and dismantle racism within philanthropy

Laidlaw is in the process of developing a long-term strategy to specifically invest in Black communities through our inaugural Black Youth Fund (BYF). This work is informed by the Unfunded: Black Communities Overlooked by Canadian Philanthropy, report which found that “grants to Black-serving organizations represented a meagre 0.7% of total grants during the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years.” The Unfunded report catalyzed the creation of Black philanthropic organizations in the country, including the Foundation for Black Communities, whose endowment included a capital transfer from Laidlaw.

BYF will prioritize Black youth–led initiatives. The development of this fund is guided by Black youth advisors representing different regions of Ontario (Windsor, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Peterborough, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, and Greater Toronto Area) and under the guidance and blessings of Elder Aina-Nia Ayo’dele, who grounds our work in African Indigenous practices, Black ancestral teachings, and a decolonized approach to leadership.

Environmental Racism

In 2025, Laidlaw renewed its strategic focus. While we continue to prioritize youth impacted by the justice, education, and child welfare systems, we are now embedding environmental justice across all our funding streams, including the Indigenous Youth and Community Futures Fund (IYCFF), Youth Action Fund (YAF), and the new Black Youth Fund (BYF).

Building on Our Legacy

This renewed focus builds on Laidlaw’s long history of environmental stewardship. Since the 1950s, Laidlaw has been an environmental advocate, including being a founding supporter of Great Lakes protection initiatives, Quetico Park Foundation, and other significant conser-vation efforts in Canada.

Addressing Environmental Racism

Environmental racism refers to the dispropor-tionate exposure of Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities to polluting industries and environmentally hazardous activities (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2020).

Examples include:

Mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows First Nation

Long-standing boil water advisories on reserves

Resource extraction on Indigenous lands.

Environmental impacts of glyphosate in Ontario’s forestry industry

Waste management inequalities that displace families and communities

Displacing Black communities from neighbourhoods for infrastructure projects

Erosion of Little Jamaica through decades-long delays in building the Eglinton LRT

By integrating environmental justice into all three streams, we aim to provide sustainable funding to effect lasting systemic change across all granting programs.

In 2018, Dave Skene of Wisahkotewinowak Gardening Collective and Garrison McCleary, Indigenous Studies Professor at Conestoga College, wondered: Where can we, as urban Indigenous people, have a space of our own—land on which to learn, celebrate, and participate in ceremony?

By 2022, in a collaboration with the City of Kitchener, that dream began to take shape with the founding of an urban Indigenous land futurity along the Grand River. Today, a Laidlaw-supported Indigenous youth collective, Tekanónhkwa (Day-ga-NOON-kwa) Restoration and Land-Based Learning, is engaging Indigenous youth, and people of all ages, in restoring and stewarding the land for generations to come.

The land Tekanónhkwa is working with was well-known to the Mississaugas of the Credit. For hundreds of years, “they would paddle the Grand and plant their crops for the season,” says collective co-founder Ryan Duncan of Cowessess First Nation. The Pennsylvania-German settlers who arrived in the area about 200 years ago practised conventional farming, and over time the Indigenous presence in the area diminished. Tekanónhkwa is gradually reintroducing native species and reinstituting traditional agricultural techniques practised by the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Peoples to the Indigenous land futurity.

Tekanónhkwa Restoration and Land-Based Learning emerged out of the Wiijindamaan Project, a three-year NSERC grant to help establish the futurity. Wiijindamaan (we-JIN-da-men) means “a place where we gather to do something” in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe). Tekanónhkwa (Two Medicines) was chosen through consultation with Mohawk language speakers and Elders and is not easily summarized in English. It involves two related concepts, medicine and reciprocity. Megan Sanderson, biologist on the team, states, “We see ourselves as working together with the land in reciprocity.”

Uplifting Indigenous cultures and connecting people with the land is an important element of the collective’s mission. “A lot of my friends are reconnecting Indigenous people who have lived in the city their entire lives,” says Ryan. “Being able to get them involved in working with the environment and making a difference in the community and having them connect with their culture has been something that I take real pride in.”

Tekanónhkwa Restoration
and Land-Based Learning:

A New Chapter Begins

Establishing relationships and partnerships, including with fellow Laidlaw grantee 13 Moons Land Based Learning, has been a priority. The

IYCFF grant funded employment opportunities, honoraria, workshops, and visits to First Nations communities across southern Ontario, where members of the collective have been able to connect with and learn alongside more youth. The grant also allowed Tekanónhkwa to make its annual Fall Feast free to attend.

Land restoration involves everything from planting, weeding, and watering to ecological surveys, invasive-species mitigation, and food processing. Work Bee Wednesdays, Frog Fridays, and a host of recurring, seasonal, and one-off events require volunteers. All are welcome. “Everyone needs to be involved with this kind of work,” says Megan. “It can’t be left totally up to Indigenous peoples.” “The land has no door,” adds Ryan. “Please come out, come learn, come plant with us. We love connecting with people, we love connecting with communities. Come be part of something bigger.”

To answer Tekanónhkwa’s call, check their social media feeds for upcoming events, then drive to the end of Lookout Lane, walk down the road from Pioneer Tower, and head toward the river.

The land will be there.

The youth served by the Kwetu Youth Hub in Thunder Bay are flourishing because co-founders Kristen Kowlessar and Jendaya Hopkins are always listening and learning. The Hub is a project of the Northwest Black Collective and a Youth Action Fund grantee (2024–2026). It offers programming to meet the needs of Black youth and bridge the gaps that disproportionately affect them. The Hub seeks to support community building, cultural empowerment, wellness, education, and life skills.

When the Hub launched in January 2025, offering educational support was a priority, as many Black youth are refugees and new immigrants who arrive in the middle of the school year. The Hub purchased school supplies, workbooks, and resources spanning preschool to high school and established a weekly tutoring program to provides youth with consistent, one-on-one attention. “We have seen the difference that it’s been making for these youth,” says Kristen. “We met some who were very shy and were struggling in school and now they look forward to coming out every week and they are so social and more self-assured in the community.” Cooking classes have also proved popular, and more classes, outings, and outdoor activities are planned for 2026.

Kwetu (kway-too) means “ours” or “our place” in Swahili, and the Hub really does belong to the youth. The have a say in programming decisions and are given the space to be themselves. “The youth know what they’re missing, what they need,” says Kristen. “My job is to just give them the platform and the resources to do what they want to do.”

The right partnerships have been crucial to the Hub’s success. “We have been very picky and intentional about who we are partnering with,” says Kristen. “We want to be so sure that it’s places or organizations that aren’t just using access to black youth as a way to say that they’re meeting their own equity goals.” Valuable partners include the Thunder Bay & District Youth Wellness Hub and local public libraries.

Kwetu Youth Hub:
Listening, Learning,

and Letting Youth Lead

Kristen is grateful to Laidlaw Foundation for empowering her and Jendaya to pursue their vision and give back to their community. “To feel that somebody out there believed in what we were doing, that was huge.” And the work will continue even after the grant ends. “We are going to do our best to keep leveraging the partnerships we’ve been able to make through this to keep offering services to the youth. It truly has made such an impact on them, but also on us.”

Kristen hopes more foundations and funders will take a chance on communities like hers. “There are a lot of people who don’t live in the highly populated areas that get the bulk of opportunities. People get by with what they have and they’re able to make a lot out of a little, but investment in those communities makes a world of difference.”

As Laidlaw embarks on a new five-year strategy, Kristen has this advice: Stay true to your values. Do what feels true even if it’s unpopular or hard. Maintain your commitment to youth and to underrepresented populations.

And never stop learning.

2025 marked 10 years since Laidlaw Foundation signed the Philanthropic Declaration of Action, a commitment for philanthropic organizations to use their resources to advance reconciliation.

The document called on organizations to confront Canada’s colonial legacy and the roles they might have played in perpetuating harm towards Indigenous people and land. To honour, renew and reflect on our commitments, we released a report: Ten Years After the Release of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Report: Laidlaw Foundation’s Journey and Renewed Commitments. The report was an exercise of acknowledging the origins of our wealth, reckoning with historical harms caused toward Indigenous communities, and recom-mitting to continued transformation. This report was an exercise of learning and an opportunity to share insights gained from our reflections.

10th Anniversary of

Signing the Philanthropic

Declaration of Action

Pictured: Donovan Gordon Tootoo

Pictured: Aldeli Albán Reyna, Caceila Trahan, Carissa Coe, Benjamin Mitsuk, Janine Manning, Kris Archie

The Nathan Gilbert Youth Innovation Fellowship was established in 2014 to honour the late Nathan Gilbert’s 30-plus-year legacy of championing youth. Every year, one or two young people are selected to undertake a one-year self-directed initiative exploring or addressing issues youth in Ontario face in, or at the intersection of, the education, child welfare, criminal, and environmental justice sectors. It is in this spirit that the 2025-2026 Fellow, Evelyn Amponsah, is conducting a longitudinal study exploring the impacts of energy poverty on Black youth’s education outcomes.

About the Project

This project explores how energy poverty (limited access to heating, cooling and electricity) affects the learning experiences of Black youth in low-income communities. Using a community-based approach, this research aims to capture the lived experiences of students to understand how school and housing conditions, changes in temperature and access to energy shape their ability to focus, engage and succeed in school. It also explores how families and the broader community respond to these challenges and identifies opportunities for community-driven solutions and change.

This first phase of the project involved conducting a literature review to explore existing research on energy poverty, education disparities and environmental justice; setting up a Community Advisory Board; and engaging elementary students and their families to use a journaling tool to capture ways the weather and other environmental factors influence focus, mood and overall learning, both at school and at home.

Why it Matters

This project matters because learning is shaped by the environment. Students may not be able to fully focus or perform well when their environments are too hot, or too cold, or feel uncomfortable. Many researchers often treat energy poverty as a technical or cost issue, but it has real impacts on education, wellbeing and opportunity, making it a critical barrier that deserves further exploration.

Further, systemic barriers in housing and education mean that Black youth in low-income communities may face greater challenges in accessing supportive learning environments. As extreme temperatures increase, these challenges will become more frequent and severe, further widening inequities.

Some Early Insights

Multiple snowstorms and fluctuating temp-eratures in classrooms have impacted focus and energy. Majority of students reported feeling tired, and struggling with concentration and motivation.

Learning is affected by discomfort, as students reported pain in hands, fatigue, and irritability in class. They are unable to make decisions on when to open the door, turn on the heater, etc.

While home felt most comfortable, some reported experiences of power outages during snowstorms making them unable to access wifi, proper lighting and heat.

Students also have solutions. Ideas included heating packs, better HVAC systems, more choice in going outdoor,w and heating stations at bus stops to support their commute.