Education Partnerships Program

Partnership

Proposals must address one or more of the following priority areas:

1. Activities to support the establishment and advancement of agreements with provinces and provincial school boards to improve student outcomes through improved programs and services; sharing expertise; and improving coordination between First Nation and provincial schools to ensure smooth transitions, including between elementary and secondary education on reserve and early childhood programs, and/or post-secondary and labour market training programs through partnership activities that involve other federal and provincial departments.
2. Partnership activities that directly respond to recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report.
3. Partnership activities that lead to the development of new approaches to tuition or education services and delivery agreements.
4. Partnership activities that lead to the development of new unique student identifiers enabling the progress of First Nation students to be tracked as they move between education systems or relocate on and off reserve.

Structural Readiness

Proposals must address one or more of the following priority areas:

1. Activities that strengthen the organizational capacity of First Nation organizations for the delivery of educational services to First Nation schools
2. Activities to support the establishment of a First Nation School Board that is fully delegated, by more than one community, the responsibility for all aspects of elementary and secondary education including the administration of multiple First Nation schools with a combined student population of at least 1,000 students. (An exemption may be made where the combined First Nation school student population is less than 1,000 when the organization demonstrates sufficient capacity and economies of scale to enable the delivery of services to a standard comparable to that of a provincial school board).
3. Activities to support the establishment of agreements with a provincial school board including new approaches to tuition/service agreements or an agreement that fully delegates the administration of First Nation schools on-reserve by a provincial school board.
4. Activities that directly respond to recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report (e.g. changes to curriculum).

Partnerships

Regional First Nation organizations that meet the following criteria:

• be provincially or federally incorporated
• have a documented management framework (e.g. policies and/or by-laws) outlining the organization's governance structure and procedures
• have documented support from First Nations/communities/schools (e.g. band or tribal council resolution, or other documentation such as formal letters of support)
• have documented and publically available policy guidelines
• demonstrate economies of scale
• organizational structure includes an executive director or equivalent, finance officer and a board of directors or equivalent
• undertake, as a key function, elementary and secondary education support for groups of First Nation communities/schools
• be in a sound financial position
• agree to produce publicly available annual reports on education partnership projects and expenditures, and
• if new, replace an existing organization or an amalgamation of existing organizations

Regional First Nation organizations can also manage partnership funding or coordinate partnership initiatives for independent, non-member First Nations if these independent First Nations agree to such an arrangement. Organizations will be required to provide a signed written statement from each non-member First Nation saying that they agree to have EPP funding administered and managed by the organization on their behalf.

Regional First Nation organizations cannot act only as a flow-through to member or non-member organizations under this program. They cannot issue calls for proposals to member or non-member organizations for activities funded through this program.

Structural Readiness

First Nations organizations including:

• band councils
• organizations designated by a band council
• First Nation regional management organizations who currently undertake, as a key function, elementary and secondary support for a defined group of band-operated schools

Organizations designated by a band council and First Nation regional management organizations must meet the same minimum requirements for funding consideration as those listed above in the Partnerships component.

Organizations do not need to have a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding to apply.

Related links

Education Partnerships Program - National Program Guidelines 2016-2017

Education by provincial governments:

• Alberta
• British Columbia
• Manitoba
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• New Brunswick
• Northwest Territories
• Nova Scotia
• Nunavut
• Ontario
• Prince Edward Island
• Quebec
• Saskatchewan
• Yukon