This enhanced funding opportunity will continue to illustrate The Corporation of the City of Windsor's value and appreciation of the cultural fabric of the city. This will be a ONE TIME enhanced funding opportunity. Administration is requesting that an additional $16,400 from the approved Operating Budget assigned to Cultural Affairs be utilized to increase the Round 2 funding level to a total of $60,000 available to be distributed.

Additionally, this Round of funding will provide 60 or more applications with a grant of between $500 to $1,000 rather than the traditional value of up to $5,000. The intent of the smaller grant value is to ensure an immediate impact of funding support is made to the cultural community.

This additional funding will come from chartfield 001-2950-5255- 02942-0121141. Funding will be available as a ONE TIME payment as the Cultural Affairs section will realign the work flow for the 2020 calendar year.

Administration is also recommending a ONE TIME honourarium of $500 each payable to the five jurors who will adjudicate the funding round. Based on the past funding rounds, generally the jury awards 18 to 21 applicants funding. Increasing the round to fund 60 applications will significantly increase the adjudication load the volunteer jury will be required to complete. The funding for this ONE TIME honourarium would also come from chartfield 001-2950-5255- 02942-0121141.

The additional amount of funding to the grant along with the small honourarium to the jury would see a total of $18,900 utilized from the Cultural Affairs operating budget.

Consultations:

-Finance – Valerie Clifford, Financial Planning Administrator, Recreation & Culture -Finance – Dan Seguin, Deputy Treasurer, Financial Accounting

Conclusion:

The City of Windsor has made a significant contribution to the cultural fabric of the community.

The Arts, Culture & Heritage Fund (ACHF) grant program is a key component of the municipality's support of the creative community. The fund was created to help make culture happen now. The purpose of the fund – Investing in the soul of our City by providing financial assistance to locally developed arts, culture and heritage projects that provide exciting, surprising, and meaningful opportunities to strengthen our creative community – has proven to have an immediate impact on Windsor's cultural community.

Of working with the ACHF program, our jurors reflect: "Nothing makes you feel more connected to the community as a whole than intimately getting to know its separate parts. This process gives us the opportunity to fund exciting, new, creative projects that will help stretch and strengthen the creative community in Windsor. We can help build a Windsor that thrives and grows in comparison to many other cities experiencing a renaissance... and continuing to tangibly support the arts, culture and heritage sector is a powerful way to do it. This program and process show that community is not only about economics or markets, but about who we are as people. The ACHF program