Bradford continues to support community organizations with a boost in funding from the town’s annual community grant program.
Based on a recommendation from the grants committee from Oct. 28, council approved $22,600 in total funding for 18 local groups during its Nov. 19 meeting.
That’s compared to 10 groups who were approved for a combined $17,300 from the 2024 program.
After the meeting, the chair of the grants committee Mayor James Leduc explained he frequently receives calls from organizations looking for help and has been directing them to the grant program in an effort to ensure the town provides support in a way which is fair and transparent.
For 2025, he said the committee received 54 applications and in order to approve as many as they did, the amount provided to each had to be reduced from what was requested.
“We shared as much as we could,” Leduc said, noting the committee allocated almost the entirety of council’s $22,800 budget for miscellaneous expenditures.
“It’s not easy to say no to anybody,” he said. “We do our best.”
According to the town’s website, this support is in recognition of the value these not-for-profit groups bring to the well-being and growth of the community and in helping the town retain a strong community focus.
This year, the committee recommended the following:
- Bradford Board of Trade — $5,000 to support events, promotions, and educational opportunities for local businesses and schools, covering marketing, speakers, venue costs, and awards.
- The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i’s of Bradford — $2,100 to funds room rental within the town to host monthly community meals.
- Bradford Air Cadets (37 Orville Hand) — $2,000 to help youth become better engaged citizens by providing opportunities to access educational programs and resources, including leadership, communication, volunteer opportunities, and awards and scholarships.
- Simcoe County Youth Outreach — $2,000 to support registration assistance for extracurricular programs to youth facing barriers.
- Helping Hand Food Bank Incorporated — $1,500 to purchase culturally appropriate food to help serve the needs of a diverse community.
- Special Olympics Ontario - Bradford — $1,500 to help fund updated uniforms, recreation facility costs, to subsidize program fees for participants, and transportation costs for athletes.
- Bond Head Women’s Institute — $1,000 to host two community events: the Christmas market and strawberry social.
- Bradford Diversity Action Group (DAG) — $1,000 to provide educational resources, and organize multicultural festivals and community events.
- Bradford Women’s+ Group — $1,000 to help fund materials, guest facilitators, and space rental for regular sessions and in order to host events at no cost.
- Rise Up BWG — $1,000 to host anti-racism events, cultural workshops, community gatherings and artisan fairs.
- South Simcoe Arts Council — $1,000 to support operational costs of the 10-day music festival.
- 1st Bradford Scout Group — $500 to support a youth sleepover at the Canadian Heritage Warplane Museum to explore warplane history and cover intergenerational craft and social activities with seniors at The Elden of Bradford.
- Bradford Tamil Association — $500 to support the Tamil community with programs, cultural festivals, community gatherings, and events/workshops for youth, women, men, and children.
- Danube Seniors Leisure Centre — $500 for monthly newsletter printing costs.
- Girl Guides of Canada - 10th ON LEAP Unit — $500 to help fund participation in the Provincial LEAP Camp held in the Summer of 2025.
- South Simcoe 4-H Association — $500 to fund a $20 per-member subsidy for two programs.
- Terry Fox Run Bradford — $500 to support the annual Terry Fox Run event to raise funds for cancer research.
- Ukrainian Community of Bradford (UCB) — $500 to support a New Year’s fundraising event for Ukraine, covering venue rental, food and entertainment.
The program runs annually and organizations must operate within town and apply before the Oct. 1 deadline in order to qualify for funds in the following year.
According to the program policy, applications can be made for support programs or events with a fixed start and end date, or for general operating or capital expenses as long as the specific use can be identified and accounted, as recipients are required to report on how funds were used.
Requests may be approved in full, approved for a lesser value than requested or denied, and priority is given to requests that support programs in the following categories: youth/senior, heritage/civic, arts/culture or leisure/tourism.
Earlier this year, council approved changes to the town’s community support program, including increasing the funding range for the community grant program to between $500 and $5,000 — up from $400 to $3,000.
That was intended to more accurately reflect the applications received, and all of the funding approved under the 2024 program already fell within that new range.
For more information, visit townofbwg.com.
