Applying for Grants from the Civil Forfeiture Office
Toward the end of each fiscal, moneys from forfeitures are made available as grants.
Grants programs:
- Announced in October/November of each year by the Province of B.C.
- Two independent streams:
- Applications are due within about 8 weeks or as noted on the website.
CSCP processes grant applications from community agencies seeking funding from the Civil Forfeiture Office (CFO) and key information on how to apply for grants is located on their website.
The primary requirement to receive a grant is that the funds are used toward crime prevention or remediation activities. Grant applications are adjudicated on how well they fit the objectives of the program, how much impact the group has in the community and many other factors. The number of grants awarded and the maximum value of each grant depends on the amount of funding available at the time when the program is announced.
If grant applications are not posted, then there is no grants program available at this time. You can e-mail us if you would like to be included in the grants announcement e-mailing list.
If you would like to find out more information about grant requirements and recipients, we recommend you look through the non-exhaustive listing of grantees in the Resources section or the information at the bottom of this page.
Starting in fiscal 14/15 grants are integrated with the Violence Free B.C. strategy (PDF), which lays out a blueprint to address violence against women in B.C. It is the government’s commitment to ensure women, especially First Nations and vulnerable women, have the supports they need to help prevent violence, escape from violent situations and to recover if they have been victims of crime.
In addition, one grant stream will always cover police training and equipment and is generally limited to not more than 10% of the total amount of moneys available to all organizations. This is to fund specialized equipment and/or training that is not otherwise covered by a police department’s budget. These grants are one-off amounts and cannot form part of an agency’s operating budget. Items funded in previous years include trauma-dog programs, anti-gang surveillance cameras, specialized police investigative training and vehicles used by police in support of victims of violence.
Grant Program Themes and Amounts
In fiscal 2014/15, the primary focus of CFO grants was on programs supporting the Violence Free B.C. strategy. As this strategy focuses on providing supports to people to help them prevent violence, escape from violent situations, and recover if they have been the victim of violence, grant moneys of $5 million were allocated to programs falling into the following streams:
- Innovative partnerships for responding to violence against women
- Healing and rebuilding after violence against aboriginal women
- Training and education for front-line service providers responding to violence against women
- Serving victims through restorative justice
- Community and/or youth crime prevention
In fiscal 2013/14, the primary focus of CFO grants was on programs to take further action on the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry recommendations and support the prevention of violence against women and youth crime prevention initiatives. Grant moneys of nearly $1.1 million were allocated to programs falling into the following streams:
- Missing Women Commission of Inquiry recommendations
- Domestic violence units
- Youth crime prevention
- Human trafficking and sexual exploitation
In fiscal 2012/13 a total of 185 community groups, local governments and policing agencies shared $5.2 million to help reduce youth involvement in gangs, prevent violence against women and children, and further crime prevention initiatives. Grant moneys were allocated to programs falling into the following streams:
- Youth crime prevention
- Human trafficking and sexual exploitation
- Bullying
- Violence against women and family violence
- Community crime prevention
