Community MAXimizers
Incubating Community Projects in Ottawa
Created by MAX Ottawa
What is a Community MAXimizer?
Community MAXimizers are individuals that want to help promote the health, well being and social connections of guys into guys in the Ottawa region.
Successful applicants receive upwards of $1,000 in funding to develop and facilitate projects that address local community service gaps. In recognition of these contributions, MAX may also provide a $250 honorarium directly to individuals who lead successful initiatives.
This program provides opportunities for community leaders to develop interventions within their own populations of guys into guys.
Incubating Community-led Projects in Ottawa
The program is able to approve 7 micro-grants on an annual basis. Past MAXimizer projects that advanced to implementation include:
Application Process & Project Selection
Promotions
MAX Ottawa relies on a multi-pronged engagement strategy to foster interest and applications to the program:
Online promotion (social media, newsletters, partnerships with community organizations)
Direct engagement (reaching out to individuals known to MAX’s interpersonal networks)
MAXimizer Showcase event (information session featuring past grant-recipients)
A physical brochureTraining, Resources & Support
Application Structure
In order to solicit a high quality roster of community interventions, MAX takes a highly involved approach to supporting potential applicants. Two months prior to the submission deadline (which number three each year), the organization hosts a MAXimizer Showcase event. Participants interact with previous grant recipients while attending informative presentations on the application process. MAX also adjusts the number of approved applications each cycle - in an effort to maximize the number of projects that successfully reach implementation.
Training, Resources & Support
MAX provides intensive, personalized support to project leaders during application, project development and implementation. Consultations with the program coordinator regarding budgets, logistics, scheduling and promotions are available at all stages.
Successful micro-grant recipients also attend a MAX orientation session - including a project management workshop that pairs these community leaders with mentors. Each participant also receives a shared folder with Community MAXimizer resources.
MAX Ottawa dedicates 0.5 FTE staffing directly to this initiative:
Front-line coordination - 0.4 FTE
Supervision and leadership - 0.1 FTE
Project Evaluation
As part of its evaluation process, MAX engages project leaders to provide quantitative and qualitative data on their community interventions.
Positive feedback from internal staff, grant recipients and participating community members indicate both a high regard for the program and a desire to increase funding beyond the $1,000 limit applied to most applications. In response, leadership is actively considering actionable steps to increase the scope of the Community MAXimizers program.
Ongoing Community Programs
While the scope of these projects is typically limited to one-time initiatives, MAX has seen occasional projects develop into ongoing programming:
MAXpress Yourself
MAXpress Yourself is an arts-based social program for guys who live, work or play in Ottawa and who are into other guys. The program is a free, monthly creative workshop requiring no previous artistic experience.
Keeping it 100
An ACB (African, Caribbean, Black) GBTQ peer discussion group - fostering a safe and welcoming environment to support one another and increase representation of the Black, Queer, male experience.
For more information, please contact:
Mohamad Altasseh
Engagement Support Coordinator, MAX Ottawa
613.701.6555 x 802
mohamad@maxottawa.ca
400 rue Cooper St., Suite 9004
Ottawa, ON
K2P 2H8