Get ready for another round of community cleanup events throughout New Brunswick as applications for Encorp’s Community Cleanup Grant are now available to schools and community groups across the province!
We all need Recycling Heroes – people with a zero-tolerance policy for littering and who speak up when they see others litter – and now is your time to shine. From now until March 31st, 2024, any interested school and community groups eager to clean up their favourite outdoor spaces will have the chance to apply for one of 30 available $500 Community Cleanup Grants.
Be a Recycling Hero and Apply for a Community Cleanup Grant
Applying for a cleanup grant is a quick and easy process! Simply fill in an application form (available on our website) by the end of March 31st, 2024. On April 1st, Encorp staff will go through the applications to pick out the 30 grant winners, and you’ll know by April 2nd if you’re a grant recipient!
Encorp’s Community Cleanup Grants are a perfect fit for:
- Teachers, student groups and school green/environmental committees that want to organize a cleanup event for their schoolyard or any other outdoor public space students frequent – as a way to enhance environmental education and promote anti-litter awareness.
- Not-for-profit organizations, community groups and municipal/town citizen-led committees that want to get their fellow citizens involved in a beach sweep, a park or playground cleanup, a trail cleanup, etc., all the while building community connections and fostering appreciation and respect for public outdoor spaces.
Grants are largely rewarded on a first-come-first-serve basis. However, our team strives to award grants to a variety of organizations and regions across the province. As there are a limited number of grants, priority will be given to applicants who have not received a grant in the last two years.
If you’re part of an organization that already received a grant in the past, but would still like to organize a community cleanup event, we would encourage you to partner with another organization that hasn’t already received a grant. Co-applying for a grant with this partner will let you receive and share the resources needed to organize a cleanup event, and would get even more people involved in keeping New Brunswick litter-free!
Make Your Cleanup Event Fun, Educational, and So Much More!
Cleanup events are a fantastic way to show appreciation for our environment and help make our province a better place. But – they can also be so much more! For school groups, cleanup events make for perfect learning opportunities. You can teach students about recycling and about the environment while they’re being active outdoors. You could even schedule a visit to your local redemption centre after the event so your students can learn about the beverage container recycling process.
Cleanup events are also a great way to have some fun while doing a good deed. Cleaning up litter and recyclables is hard work, so we always encourage rewarding the cleanup crew with some fun snacks or a tasty meal after the event.
We also encourage plenty of creativity when organizing your cleanup event to help get volunteers engaged! Plenty of our 2023 Recycling Heroes had interesting ideas. Saint Mary’s Academy gave out points to groups based on the amount of garbage and recyclables they collected, and awarded prizes based on points earned. Another school created a bingo card of eco-activities for their cleanup groups to complete. You can always check out what previous grant winners did to inspire your own community cleanup event!
Submit Your Application Today
Cleaning up our communities is so rewarding – we get to work with others to show how much we care about our public spaces while preserving the beauty of those spaces for other people to appreciate. Encorp wants to help the groups out there with the dedication to do community cleanup events. If you’re part of a group or organization that is interested in organizing a cleanup event, apply for one of our grants. We look forward to seeing who all is excited to be Recycling Heroes!
Applications and information about the grants can be found on our website. If you have any questions at all about the Community Cleanup Grants, you can send us an email at [email protected].
