Resources

Financial Resources

Circus can be expensive! Here are some resources I’ve collected/created over the years to help make it a little more financially accessible.

Jumpstart Funding:

To be eligible for funding for one or more children, families must first meet specific financial criteria as per Revenue Canada’s Low-Income Cut-Offs (LICO) chart. Jumpstart uses the furthest column to the right of the chart for eligibility. View LICO Chart

Other Funding Requirements

  • Children must fall between the ages of 4 – 18 years old.
  • Funding is allocated to sustained programs that involve a sport or physical activity.
  • Programs should be a minimum of five weeks in duration and include at least one session per week. In the case of sports camps, the program must last at least five consecutive days for consideration.

KidSport Grants

KidSport provides grants to kids from families facing financial barriers so they can participate in registered sport programs and experience the lifelong benefits of a season of sport. KidSport Toronto provides grants of up to $250 per eligible child, per year (January 1st – December 31st) towards sport registration fees.

The KidSport grant covers organized sports that
meet the following criteria:

  • Program runs for a minimum of 8 weeks
  • Program is not camp or academy
  • Program/club is a member of its provincial sport organization

Applications should be submitted 60 days prior to sport start date. Once an application has been received, it will take a minimum of 5 weeks to be processed.

Hercinia Arts BIPOC Training Bursary

Hercinia Arts is offering training bursaries to Ontario-based Black, Indigenous, and persons of colour who wish to pursue circus, in any discipline, at any stage of their career.

Funds may be used for any circus training related expenses including, but not limited to: classes/workshops, studio time, equipment rental, or to help you purchase new equipment. We are limiting bursaries to $100 each in order to reach as many people as possible. However, we understand that circus training is ongoing and applicants are welcome to apply multiple times.

Please fill out the brief form below to apply. All information provided will be kept confidential and used only in our ongoing desire to help improve access to circus activities, training, and performing. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis and will continue to be awarded as long as we have funds available, on a first come first served basis. If funds are exhausted we will temporarily close applications and reopen again once we are able.

We are a small organization without any ongoing operating funding and are committing to contributing a portion of funds from all of our project budgets to this fund for at least the remainder of our 2020/2021 season. If you would like to support this initiative, you can do so by donating at www.herciniarts.com or sending an e-transfer to hello@herciniarts.com.

Rainbow Circus Scholarships

These scholarships are specifically for LGBTQ2S+ children and youth in financial need. BIPOC, disabled, neurotypical, those living with mental illness, working-class, and immigrant folks to the front!

Inclusive design necessitates that we create spaces with the needs of all people in mind, and with easy, sustainable access as a central priority. These scholarships are designed to address some of the financial barriers to participating in circus classes by providing students with a percentage of funds off of their circus classes. At this time, scholarships will only be available for classes taught by Jayeden or run through Rainbow Circus programming. 

Please fill out the brief form below to apply.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdb4ZaFQhlk-e9OSeA2eBfK4AJUeSdEPD1MvFO6SGYMfNkQJw/viewform

Applications will be accepted until funds have been exhausted. You can expect to hear back within a week of submitting your application.

To make the best use of our available funds and to tap into the variety of community resources available, we ask that all folks applying to this scholarship also apply for other sport funding sources. We have structured the amounts of the circus scholarship available with the assumption that applicants will also be receiving funding from other sources.