A.P.E. Fund
Making a difference for Animals, People and the Environment. Submit an application and take action with your community project.
Check out this year’s funded Roots & Shoots projects!
Projects
Check out our funded projects for 2021!

Connecting with the land
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Our school population is 98% Indigenous and we use traditional teachings along side our actions. An important part of Indigenous learning is that our efforts benefit our community, which has high levels of poverty and food insecurity.

BMHS Garden Project
Moncton, New Brunswick
Our goals are to develop the greenhouse into an outdoor learning space to help reconnect students with their food and to cultivate a community of learning and food security. We will expand production from 550lbs to over 1000lbs to serve our lunch program and students experiencing food insecurities.

Greener Community Bags
Langley, British Columbia
I am hoping to create Langley Tote bags that are designed by Langley Students with a Langley logo. Each bag will contain infographics about climate change and ways to live sustainably. With the profit raised, I will implement a school environmental initiative, such as installing solar panels.

Edmonton Forest Site School Pilot Project
Edmonton, Alberta
The Edmonton Forest Site School Pilot Project will bring classes outdoors for 2 days of in-person forest and nature learning. Following these outdoor inquiry experiences, classes will work with forest learning practitioners to design and implement a stewardship project.

The Students for the Salish Sea Summit
Pender Island, British Columbia
Our vision is to gather students from around the Salish Sea to learn, work together to innovate new ideas, be inspired by others, and spread awareness about ocean pollution and youth activism. We want youth to feel equipped with the skills they need to bring climate action back to their communities.

ReCYCLE: A Classroom Aquaponic System
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Students will build, monitor, and maintain a classroom aquaponic system to gain a fundamental understanding of topics and issues such as nutrient cycling, symbiotic relationships, food security/ sovereignty, and food waste mitigation.

Solving the food crisis sustainably
Toronto, Ontario
One in 5 people in the world go to bed hungry, while millions of tonnes of food products are wasted at the same time. This project will educate children how we can solve food shortages by consuming with care, reducing wastage and producing sustainably.

MDJ Coopérative Jeunesse de Pontiac community gardens project
Mansfield, Quebec
The Coopérative Jeunesse de Pontiac program would like to start four small community gardens with vegetables and flowers at four community centre in raised flower beds. To teach youth responsibility, cooperation and ecological awareness. Spring 2021 MDJ Pontiac bring together 12 secondary age yout.

Traditional Drum Making
Colwood, British Columbia
Students will work with Elders, community members, teachers and support staff to make traditional buffalo hide drums. Elders will engage the students in drum teachings and connecting with the buffalo. Students will be invited to paint their drum when finished.

The relationship of insects and ecosystems
Lacombe, Alberta
Log benches (outdoor classroom) are being purchased for the students to sit on in the forest beside our school. Within this area, we’d like to plant insect-friendly flowers that are native to this region to support the insects and create an awareness of how insects are required for propagation.

Indigenous Outdoor Learning Courtyard
Delta, British Columbia
We aim to renovate an outdoor learning courtyard to provide a space for reflective learning and wellness, while increasing engagement with Indigenous Ways of Knowing and understandings.

“If you teach someone how to fish…”
Sik-E-Dakh, British Columbia
My idea for the project would be to teach our children how to fish in the winter and how to prepare for a meal.

PEYA School Champions
Mississauga, Ontario
The PEYA Champions are a group of grade 7-12 students who want to promote environmental change. They collaborate with the PEYA Executive team and Ecosource to raise awareness about their community’s environmental issues.

Native Plants Garden Enhancement
Vancouver, British Columbia
The grant funds will be used to enhance the Native Plants Garden by adding more native plants for greater biodiversity and to attract more beneficial pollinators to the garden area.

Upstairs Indigenous Garden
Sooke, British Columbia
The proposed action is to continue the project from last year here at EMCS. We have a beautiful dream to make more outdoor space in the EMCS Learning Commons area. Most importantly, include Elders to teach us about the medicine that will be planted. In addition, make SENCOTEN medicine signs.

Outdoor Forest Seating
Lacombe, Alberta
We want to add wooden benches to our forested area. We currently have an outdoor classroom closer to the school and benches in our medicine wheel garden. Wooden benches in our forest would provide us with one more area for students to observe nature and engage in their learning.

Community Climate Council: Camp Climate
Brampton, Ontario
Camp climate is a youth-based camp that emphasizes the importance of taking climate action. This is a March Break camp that consists of activities, webinars, & seminars that allow a creative and innovative environment for youths to participate in projects that help tackle climate change.

First Nations Plant Garden
Duncan, British Columbia
A plant garden that educates students around traditional Cowichan First Nations plants for dyeing, eating and medicine. Plants will be chosen that also attract pollinators in order to explore the interdependency of plants, animals and humans.

Save the Local British Columbia Potatoes
Burnaby, British Columbia
We would like to expand our Save the Root Vegetable projects we did for Roots n Shoots Oct/Nov 2020 and extend it to more elementary schools. This project had us visit a local washing and sorting plant for local potatoes and we realized a 15 to 20 pallets of “unwanted” potatoes that would be compos

Plastic Shredder Project
Langley, British Columbia
The plastic shredder project has the purpose of redirecting single-use plastic waste to produce a reusable plastic product.

The Climate Action Series
Hamilton, Ontario
SUTE will produce an audio series to interview climate experts, organizers, and Traditional Knowledge keepers. By sharing information in an accessible manner, this series will communicate climate-associated risks & potential solutions to improve youth climate literacy and encourage informed action.

Bottle Bricking
kelowna, British Columbia
Our idea is to turn plastic bottles (empty, cleaned, and dried) into a recyclable material called a bottle brick. They are very durable, easy to make, and will never break down making them the perfect building material. Taking discarded plastic and turining it into something useful.

Climate Change Virtual Escape Room
Sherbrooke, Quebec
We want to design a virtual escape room for kids (ages 8-13) that will teach about global warming. They will explore the carbon cycle through hands-on activities, such as a puzzle where they drag and drop recyclable items and maze to unplug electronics. We will deliver Zoom workshops in 15+ schools.

Local Lore – Stories from our history
Revelstoke, British Columbia
A collection of webinar based story tellings that engage local elders/authors/historians to share indigenous stories of our region. For the dark winter months, a weekly gathering of people to listen, connect and learn about the true heritage of their area.

Heart Garden
Edmonton, Alberta
Currently we have a Heart Garden at the front of our school. It is in a space that is overgrown with bushes and the treated wood that is over 25 years old is looking aged and worn. We would like to revitalize this space.

Le Jardin des Gens
Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick
We come from a small fishing community located in the Bay of Fundy. Most of our food comes from the mainland. It travels many kms before it reaches our grocery store. It has been noted how important food security is at this time especially. I hope to inspire & teach the value in sustainability.

Our Climate, Our Stories
Mississauga, Ontario
This project will organize workshops to connect young, Canadian BIPOC writers and encourage them to share their stories related to the impacts of climate change. The sessions will encourage discussions on environmental and social sustainability, providing tips to live sustainable lifestyles.

Phase Two: Planting a Permaculture Food Forest in the Orchard Garden
Vancouver, British Columbia
University undergrad and graduate students will lead learning activities in permaculture with their peers by planting a food forest as part of our organic campus teaching and learning garden. We will explore these two approaches to sustainable food for school gardens and urban farms.

Organic Gardening and Food Security in Rurual Northern Ontario
Terrace Bay, Yukon
COVID-19 has exposed our reliance on the transportation network and the global food network in our rural community in Northern Ontario. Our high school will design, build, and maintain a community garden while learning about gardening, composting, and food preservation.

E.F.P.R. (Eco-Friendly Plastic Renewer)
Thornhill, Ontario
After completing the Ecosystems in the Environment unit this year, our Grade 7 students researched, developed, and designed a project of a DIY machine, which would recycle plastic objects printed out on our 3-D printer back into a filament for the 3-D printer.

The Healthy Living Land Based Learning Community Garden Project
North Battleford, Saskatchewan
. The Healthy Living Land Based Learning Community Garden Project is designed to increase the amount of nutritious food available to all people.

Chickens and Trees
Edmonton, Alberta
To build a chicken coop, raise chickens from eggs, purchase feed and supplies to promote sustainable living through practice and improved accessibility. We are a special needs school with an employability/vocational focus. We would like to sell coops we construct while practicing and promoting.

Harvest and produce
Scuanew First Nation, British Columbia
I would like to show our youth how to grow and use gufhmeen (wild fennel) devils club, plantain, by uses of rubs and salves, how to look for foods in the forest in case of emergency.

Food for Food Banks
Mississauga, Ontario
This project will allow students to plant and grow vegetables on our school site and then harvest them and then take them directly to the Mississauga Food Bank where the school has a long relationship with the oporganization.

Grassroots
Richmond Hill, Ontario
We’ll set up workshops on creating backyard gardens, composting, and building rainwater collection systems. We’ll teach using our school/community garden (not set up yet) and set up community fridges that will be stocked with locally-sourced produce (from our shared and personal gardens).

The Carbon Garden Project
Dundas, Ontario
Working with scientists and ecologists at McMaster’s Children & Youth University (MCYU) and the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HAC), students will use their learning about soil biodiversity and its role in addressing climate change to design and plant ‘carbon gardens’ throughout their schoolyard.

Indigenous Learning Garden
Vancouver, British Columbia
Our Indigenous Learning Garden is a space that promotes community, leadership, sustainability and connection to land. It provides an opportunity for our students at Tillicum to experience Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and the interconnectivity of our ecosystems.

Vermicomposting & Growing a Better Tomorrow, Today
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Our students are creating a vermicompost bin that our class will use to reduce landfill waste. We noticed much of our school lunch waste which ended up in the garbage could be composted. Then harvest the worm castings to grow plants to beautify our community, adding habitat, and creating food.

Maskwa Square (means Bear in Cree)
Regina (Treaty 4 Territory), Saskatchewan
We have 2 unused courtyards at our high school that no one has looked after for many years. We propose transforming them into spaces of healing through an ongoing collaboration between students in Environmental Science, Indigenous Studies, Welding and Wood Shop.

Nipaturuq: the food security issue
Ottawa, Ontario
Our project is to make a magazine issue and write a research paper about food security and the impact of climate change on country foods (hunted and gathered on the land) and market foods. The student is a young Inuit leader from Inuvik, NWT, and is driven to address the food security crisis.
Garden of Giving
White rock, British Columbia
To encourage others to plant a garden of giving by planting an extra row for the food bank while experiencing the benefits of gardening. Provide people with the opportunity to try Growing their own sustainable food.

Food Learning Lab
Dorchester, New Brunswick
Dorchester Consolidated School’s Food Learning Lab is an innovative approach to engaging K-8 children, youth and the community in increasing food security and food sovereignty.

Sustainable Quail Eggs
Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation Reserve, Alberta
We are learning about animal life cycles in grade 3, and we have been discussing where our food comes from. We are planning to raise classroom quail in order to provide food for students to eat, as well as reduce the number of battery cage chicken eggs that are produced and consumed locally.

Oboot Climate Talks
Montreal, Quebec
As part of Oboot, we will offer 20 kids who are interested in climate change the opportunity to interview 10 changemakers who are tackling climate change in an innovative way. We will use Zoom, record every interview, and share them on oboot.co. We will also offset 1 ton of CO2 per interview.

Peace Garden
North York, Ontario
Plant a mixture of biodiverse native wildflowers, plants & vegetables to attract birds, butterflies to create a drought resistance, low maintenance, perennial garden. The garden will be used to teach generations of inner city students & their families to connect with the earth .

Home Retrofit Initiative
Kingston, Ontario
The program aims to enhance home energy efficiency for students in the Queen’s University District. Retrofits are offered at low or zero cost to make conservation and stewardship more financially accessible. We are implementing water conservation retrofits to our existing energy efficiency retrofit.
SEED Club Sustainable Entrepreneurship Webinar Series
Vancouver, British Columbia
We plan to host two webinars about sustainable entrepreneurship mainly for high school students. We will invite at least one keynote speaker for each webinar to educate students and cultivate their passions for sustainability.

Amoo (Ojibway word for Bee)
Neyaashiinigmiing, Ontario
I want to bring awareness about bees, their important role in the environment and provide an opportunity to create pollination stations in our community to benefit the species.

Habitat for Aves
Irishtown, New Brunswick
I will make bird houses with my Girl Guides Unit. I want to make bird houses because a lot of birds are losing their homes because trees are being cut down and big winds are occurring due to climate change. Bird numbers are declining.

Singing with the Seeds
Vancouver, British Columbia
8 youth of African descent in a k-3 outdoor homeschool classroom will be learning about African & diaspora vegetables and medicinal plants by growing and planting them in the local community garden, The Legacy Garden

Composting Waste to Grow Good Soil
Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
As part “garden school” at Salt Spring Elementary, all eight K-5 classes will help fix up the three-bin compost system in their school garden, layer a hot compost cake with paper towels, food waste and more, monitor, water and mix it, and then sieve and apply good growing soil to their veggie beds.

Planting for biodiversity and the planet
Montreal, Quebec
The project aims to expand the schools current pollinator garden to include greater native plant diversity and implement natural features to attract biodiversity. These garden envisions to establish and restore habitat so that it can sustain the creation of a thriving ecosystem.

Helping the little brown myotis bats
Elliot Lake, Ontario
The project plan is to build and situate 5 bat roosting houses in our community, provide education to the community on native bats and provide information to scientists about our bats.

Re-Connecting With The Land
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Using elements form Mother Earth, the Argyle Community (Parents/students/staff) will create natural seating and movement spaces in our outdoor classroom. Boulders and logs will be used to create workout stations and seating areas.

Indigenous Gardening and Holistic Perspectives
Victoria, British Columbia
Our goal at Craigflower Elementary is to use these funds to create a gardening program with our youth where we plant and maintain Indigenous plants to connect our students to their culture and introduce those who are not Indigenous to a more holistic perspective.

Restoring Yennadon’s Research Forest
Maple Ridge, British Columbia
We plan on planting and maintaining indigenous plants and trees to our school yard. We have been slowly replanting our surrounding forest. It allows all students and staff to learn and observe nature and it’s eco-systems. We have special students this outside time allows them to calm themselves.

Sustainability Program
Black Diamond, Alberta
The sustainable students are looking to build a compost receptacle and garden located at the school. For now we have been building recycling stations which include (mixed recyclables, garbage, compost & bottles) This has been our first step in becoming more sustainable.

QuamPost
Duncan, British Columbia
We are looking to build a three-bin compost system at the neighbouring Garden Education Centre, where they will accept fruit and veggie scraps from a number of classrooms at our school as a compost pilot project. This compost would be given back to our school to put towards our own gardens!

Outdoor Gardens
Parry Sound, Ontario
We would like to buy/build an outdoor vegetable garden, with 9 centres (one for each class to plan/plant/maintain).

Microgreens for Humanity
Ajax, Ontario
Our project involves growing sustainable microgreens using indoor vertical farming techniques for distribution within our local community. This includes a social media component that educates the community about sustainable growing and boosting health!

Sooke Heartwood Bee Hive Program – Pollinator Garden
Courtenay, British Columbia
Sooke Heartwood Learning Community has an existing Bee Hive Program, established in January 2020 with the support of the Whole Kids Foundation and the Bee Cause Project. Our proposal is to expand the educational aspect of the program, establish a pollinator garden, and install Mason bee boxes.

Beaded timeline
Metchosin, British Columbia
We would like to create a beaded timeline to put on display at our school to show the history of Metchosin and Scia’new First Nations. It would be created in class, and we would collaborate with local elders to hear their stories and find out what we should include in our timeline.

Indigenous Food Sovereignty Garden
Vancouver, British Columbia
Increasing Indigenous access to land and cultural foodways is paramount to building responsive and resillient food systems as the Climate Crisis becomes more intense. This project aims to begin that work by engaging youth in an intergenerational Indigenous food sovereignty garden.

Morning Star Community Garden
Mississauga, Ontario
Engage community and learners in the creation of a garden that provides fresh fruits, vegetables and a sense of well-being for all involved. Food insecurity is a big issue in our community, and the harvest will support school nutrition initiatives and be shared with community members/those in need.

Bancroft School Garden Boxes
Montreal, Quebec
The project will involved the creation and implementation of 4 mixed-use planter boxes at Bancroft Elementary School, providing some greenspace in this urban setting. Boxes will be designated with themes such as Pollinator Box (2), Herb Box (1) and Vegetable Box (1).

Nightingale Elementary Outdoor Classroom
vancouver, British Columbia
Our relationships to land and community is disconnected. Our students are learning about climate change, about ecology, about biodiversity, about indigenous frameworks and plants. They are creating a climate club, presenting to others. they are getting into nature to help relieve anxieties & stress.
Apply
Applications are now closed, and will reopen in Fall 2021.
Want to grow your Roots & Shoots project or expand its impact? Apply for up to $1,000 of project funding from Roots & Shoots Canada.
Given the major shift to online learning and possible barriers to in-person group projects, we will be encouraging classes to look at how they can use digital tools to create online campaigns, along side the typical in-person action projects done by Roots & Shoots groups.
You are eligible to apply if:
- You’re a member of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Canada. Join here!
- Your project must take place in Canada. If you are from a different country please contact your local Roots & Shoots group.
- Your project and final report will be completed by June 15th 2021.
- Your project fits into one of our project streams: Sustainable Food, Indigenous Perspectives or Climate Change.
All Roots & Shoots Projects:
- Are youth-led (can be guided by an adult champion).
- Address sustainability issues and make a difference for animals, people, and our environment.
- Encourage knowledge, compassion & action through our 4 Roots & Shoots steps: 1.Engage & Inspire 2. Observe & Map 3.Take Action 4. Celebrate Impact.
- Align with one or more of the 4 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals we are focusing on: Clean and Sustainable Water, Responsible Consumption, Climate Action and Life on Land.
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots
Do great things in your community.
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots began in 1991 when Dr. Jane met with 12 Tanzanian high school students who wanted to tackle urgent problems in their community. Since that meeting, Roots & Shoots groups have multiplied many times over and can now be found in more than 50 countries around the world. Wherever there’s a group, young people are making change that benefits animals, people and the environment.