Yes, we were really excited with that call, as the minister said. We weren't sure what kind of response rate we would get, because often in small communities there isn't a lot of NGO capacity to be able to develop proposals and access government funding. So that's why we used the simplified approach of the call where we're telling groups to create partnerships in the communities and come and see us with commitments from all those partners, tell us what the issues are in your communities with some valid rationale around those issues. And we are providing funding, including that initial planning phase that groups require to work with partners to determine how they're going to tackle the issues.
So it's allowing some of these small organizations in small communities to work with us for the first time and probably for the first time in any government program.
We had two streams in the rural and remote call for proposals. One was economic security and one was violence. I have to say that we rarely have a project that clearly is only one of our priorities. To achieve economic security, you have to live in a safe environment, so there's always an interrelation with the themes, but we look at what the predominant activity is in the projects. We received close to 250 applications. We went through the review process, an initial review process. The minister was able to announce 48 projects, I believe, last week, and there will be more to come, hopefully. We will continue to work with some of the organizations where more information was required to do the analysis. So we will be providing close to $12 million over three years to the recipients of those projects.
To give you specific examples of what they're going to do is not really possible at this point. Because we are funding that first phase, the planning phase, we're allowing them to determine how best to approach. What I could give you is examples, such as CALACS-Abitibi, in Quebec, which received funding to work with girls between the ages of 12 and 17 who were at risk of becoming victims of sexual exploitation. So they're bringing together numbers of community groups in the Abitibi region and particularly bringing in as well leaders and representatives of the aboriginal communities around there, to talk about the issue and what the best approach would be to help these girls and prevent their becoming at risk of sexual exploitation.
In New Brunswick we're working with an organization that is going to work with the schools in their communities and service providers and community partners to look at gender-based violence, and in particular to the more vulnerable girls. Aboriginal girls are identified as the most vulnerable population in those communities. We have quite a series--