A NEW SEASON OF NEIGHBORHOOD GRANTS
What would you and your neighbors do if you had $500 to work on a project together? What about $1,200? When you look around your neighborhood, what ideas do you have? Landscaping? Matching decorations? A resource fair? Maybe you would do something entirely different, something that could only be thought of with the help of your neighbors and the combination of everyone’s interests, passions, and connections.
Habitat Chicago’s Neighborhood Grants Initiative awards small grants (averaging between $500 and $1,200) to resident-led projects in West Pullman and Greater Grand Crossing. These projects can be physical, like murals and block club signs, or social, like health fairs and block parties. Groups of residents unite, dream up their ideas, and we provide funding. With the program currently in its third cycle of grants, we’ve been blown away by the creativity, attentiveness, and care that is put into the project ideas time and time again.
The round of projects currently underway is no exception, and it is with great enthusiasm that we commend the many ways that neighbors are investing their thought, time, and energy in their communities. Check out the projects receiving funding through the Neighborhood Grants Initiative this winter:
Winter 2019-20 Projects
>> An intergenerational grand-friend program – Neighbors are working together to implement a grand-friend program that will engage seniors and youth around the topic of technology.
>> A neighborhood beautification and school grounds clean-up project – Neighbors are engaging students, parents, school staff, and community stakeholders around a collaborative school clean-up project.
>> Community streetlight banners – Neighbors are installing 14 community-themed banners on light poles throughout their neighborhood.
>> Monthly meet up series – Neighbors will come together to spark and expand community relationships through dialogue and activities in this series of monthly meetups.
>> Neighborhood holiday decorations – Neighbors installed red and green Christmas lights in their yard lamps and gifted each home on the block a matching holiday wreath.
>> Solar light posts – Neighbors are installing solar light posts in the front yards of 36 homes on their block.
>> Solar powered address numbers – Neighbors will install matching solar-powered lighted address plates in their front yards.
Are you or someone you know interested in applying for a Neighborhood Grant in Greater Grand Crossing or West Pullman? Register for one of our upcoming workshops or contact us at neighborhoods@habitatchicago.org.
Want to see this initiative grow? Learn more about how you can fund a neighborhood grant by emailing gifts@habitatchicago.org.
