FutureHeights Neighborhood Mini-Grants Program awards five Cleveland Heights projects

FutureHeights launched the second round of its Neighborhood Mini-Grants Program this spring, approving approximately $4,700 in grants to support five projects in Cleveland Heights. Grants are intended to spur small, grassroots projects to improve quality of life and build community.  

The awarded grants are:

  • Forest Hills Homeowners Association and Boulevard Elementary School received $830 for the Boulevard Elementary Outdoor Classroom Enhancements project. This project will enhance the outdoor classroom by planting additional vegetation, constructing an outdoor percussion space/music wall, installing bird feeders and “grow box” Plexiglas containers to house ants, worms and plants, to educate students on the way nature modifies environments for survival.
  • Oxford Community Garden received $1,000 for its Garden Tasting and Pollinator Garden project, in which a 6,000-square-foot permaculture edible food forest will be built around the garden's perimeter.
  • Noble Neighbors received $910 for its Noble Community Home and Yard Sale Event - Signage and Solicitation project, in which the group will create and purchase election-sized yard signs to create buzz and communicate dates and information about the upcoming event, as well as future Noble Neighbors programs and events.
  • Montford Community Garden Association received $1,000 for its Garden Shed and Pocket Park Lawn project. Funds will be used to create a pocket park open to the community, and to install a shed to house garden tools, equipment and supplies to make garden visits easier, and encourage people to walk through the neighborhood to the garden. 
  • Coventry Village Special Improvement District received $1,000 for its Coventry Silly Walk project,which aims to utilize art to add vibrancy to the neighborhood and transform the main Coventry Road crosswalk.
     

Do you have a great idea to improve your neighborhood? FutureHeights invites you to apply for a grant. Attend a workshop to learn more about how to apply, and get tips about completing the application. The next application deadline is Sept. 15 at 5 p.m.

The Neighborhood Mini-Grants Program is a component of the FutureHeights Community Capacity-Building Program that awards small grants of up to $1,000 to fund citizen-led neighborhood projects, events and activities that benefit Cleveland Heights.

Through grants, FutureHeights seeks to build community with increased resilience through grassroots resident participation in civic life. In so doing, Cleveland Heights becomes better equipped to address challenges in the physical and social environment, drawing on and activating the assets of residents, nonprofit organizations and public resources and departments.

The FutureHeights Neighborhood Mini-Grants Program (www.futureheights.org) is guided by a grant-making committee comprising seven Cleveland Heights residents with a history of community involvement. The committee reviews and approves all grants. For more information e-mail sbasu@futureheights.org, or call 216-320-1423.

Sruti Basu

Sruti Basu is director of community-building programs at FutureHeights.

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Volume 9, Issue 4, Posted 9:48 AM, 03.22.2016