Dec 13, 2016 2 min read Announcements

Win $3,000 For Your Dream Project In The Neighborhood

Grant project at a school in Washing Heights. (Photo via Citizens Committee for NYC)

Do you dream of making your neighborhood a more colorful, healthy, or creative place? Perhaps you have a stellar idea for starting a greenhouse or a soccer league, building a rain catchment system, painting a mural, or starting a community garden (say, in the East 16th Street zombie lot)?

Now is a perfect time to channel any post-election anxieties into local activism that strengthens communities against any challenge.

This January, the Citizens Committee for NYC is accepting applications for their Neighborhood Grants program, which awards up to $3,000 to grassroots, volunteer-led projects to improve life in your neighborhood — whether that’s an art class for low-income families, a tenant organization, or a school recycling program. Grants are awarded to any non-staffed group, like block and tenant associations, students, PTAs, or a group that’s still forming — not just registered non-profits.

Citizens Committee for NYC is one of the nation’s oldest micro-funding organizations, fundraising from foundations, corporations, and individual donors to support local, resident-led projects. They’re the same group that funds the “Love Your Block” — New York’s only public-private “adopt-a-block” grant program.

In Ditmas Park, 2016 grant winners from Citizens Committee for NYC have used grant money to start a monthly South Asian music and poetry gathering, skills-based workshops hosted by the American Council of Minority Women, compost bins for the Flatbush Community Garden, and more. Check out the map of neighborhood projects here.

Grant project at Harlem school (Photo via Citizens Committee for NYC)

The Neighborhood Grant application submission deadline is Monday, January 23, 2017. Grant recipients will be notified on April 17, and winning groups will be invited to project planning meetings and may be eligible for skills-building workshops. Read more application guidelines here.

To apply and for more details on what applications should include, check out the complete information from the Citizen Committee’s website.

There will be two optional Neighborhood Grant application info sessions online in a webinar format, on Wednesday, January 4, and Wednesday, January 14 from 6pm to 8pm. To RSVP, email Sabine at sbernards@citizensnyc.org or call at 212-822-9578.

Need some help from the experts? Submit your application final draft by January 6 and get feedback from the grant team, email drafts to Shawn Whitehorn at grants@citizensnyc.org.