Neighborhood improvement grants available

Do you have a good idea about how to make your neighborhood better? Then you may be able to get money to realize this idea.
Citizens Committee of New York City, an organization stimulating civic action in struggling communities, gives neighborhood grants in the fall and spring ranging from $500 to $3,000. Applications are accepted twice a year and the next deadline is September 30.
“The people who know best what a community needs are the people who live there,” said Peter Kostmayer, president of Citizens Committee.
Local volunteer organizations in under-resourced neighborhoods can apply for the New Yorker for Better Neighborhood Awards to finance community improvement projects such as enhancing housing conditions and creating green markets to provide healthy food to low-income people, said Arif Ullah, director of neighborhood resources at Citizens Committee.
Student groups from schools in struggling communities can apply for the Mollie Parnis Dress up Your School Awards for endeavors that beautify their schools, such as recycling programs, or their schools’ surroundings, Ullah said.
This June, the Jackson Heights Beautification Group (JHBG), which does things like cleaning the streets, received $1,200 from Citizens Committee to improve the community garden of St. Mark’s Church, on 34th Avenue and 82nd Street, said Edwin Westley, JHBG secretary.
“It really needs a complete refurbishment of the lawn,” Westley explained. “We were happy to get the grant.”
Interested groups can download applications from Citizens Committee’s internet website, https://www.citizensnyc.org/grants.html. The applications can be mailed, faxed or emailed.
The Committee will soon hold grant application workshops throughout the city and two of them will be in Queens. One is on Wednesday, September 10, at 6 p.m. in the Flushing Library, on 41-17 Main Street.
The other one is on Thursday, September 11, at 6 p.m. in the meditation room of Peninsula Hospital Center, on 51-15 Beach Channel Drive, in Far Rockaway.
To sign up, call 212-989-0909.