Bowling Green is offering grants to eligible neighborhoods to help fund improvement projects, with applications due on August 1st.
The grant allocates $60,000 annually, split into Spring and Fall cycles, with $30,000 available for each. Applications for the Fall cycle are open and allow requests of up to $6,000 for each individual project.
Applications are open to individual residents applying for their respective neighborhood, formal or informal neighborhood associations, registered homeowners associations, and nonprofit organizations.
Neighborhood projects that include branding, visual improvements, safety enhancements, beneficial events, historical marking, and repairs are all eligible to receive funding.
All projects must be finished within a year of receiving funds; applicants awarded funds during the first grant cycle of the year will not be allowed to apply for the second cycle.
The funds will be managed by the Community Engagement Division for Neighbors and New Americans within the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.
Last year, the grant funded 11 projects for the Spring cycle and 10 for the Fall cycle, Jake Moore, grants coordinator for Bowling Green, said.
Nonprofits such as Re-Tree BG have utilized this grant in the past to further their efforts to educate and help the community on replanting trees.
Re-Tree BG gives out trees to be planted anywhere in Bowling Green. They also provide educational courses on proper tree care for any individual wanting to bring more nature back to their area.
“It was instrumental to getting us off the ground and running,” Clara Verst, president of Re-Tree BG, said. “I’m not sure we could have made it without the infusion of funds.”
Common projects addressed by the grants are sign repairs, landscaping, and community events such as a Back to School Bash that a grantee had funded for her neighborhood, according to Moore.
“It’s been a great way to get folks who might not have met each other as neighbors to then get to meet and build a relationship,” Moore said. “It creates a sense of place in their neighborhood that they might not have had previously.”
