New grants can be found for 15 groups from small and mid-sized cities throughout America working to restore the injury attributable to divisive transportation infrastructure. Good Progress America, in collaboration with Equitable Cities, the New City Mobility Alliance, and America Walks, has launched the Group Connectors Program, an initiative providing as much as $130,000 to construct native capability for co-designing initiatives with the communities most impacted by infrastructure boundaries like harmful arterials, lacking sidewalks, rail traces, and divisive highways.

Earlier this month, the Group Connectors crew hosted a webinar outlining this system’s pointers and necessities, and answering questions from potential candidates that may enable you and your companions put collectively a robust software earlier than the July fifteenth deadline.

Listed below are the highest 5 takeaways:

Who’s eligible to use?

Awards can be found to communities with a inhabitants roughly between 50,000 to 500,000, with restricted flexibility at both finish of the inhabitants vary. Communities are outlined as cities, cities, or counties.

Eligible lead candidates are authorities companies (together with US territories), tribes, community-based non-profit organizations with 501c3 standing, and educational establishments. Authorities companies embrace state companies and metropolitan planning organizations, if the neighborhood they’re working with suits throughout the inhabitants limits.

Group Connectors grants assist a variety of initiatives, within the context of eradicating or repairing the hurt of divisive infrastructure.

Creating plans for trails, multimodal streetscape enhancements, public transit, financial improvement, and inexpensive housing are eligible initiatives for Group Connectors grants (this checklist isn’t exhaustive). The important thing issue for eligibility is whether or not or not the challenge seeks to take away particular infrastructure that has broken and/or divided communities or restore the hurt it has precipitated. Divisive infrastructure contains harmful arterials and roadways, limited-access highways, rail or transit traces, and accessibility boundaries like an absence of sidewalks, crosswalks, curbs, and lighting (once more, this checklist isn’t exhaustive).

What are capacity-building actions? 

Capability-building grants are supposed to extend a neighborhood’s collective potential to advance regionally pushed initiatives that reconnect communities separated or harmed by transportation infrastructure. This contains the flexibility for neighborhood members and community-based organizations to take part within the work. 

The checklist under offers some examples of capacity-building actions, however isn’t supposed to be proscriptive:

Grant funds could also be used for workers salaries, guide charges, knowledge assortment and evaluation, conferences, provides, funding assist for community-based group participation, initiative-related journey, different direct bills, and different bills not named right here however authorized in the course of the scoping course of.

Partnerships are a precedence

The purpose is to assemble various and multi-entity challenge groups that carry public companies along with community-based organizations and advocates (and different stakeholders) to scope and advance these initiatives. Purposes which have each sturdy neighborhood and authorities management are most probably to advance, in addition to groups that concentrate on co-designing initiatives with probably the most impacted communities and advancing fairness.

For those who’re a person advocate or community-based group with out 501c3 standing, you may nonetheless be a part of a crew, simply not the lead applicant. Attain out to your native authorities workers and work with them to submit an software.

Your challenge doesn’t have to have all of the solutions

This program goals to help communities with initiatives and concepts that span a spectrum from nascent to extra concrete. That’s why once you apply, you’ll choose certainly one of three completely different challenge sorts, to signify the stage it’s at. Purposes are evaluated in opposition to different functions inside every kind—not in opposition to the total pool of candidates.

For much less developed initiatives (sorts 2 and three), groups could not have developed intensive partnerships but, however are anticipated to be creating connections with the organizations and stakeholders who needs to be concerned. Letters of assist from neighborhood members or leaders, native elected leaders, and stakeholder organizations are helpful to show this dedication. 

Nonetheless have questions? Submit them right here! The applying interval for the Group Connectors program closes July 15, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Go to the Group Connectors web page for extra data.