This past budget cycle (ending June 30, 2014), City Council approved a $50,000 budget amendment to re-establish the City of Houston Neighborhood Matching Grant Program. The Neighborhood Matching Grant Program helps neighborhoods fund various beautification and improvement projects by providing a dollar-for-dollar matching grant reimbursement ranging from $500 to $3,000. The program is designed to cultivate the spirit of volunteerism to help neighborhood-based organizations learn the art of planning and community building through neighborhood projects.
This Neighborhood Matching Grant Program will be administered by the Dept. of Neighborhoods; thus, they are scheduled to kick-off this program by hosting three (3) citywide informational community workshops. All three (3) informational workshops will consist of the same info; therefore, you are only required to attend one of the workshops. These informational workshops will fully explain the program’s grant application process, what type of beautification and improvement projects will be eligible under its program’s guidelines, and the further explain the dollar-for-dollar matching grant reimbursement process.
The informational community workshop for the 5 Corners area will occur on:
Saturday, September 27
Judson Robinson, Jr. Community Center
2020 Hermann Dr. (off Almeda Rd. – between North MacGregor Way and Binz St.)
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Relative to the previous program requirements, any civic association or non-profit community organization can apply for this Neighborhood Matching Grant Program. Your organization must be registered as a 501©3 or 501©4. As a rule of thumb, civic associations (i.e. civic clubs, HOAs, etc.) are considered as a 501©4 organization. The informational workshop will further explain this process.
To get an idea of what kind of community-based projects a civic organization can submit, attached are PDFs of the 2009 and the 2010 Neighborhood Matching Grant Program recipients, respectively. Note, the neighborhood associations identified in the FY2010 attachment were located within the former council districts before the City officially redistricted the council district lines in 2011.
CM Green strongly advocated for this budget amendment with the hope that many civic associations within District K will apply and take advantage of this reimbursement matching grant program. For more information, please contact Conya Barreras at conya.barreras@houstontx.gov or 832-394-0654.
Download 2009 Neighborhood Matching Grant Program Recipients
Download 2010 Neighborhood Matching Grant Program Recipients
