Deadline: 15-Jul-23
With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Smart Growth America in collaboration with Equitable Cities, the New Urban Mobility Alliance, and America Walks have created the Community Connectors program to help advance locally driven projects that will reconnect communities separated or harmed by transportation infrastructure and tap available federal and state funds to support them.
Objectives
- The Community Connectors program aims to change that by providing financial resources to help build local capacity and advance these projects, but also by connecting local leaders to experts and other cities attempting to accomplish similar things. These capacity building grants (and the companion technical assistance and learning exchanges) are oriented toward supporting small and mid-sized communities to ensure they can compete for federal and state funds to support Reconnecting Communities efforts. The overall objectives of this program are to:
- Support community and government project teams to build partnerships and co-create plans and projects with the greatest ability to affect those most impacted;
- Expand the capacity of applicants to co-design projects with the most impacted communities while centering equity and climate;
- Create new and diverse partnerships among the applicants & community-based organizations, local governments, transit agencies, health advocates, housing non-profits, land trusts, major employers, lenders & others;
- Demonstrate how to leverage and align funds from various sources for greater social impact; and
- Identify and assess the needs of applicant teams for longer-term TA and capacity-building support.
- Support communities through the process of applying for Reconnecting Communities or Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant program funding, other federal grant programs, or gaining access to funding from flexible state/federal sources.
Funding Information
- Public entities and nonprofit organizations may apply together as small teams to receive grants of up to $130,000 each for capacity building to advance these projects.
- In addition to the grant, the selected teams will also receive customized technical assistance and participate in a learning exchange program over the subsequent 18-24 months, which includes a required convening in Atlanta, GA in November 2023.
Activities
Eligible activities for these grants include but are not limited to:
- External or additional assistance to prepare an application for state and federal programs, including Reconnecting Communities or Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant program funding;
- Study to understand how land use and transportation interact;
- Assessing and updating land-use codes;
- Analyzing market needs in terms of residential, affordable housing, retail, office along a corridor;
- Conducting traffic analysis, setting design standards, determining objectives for state-managed roads;
- Research and analysis, including intercept surveys, focus groups and other methods for understanding community needs and concerns;
- Funding the planning or design of a roadway project or redesign;
- Contracting proposal writers to support applying for state or federal funds;
- Conducting meaningful public engagement and supporting the participation of community based organizations and residents;
- Mobilizing sustained public support for transformative reconnecting communities projects;
- Developing strategies for identifying, mitigating or preventing displacement;
- Others not named here
Eligibility Criteria
- Community size: Teams representing cities between ~50,000 and ~500,000 in population.
- Eligible entities: Government agencies (including US territories), tribes, non-profit community-based nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions. Each team will identify a lead organization for the application.
- Note: For-profit entities are permitted to be part of a wider project team but are not eligible to receive any of the funds directly or indirectly disbursed through the grant.
- Convening: Teams are required to be able to participate in a convening and learning exchange in Atlanta sometime during the week of November 13, 2023 where projects and technical assistance will be co-designed and scoped. Travel and hotel costs will be covered for six members from each team.
- Eligible funding uses: The capacity building grants are intended to build a community’s capacity—including the capacity for community members and community based organizations to participate in this work—to advance these kinds of projects. Grant funds may be used for staff salaries, consultant fees, data collection and analysis, meetings, supplies, funding support for community based organization participation, initiative-related travel, other direct expenses, and other expenses not named here but approved during the scoping process.
For more information, visit Smart Growth America.
