Downtown Neighborhood Association Awards $40,000 in Grants to Community Groups
Staff Report From Savannah CEO
Thursday, May 10th, 2018
The following entries are excerpts from the grant applications provided to the DNA for the 2018 Award process and illustrate the wide ranging services that the DNA grantees provide to the Savannah community. Contact the DNA at [email protected] or 912.236.8362 for additional information about the grant program and this year’s grantees.
Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homes, $5,000
Cindy Kelley
The Tiny House Project (legal name: The Cove at Dundee) will house 72 homeless veterans over the next three to four years. This year (2018) we begin work with site preparation of the entire 3.25 acres and the complete build of at least one village of twelve. Tiny homes are permanent housing intended for single occupancy, are 128 square feet in size and come fully furnished (bedding, appliances, built in storage, kitchen items). Residents for the first village will be selected by lottery in early summer.
The (DNA grant funds) funds will be used to purchase materials for one house. Note that DNA also contributed $5,000 in 2015 to support the building of one home.
The Creative Coast, $2,000
Courtnay Coco Papy, Community Director
The Creative Coast is excited to announce that we will be the sponsoring organization for the first ever Savannah chapter of Girls Who Code. Girls Who Code is a national organization devoted entirely to closing the gender gap in technology, with the ultimate goal of building the largest pipeline of female engineers in the United States. The program, which is developed in chapter sites across the nation, is an after-school program with a structured and supported curriculum dedicated to students in the 6th through 12th grades.
While there are coding clubs for students across Savannah, these tend to be school affiliated clubs only, and only available during the school year. However, The Creative Coast is going one step further to support a year-round Girls Who Code chapter at our Bull Street Labs location in the Starland District, a perfect place for young students to not only gain the much needed skills offered by the proven curriculum and qualified instructors, but to be side by side with entrepreneurs, coders and innovators from all across Savannah to see what it is that they can be. With your support, we will continue to build a future where Savannah is the Southeast home for innovation, as well as foster the next generation of girls to prosper through creativity, through bravery, and through teamwork.
Deep Center, $1,000
Dare Dukes
Deep Center provides free, fun, and rigorous writing workshops for public school youth in Savannah. We connect kids with a thriving community of writing mentor—local authors, poets, and journalists—to help them share their stories. In 2015 First Lady Michelle Obama honored Deep Center at the White House with the national highest award for creative youth programs, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Programs Award.
A DNA grant will partially cover the costs of two Deep Speaks events. Deep Speaks is Deep Center's much beloved live reading and book launch for the Young Author Project, which serves Chatham County public middle school students. At the event all Young Author Project participants and their families receive free copies of the anthologies that includes their writing. The event is attended by standing-room-only audiences of 550, and our Deep Laureate (the young writer voted best or by their peers every semester) is announced at the event.
Emergent Savannah, $1,000
Betsy Bull
Monday Means Community is a collaborative event series that promotes discussion and access to civic and cultural life. The series highlights both local and non-local figures speaking on current events and ultimately aims to give people the means to take action and become more connected to those working on any given cause meant to better Savannah.
Monday Means Community is Emergent Savannah's longest running event series and one of our more successful programs. Held at The Sentient Bean once a month, the evening draws primarily Landmark, Victorian and West Savannah corridor audience members, yet features guests from all walks of Savannah. The event normally averages around 75 -150 people, creating a convivial and cozy environment, where audience members have cast aside differences to rub elbows with one another in listening and in conversation on topics that affect them both. Our Monday Means Community events are always free and open to the public, providing consistent opportunities for civic engagement to grow year-round. This funding helps to support our fourth year of programming hosted in the Landmark District.
Forsyth Farmers' Market, $1,200
Jeb Bush
The Healthy Kids at the Farmers Market program will consist of an eight-week program designed to engage youth in a range of activities includes cooking, nutrition education, agriculture education, and exercise. The programming will be provided free of charge to Savannah's youth. These activities will include farm demonstrations brought to us by the local farm vendors, interactive cooking demonstrations, arts and crafts promoting nutrition and healthy eating habits, and exercise classes.
The Forsyth Farmers' Market provides a venue for community residents to gather every Saturday around local healthy food, farmers and food preparers. The market attracts on average 2,000 people every week to Forsyth Park. Through the Healthy Kids at the Farmers' Market, we seek to provide supplemental educational opportunities for the youth at the farmers market in order to increase awareness and knowledge of nutrition, agriculture, and exercise. The Forsyth Farmers' Market will collaborate with partner organizations and local farmers to provide the programming to the youth.
Frank Callen Boys & Girls Clubs, $5,000
Daniella Paul
Frank Callen Boys & Girls Clubs Summer Camp Program offers Savannah's highest risk children a safe place to spend their summer. The children are scheduled for various activities, such as: arts and crafts; computer technology; game room activities and tournaments; sports, fitness and recreation, intramural sports leagues; character and leadership development programs; swimming; fishing; field trips, and many more fun, engaging and educational activities. We serve approximately 150 children during the summer, including meals and nutritional snacks each day, so the low (membership) fee certainly does not cover the costs of providing so many services to our children.
A DNA grant would allow us to continue to provide a safe summer to Savannah's highest risk children and keep those children here with us instead of alone, unsupervised and out on the streets. The DNA would provide a win-win opportunity for both the Savannah Community and Savannah's highest risk children.
Friends of Massie, $500
Karen Sobol
Friends of Massie has just completed our second year of lectures with the generous donation of a grant from the Downtown Neighborhood Association. We would like to continue offering four to five lectures this year. We have expanded our offerings into the community and have invited several speakers who are involved in the preservation of our historic district. Our attendance has been 90 to 100 participants, and we continue to broaden our downtown outreach.
Our lectures expand the knowledge and participation of downtown residents on community issues. Their awareness of current events and how they impact downtown development and life, as well as increased knowledge of history and architecture, leads to participants’ greater involvement within our community.
Heads-Up Guidance Services, Inc., $1,200
Ellen Bradley
Heads-Up Guidance Services makes mental and behavioral health counseling and addiction recovery services affordable to all in need. Our focus this year has been on serving at-risk youth in our community, providing anger assessments, suicide assessments, and individual counseling for depression, trauma, and stress related issues. Our referrals come from school counselors, juvenile court and local physicians. We find that many of these youth benefit from group therapy, and HUGS' volunteer professionals have developed a program to meet their needs. A grant of $1,200 would totally support all costs involved in providing one 12-week program of the Youth Counseling Group including intake evaluations, assessments, educational materials, and activity supplies.
When we invest in our youth, we build a better community! The mental health of our young people is often neglected, thus resulting in increased school drop-out rates, crime and gang activity. Emotionally healthy youth will become contributing, law abiding citizens who will then pass their strength of character along to their families and co-workers.
Loop It Up Savannah, Inc., $1,000
Molly Lieberman, Executive Director
Last year we received generous support from the Downtown Neighborhood Association for our Book Box Library Project. The Book Box Library Project is one of Loop It Up Savannah's traveling residency projects in which participants design and decorate a wooden crate based on their favorite books. When the crate is complete, we fill it with age appropriate/grade level children's books for each of the participants to take home as a personal library to be shared with their family. We bring this project into Title-1 Schools and Community Centers throughout the city, and we find that it is an incredibly accessible project for the students. It helps capture and funnel their enthusiasm for art into enthusiasm for reading and writing. We are requesting support from the Downtown Neighborhood Association to bring two Book Box Projects into our partner schools in the Fall Semester of 2018.
The Savannah Chatham County Public School System is working hard to boost literacy and comprehension. As a partnering and supporting organization, we see it as our role to support the school system in this effort and support our children in being successful. Students who can read and are confident in their comprehension are overall better equipped to take on the world.
King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation, $500
Susan Gray, Executive Director
Our spring goal is to enhance our public garden and the streetscape on Price Street after the stress of two hurricanes. Our garden is cared for by a dedicated crew of volunteer Master Gardeners who bring their own tools to create a beautiful public space. Typically we only purchase mulch for the backyard garden space; this year we'd like to freshen up the green areas around the entire building, including curbside shrubs. The purchase of an electric power washer will enable us to keep the stairwells on Price Street and garden entrance free of dirt and mold. The outdoor flower containers will help make the space more welcoming to pedestrians.
The landscape and streetscape improvement project will have a positive impact on: the neighborhood—our garden is open to the public; tourists who will find Price St. block clean and welcoming; bicyclists and commuters who will experience the historic visual landscape of the Beach neighborhood corridor; community organizations who rent the facilities for meetings; and community members who rent the garden and facilities for special events.
Park Place Outreach, Inc., $1,500
Julie Wade
Park Place Outreach is a 12-bed temporary residential home for runaway, homeless, and at-risk youth, ages 11-17. Our Street Outreach Program serves the same population, but up to age 21. Our mission is to provide services to at-risk youth and their families, increase their functional level, and reunify families whenever possible.
PPO is requesting funding for its summer program. Like all teens, our youth desire opportunities for enrichment and exposure, as well as summer fun. We are also working to prevent the summer learning loss with tutoring and academic supports. Our goal through the summer program is to create opportunity and exposure so that youth can set long term goals and access opportunity in our community to move out of poverty and into productive citizens of our community.
Savannah Bicycle Campaign, $1,000
John R. Bannett
The Savannah Bicycle Campaign "Light the Night” program will provide 1,000 free bike lights for people in need. The lights will be distributed at locations around Downtown Savannah. This will be the third year we've distributed lights and the second year this beneficial project has been funded by Downtown Neighborhood Association. Surveys administered to bike light recipients found that most people traveling at night are commuting to work or class. Many report having their lights stolen.
This project will provide lights for people who depend on their bicycles for transportation. Our city has the highest bicycle commuting rate in Georgia, and our bicycle mode share places it at No. 9 in the South and No. 15 among all American cities with populations between 100-200,000. Many working people in Savannah commute to service industry jobs with schedules that require them to ride before dawn or late at night. The lights will make them more visible at night and less likely to be involved in collisions with motorists who do not see them. The lights will also make bicyclists more visible to pedestrians.
Savannah Children's Choir, $2,500
Roger Moss
info@savannahchoir .org
The Savannah Children’s Choir summer camp is a two- week intensive and fun learning camp where a diverse group of children from across the Coastal Empire delve further into the principles that form our mission: to unite, mentor and transform Savannah's children in to responsible, creative and confident leaders through excellence in choral performance and music education. The children are taught by professionals from across the country. They learn an entire concert, complete with choreography in those two weeks. Camp culminates in a concert at the Lucas Theatre.
The grant will be specifically designated to cover the costs of the production of the End of Camp concert at the Lucas Theatre on Friday, July 20. This is an all-day rental and production effort, arriving early at the theatre, holding rehearsal, serving lunch, doing a run through, training the ushers, and the performance.
Savannah Tree Foundation, $2,000
Eleanor Rhangos, Board of Directors
Heather Gordon, Interim Executive Director
In the 2018-2019 tree planting season, Savannah Tree Foundation (STF) is focusing its primary tree planting efforts on low income neighborhoods. The neighborhoods adjacent to Savannah's Landmark Historic District would directly benefit from improved tree canopy. With funding from the Downtown Neighborhood Association, STF will partner with the Savannah Housing Authority to plant 20 canopy trees in the Kayton/Frazier Homes neighborhoods on West Gwinnett Street. As part of this project, STF will provide paid hands-on training for selected residents of these communities. STF will coordinate a volunteer tree planting, manage the project workforce development program, and provide ongoing tree care for the first two years after planting.
Trees help transform a community. Trees reduce power bills by providing shade. Trees abate asthma symptoms so that children can play outdoors by cleaning the air.Trees protect our homes and cars by absorbing storm water. Trees also increase property values, encourage community building, and reduce stress and are correlated to improved school performance and crime reduction. Trees promote environmental equity. By combining urban forestry with workforce development, participants will be better prepared to work in a high-demand industry in our community.
Thomas Park Food Pantry, $1,000
Kristin Lee, Volunteer
One of the larger programs of its type in Savannah, the Thomas Park Food Pantry has been distributing bags of groceries to the homeless and the needy living throughout Savannah for over 20 years. The program operates from the Pantry facility on 34th Street behind St. Paul's Episcopal Church, on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month. Volunteers provide the labor to collect, bag and distribute the food. We currently serve over 240 households each month living at or below the USDA stated poverty levels. On an average distribution day in 2017, we provided 159 bags of groceries, feeding 307 persons, including 106 children and 41 persons 65 years and older.
The grant money will be used to purchase brown bags and food from Second Harvest Food Bank located in Savannah. Each bag of groceries weighs approximately 12 pounds and includes, on average, cereal, a quart of non-perishable milk, 2-3 cans of fruit and vegetables, pasta or rice, a hearty soup or stew, beans and/or peanut butter. Bread and pastries donated from local restaurants and at least 1 pound of frozen meat or chicken are provided based on availability.
United Ministries of Savannah, $1,000
Ariana Barksteinar
Emmaus House is a soup kitchen located in downtown Savannah. Each weekday morning, approximately 200-250 clients come to Emmaus House for a hot, hearty breakfast. For many, this is the only meal they will receive that day. We also provide bathroom, shower, and laundry facilities.
In 2017, Emmaus House served 43,580 hot plates of food to the homeless. Homelessness in Chatham County is rising, and a grant from the Downtown Neighborhood Association will be used to help purchase food and food serving supplies for this constantly growing population. Funding will also help us purchase laundry detergent, towels, shampoo, soap and other personal items for our clients.
Emmaus House provides a space where the homeless and the hungry can come inside, away from the elements, and enjoy a warm meal and a friendly “Good Morning!”
Urban Hope, Inc., $5,000
Cassie Beckwith
Urban Hope conducts an eight-week, free summer camp for at-risk youth in grades 1st through 8th. This summer, we will have two locations with close to 100 children! Urban Hope's two locations are located within a two-mile radius of downtown. Our new second location will concentrate on registering children specifically from the Thomas Square Neighborhood and its surrounding areas.
All of the Urban Hope children will attend camp five days a week from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. That is 280 summer hours in which 100 children will be painting, gardening, reading, learning math, and being fed nutritious meals. This impact will not only personally affect the children attending, but it will also give their parents the comfort of knowing their children are safe and help them focus on their job. In addition, we truly believe that our program will keep these children from being victims or committers of crime, now and in the future. This creates a better community for all of us.
WRUU Community Radio, $500
Dave Lake, Program Director
Over the last year, WRUU public affairs programs have featured community guests, including
representatives of the Downtown Neighborhood Association, Alderman Bill Durrence and other elected officials, representatives of nonprofits, leaders from other neighborhoods associations, officials from schools and other educational institutions, and other organizations including the Historic Savannah Foundation and the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority. These programs have allowed discussion of issues and events of interest to downtown residents.
The grant will allow us to purchase an Electro Voice RE20 broadcast microphone and OC White microphone boom to allow interviews with more guests on air. At present we have only one guest microphone and a makeshift solution for a second that allow us to interview elected officials, community leaders, and other guests. The additional microphone would allow us to expand the number of guests who participate in programming.
