Great Streets Challenge Will Award $200k for Neighborhood Improvements

Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Great Streets Initiative challenges you to re-imagine our streets as vibrant public spaces. In 2015, the Great Streets program is awarding individual applicants up to $20,000 in city funds for projects that propose creative ways of using our Great Streets as public spaces. Up to $200,000 will be awarded through the Great Streets Challenge Grant.

This grant program will provide a guaranteed $10,000 to successful applicants, with the opportunity to leverage another $10,000 through a dollar-for-dollar fundraising match, totaling $20,000 in city funds. Matching funds will be raised in partnership with ioby (In Our Backyard), a crowd-resourcing platform for citizen-led, neighbor-funded projects.

Grants are available to community partners who propose creative and innovative ways of rethinking our Great Streets as public spaces. Projects will focus on community engagement, data collection, creativity/innovation, and long-term impacts of projects. This Challenge Grant will help showcase our Great Streets and their potential to serve our communities as vibrant public spaces!

Mayor Eric Garcetti launched the Great Streets Initiative in October 2013 to help re-imagine neighborhood centers, one main street at a time. Our streets are the backbone of our neighborhoods – the places where we live, work, learn, and recreate on a daily basis. All of our great neighborhoods deserve Great Streets that are livable, accessible and engaging public spaces for the people who live and work around them. With this Community Challenge Grant, the Great Streets Initiative will partner with the community to showcase these Great Streets and their potential to serve as vibrant public spaces. Read more at lagreatstreets.tumblr.com and https://twitter.com/LAGreatStreets.

The release of the Challenge Grant is also part of a month-long series of events in May, #EyesonTheStreetLA that celebrate life on the streets of Los Angeles. The Great Streets team will be promoting 20 events across the City, from curated social media conversations to walking tours and a comedy night.

For more information about the Great Streets Challenge, how to apply, and to view an application manual and toolkit, click here. Applications are due June 30th.