7 groups apply for program grants

POVERTY TO PROGRESS

The city of Lynchburg has received seven applications for its Poverty to Progress grants after the initiative's 10 subcommittees received additional time to formulate their group's funding needs.

The Education, Child Care, Transportation, Pre-K, Poverty 101, Legal Systems and Food Disparity subgroups submitted funding requests totaling $23,523.40. Each was permitted to request up to $5,000 for their plans. The city has allocated $25,000 for Poverty to Progress grants. The city has yet to decide if there will be additional funding going forward.

The original grant application window was Jan. 10 through Jan. 31, but the city received only two applications during that time. Some subcommittees said the three-week window was not enough time to develop a solid request for funding, so city officials decided to nullify the first round of applications to give all groups a better opportunity to solidify their projects.

"I think the intent, although it wasn't stated, was that there was going to be another opportunity to request funding anyway," Assistant City Manager John Hughes said this week. "There were some groups that had been further [along in] developing action plans that may have required funding, so I think the timing was just perfect for a May submittal and review."

Hughes said this round's four-week submittal timeline of April 13 to May 11 was discussed with group facilitators in advance, and they knew to expect a spring deadline for their applications.

Legal Systems subcommittee facilitator Jane Henderson said the second round of applications "went much more smoothly." The group did not submit a funding request in January but was able to prepare a proposal for $3,740 to fund the group's re-entry projects.

The subcommittee's application details three services it would like to provide incarcerated citizens at the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center - first-steps re-entry brochure, comprehensive re-entry packet and welcome back pack.

The goal is to provide information about community support to those re-entering society, which will reduce recidivism rates, according to the Legal Systems grant application.

The importance of community collaboration also plays a key role in the needs of an unnamed subcommittee devoted to education. Roger Jones serves as a co-facilitator of the group and emphasized the need for teamwork between community organizations that provide tutoring services to the city's students.

"We hope by moving out of those silos and having some more coordination and consistency in language that we can have a greater impact on student learning," he explained.

The subgroup dedicated to education requested $930 to coordinate tutoring assistance to Lynchburg City School students.

The subgroup devoted to pre-K education hopes to "improve kindergarten readiness by increasing access to quality pre-K programs and promoting preschool literacy," according to its grant application.

To accomplish this, the subcommittee requested $4,903.40 to train community ambassadors that will promote the importance of pre-K education in the city; evaluate and identify programs offering pre-K education for special needs students; process birth certificate requests for families that do not have them; and distribute books to encourage summer learning.

Jane Gerdy, who serves as the co-facilitator of the Child Care subgroup, said she has worked closely with the pre-K subcommittee during the past few months to determine how they could work together to meet the city's early childhood education needs.

After discussions, the Child Care team determined a need for a strategic business plan to establish a Lynchburg Childcare Alliance, Gerdy said.

"We want to gather data to clarify the need for child care and data for the need for early childhood education and stakeholders that would like to be a part of it," she explained.

The subgroup requested $5,000 to implement this business plan.

The Poverty 101 subcommittee, which is an overarching group working to inspire inter-committee collaboration, wants to "raise awareness of the impacts of poverty through structured community dialogue" and an open mic event, the subgroup's application said.

Another goal is to develop a risk assessment tool for all Poverty to Progress committees to determine key areas of intervention for how they can best assist families in poverty. Poverty 101 leaders requested $2,500 to facilitate these action items.

The Transportation subcommittee asked the city for $5,000 to support development of a cooperative city transportation mobile app, according to the application from group facilitator Dr. John Salmon.

He wrote the goal of the app is to "link riders of any kind to drivers qualified to provide transportation for them, linking assets to needs across our city."

With appropriate funding, Salmon hopes to implement the app by the fall.

Food Disparity subgroup facilitator Jonathan Susman said his team hopes to hold a community progress report and forum to educate local citizens about the progress of the group's initiative to bring a grocery store into the city's food desert neighborhoods.

"We want to garner community support and gather input on the plan," he said.

Susman requested $1,450 for advertising and refreshments for the meeting.

All seven applications will go before the Lynchburg Community Development Advisory Committee at 10 a.m.May 31. The group will discuss the applications before providing recommendations to City Council about whether to fund the requests.

Carrie Dungan covers Lynchburg for The News & Advance. Reach her at (434) 385-5537.