Engage Cincy Funds 5 Community Engagement Projects

Engage Cincy Challenge Grant Projects Bring Us Togeter

The 2016 Engage Cincy Challenge Grant program, a unique community building competition gave residents, organizations and local charities a chance to win funding for the development, launch and promotion of their cutting-edge ideas for bettering a specific place in the city, or all of Cincinnati.

“The best way to invigorate a community is to engage the people who live there and keep them interested," said City Manager Harry Black, who proposed the idea for Engage Cincy Grants. "Here, we're giving community members a say but also the money, resources and support needed to think, and act, outside the box for the better of Cincinnati."

The idea behind the grant program was to find a way to support local people and organizations that have big ideas to make our community more engaged but don’t have the resources to pull them off.

After receiving formal support and approval from the Mayor and City Council, the City Manager launched a social media campaign to attract would-be winners and civic-minded individuals to get involved.

The response was impressive. The City received 188 applications.

An Engage Cincy selection committee consisting of members of the local business community, nonprofit leaders and City employees vetted all of the nearly 200 applications and interviewed each of the finalists.

The committee then took the recommendations to the City Manager who ultimately selected the winners.

“Honestly, the response to the Engage Cincy competition has been extraordinary,” said City Manager Black. “We received numerous creative, heartfelt and competitive applications for ideas that we truly believe will better our community. We encourage everyone who applied to continue pursuing their idea and trying to turn Cincinnati into a more engaged city.”

The allocated grant funding is intended to help these dreamers realize their vision. That could mean using the funds to complete a project in full, or subsidizing the completion of an existing plan.

See the projects in action.

• Camp Washington Art and Mobile Produce (CAMP) (Camp Washington)
• Cincinnati Neighborhood Games (All of Cincinnati)
• Flash Revelry Pop-Up Theater (West End)
• Dads’ Night Out Weekend (Roselawn)