Ideas to 'Engage Cincy' Earn 5 Local Groups $10K Prizes

2018 Engage Cincy Grant Awards handed out at annual Neighborhood Summit

CINCINNATI – Five Cincinnati grassroots organizations each received $10,000 from the City of Cincinnati on Saturday to fund their cutting-edge ideas to “Engage Cincy.”

The monetary awards went to the winners of the 2018 Engage Cincy Challenge Grant program, a unique community building competition established two years ago by City Manager Harry Black. The program provides residents, organizations and local charities a chance to win funding for the development, launch and promotion of their innovative ideas for bettering a specific place in the city, or all of Cincinnati.

This year’s winners are: VIBE (Voices In the Built Environment) (Jasmine Humphries); Neighborhood Flags (Henry Frondorf); MRC Street Studio (Sarah Strickland); Summer of STEM Design (Sean Kelley); and Cindependent Film Festival (Allyson West).

• DETAILS ABOUT WINNING PROPOSALS

“Congratulations to each of the winners of this year’s Engage Cincy grants,” said City Manager Black. “We’re excited to provide these community members with the money, resources and support needed to help them have a meaningful and truly transformative impact on our neighborhoods.”

For the third straight year the City Manager’s office announced the winning project proposals at Xavier University’s Cintas Center during the annual Neighborhood Summit, organized by Invest in Neighborhoods. Councilmember Jeff Pastor joined the City Manager to present each of the Engage Cincy winners an oversized ceremonial check during a lunchtime awards ceremony.

Winners didn’t learn their fate until they were called to the stage to accept their $10,000 prize.

“These awards recognize community stakeholders and encourage creative ideas to make our neighborhoods a livelier and engaging place to live,” said Councilmember Jeff Pastor who chairs the Neighborhoods Committee. “I’m excited as Neighborhoods Committee Chairman because it’s very important for City Council to invest in our neighborhoods and hear from all of our community stakeholder volunteers and residents.”

The idea behind the Engage Cincy grant program is 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.

Once again, the City Manager received formal support and approval for this project from the Mayor and City Council. But new this year were the specific categories associated with the grant.

This year, grants went to projects that best address one of three key ways to “connect neighborhoods”:

1. Innovative Technology
2. Creative Placemaking
3. Unlikely Partnerships

The response was impressive. The City received 80 applications in less than two months.

An Engage Cincy selection committee vetted the applications and interviewed each of the 17 finalists, all of whom were in attendance for the Neighborhood Summit.

The committee then took the recommendations to City Manager Black who ultimately selected the winners. The City Manager picked the projects he felt best “connect the government to its residents, showcase the importance of communication between residents and the government, and display ingenuity.”

“This year we received numerous creative, heartfelt and competitive applications for ideas that we truly believe will better our community,” added City Manager Black. “Honestly, it was difficult to narrow the field down to five winners. We encourage everyone who applied to continue pursuing their idea for turning Cincinnati into a more engaged city.”

The allocated grant funding will be used to help these dreamers realize their vision. That could mean using the funds to complete their project in full, subsidizing a bigger project, or completing a plan that is already in the works.

For more information about the Engage Cincy Challenge Grant program, please go to the City of Cincinnati website. Additional details about the City’s overall efforts to enhance community engagement are available online as well.

About the Cincinnati Neighborhood Summit

The 16th annual Neighborhood Summit once again brought together hundreds of community leaders and volunteers, City officials and nonprofits for a daylong series of seminars and workshops aimed at helping residents work effectively together to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

This year’s theme, Communicate: Share, Connect, Build Community encouraged the Cincinnati community to tackle community challenges through effective engagement and outreach. Topics included widespread neighborhood revitalization; sustainable growth and equity of opportunity; broad access and inclusion; and more general subjects including health, education, housing, jobs and civic participation.

“This is one of my favorite events every year,” said Councilmember David Mann. “During my tenure as Neighborhoods Committee chair, I was continuously impressed with the robust level of participation in community councils and enthusiasm for neighborhood leadership on neighborhood issues.”

During the luncheon several awards were handed out to residents and organizations who have had a major impact on the community. Neighborhood Summit Awards this year went to:

• Community Catalyst of the Year – Anne Delano Steinert
• Lifetime Achievement Award – Sister Sally Duffy
• The “Communicating for Change” Award – Cincy Stories (Shawn Braley and Chris Ashwell)
• Rookie of the Year – Cincinnati Peace Movement

A keynote dinner the night prior to the Summit featured a community conversation on how local communities can improve communications. Panelists Eddy Kwon (MYCincinnati), Peg Moertl (PNC – Community Development Banking) and Ashlee Young (The Child Poverty Collaborative) discussed with those in attendance how they can improve neighborhood dialogue related to ideas of identity, culture and history.

Additional details about the event and the awards are available online at www.cincyneighborhoodsummit.org/

The Neighborhood Summit is organized by Invest in Neighborhoods, and made possible due to various forms of support from the Community Building Institute, LISC, Seasongood, PNC, KeyBank, First National, CDF and the City of Cincinnati.