11-2SG Jonah Center for Earth and Art
Grant Round:
2011 September
Grant Program:
Small Grants
Grant Type:
Other Grants
Grant amount requested:
2,000.00
Grant amount awarded:
$1,000.00
Attachments
Please provide a brief description of the project for which you seek funding.
The Jonah Center for Earth and Art began meeting in August 2004, as an energized group of environmental advocates and scientists, community organizers, and ordinary citizens who shared a vision for redeveloping Middletown's North End Peninsula. Over the past 7 years, the Jonah Center has emerged as the leading force in bringing together disparate elements of Middletown's community to work for environmental change and improve our community's quality of life. One of the Jonah Center's strengths is building coalitions among diverse constituencies. The Jonah Center's Executive Director will bring together representatives of local environmental nonprofits, city commissions, and the business and educational communities to form a Collective Impact Network. Network partners will work in mutually reinforcing ways to achieve measurable goals that preserve Middletown's natural environment and enhance its general quality of life. Eight organizations are committed to the Network, and we expect to add a few more. Those involved, in addition to the Jonah Center, are: Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District; Middlesex Community College; Liberty Bank Foundation; Middletown's Clean Energy Task Force; City of Middletown Conservation Commission; City of Middletown Recycling Commission and Project Green Lawn; City of Middletown Urban Forestry Commission; and Wesleyan University's "Feet to the Fire" project on climate change, a collaboration between the Center for the Arts and the College of the Environment. At present, many environment-related groups work in isolation. As a result, their projects may have little actual impact on the environment, public policy, or municipal planning. Bringing together public and private enterprises with varied areas of expertise to work collectively on specific goals has been shown to focus effort and maximize community impact. For example, when the Jonah Center, other groups, and city government did work together, the city redesigned the parking lot renovation at Palmer Field to reduce asphalt paving from 4 to 1.3 acres, included storm water retention basins and a vegetated buffer along the Coginchaug River, and saved $100,000. The Collective Impact Network will begin meeting in fall 2011, but it will take at least a year to determine goals, strategies, and measurement tools.
Project Summary
The group received a grant in 2011 to bring together representatives of local environmental nonprofits, city commissions, and the business and educational communities to form a Collective Impact Network. Network partners will work in mutually reinforcing ways to achieve measurable goals that preserve Middletown's natural environment and enhance its general quality of life.
Primary Issue Area:
Living Economies
Please break-down/categorize the program expenses:
| Proposed Item | Estimated $ Amount | Would grant funds be used for this item? | Type Of Expense |
|---|---|---|---|
| Executive Director/Project Developer | $6,000.00 | Yes | Materials |
| website page development for Jonah Center website | $400.00 | Yes | Materials |
Whom does your group need to make this project happen?
Please explain how your group will engage members from your community in this project.
The Jonah Center will actively publicize its work and engage the public through regular email updates to our email list of over 330 and the email lists of our partners, articles in newspapers such as The Hartford Courant, frequent postings on popular local news blogs like the Middletown Eye and the Middletown Patch, a special page on the Jonah Center website and features on websites for partner organizations, work parties of volunteers, and a wide variety of public events such as the Jonah Center's regular bi-monthly meetings.
If your group receives a NEGEF Grow grant, how do you plan to pay for remaining expenses?
| $ Amount | Source |
|---|---|
| $4,000.00 | Middlesex County Community Foundation grant |
| $2,000.00 | New England Grassroots Environment Fund |
| $400.00 | Jonah Center annual appeal contributions |
Please list these materials or services
| $ Amount | Item |
|---|---|
| $1,000.00 | meeting space provided by Liberty Bank |
Please describe what changes will occur in your community and its environment when your group's project is successful.
The Collective Impact Network will select 1-3 common goals and develop strategies to utilize each group’s strengths to achieve them. Possible areas of collaboration are: river, stream and groundwater quality; energy efficiency and reduced emissions; and issues of community development. Participants will meet quarterly and maintain regular communication between meetings to share information about individual and common projects, find ways to help each other, and assess progress toward achieving the common goals.
Please list how many people in your community your group expects to actively engage in this project.
800
What relevant skills does the group need (but does not currently have access to) to help move the initiative forward?
The Jonah Center has access to many kinds of skills, but our access is limited. For example, our webmaster is excellent and provides services for a low rate, but he must give priority to other projects that constitute a bigger part of his business. We have an experienced grant-writer, but our board is not experienced in other forms of fund-raising such as dinners, large fund-raising events, or identifying and approaching wealthy individuals. We have some business people on our action team, but we would benefit from more access to the larger, more politically influential local businesses. Finally, all of these resources take time to cultivate, and our small amount of paid staff time is quickly absorbed by current operations.
What relevant skills do current members of the group have to help move the initiative forward?
The Jonah Center has drawn together a group of committed individuals from diverse backgrounds, with broad knowledge of environmental, cultural, communication, and community issues. We have volunteers with outreach, grant writing, scientific, technical, legal, political, and financial expertise. Individuals with these diverse backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and bases of knowledge have shaped the Jonah Center’s vision of an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable practices and have gained us widespread community recognition and support. The Collective Impact Network’s aim is to take this multi-disciplinary approach to the next level--interagency collaboration.