Neighborhood Planning Assemblies are groups of residents in Burlington's 7 wards, designed to promote civic engagement by providing localized forums to learn, discuss, and take leadership roles on a host of local issues. The group received a grant in 2010 to provide childcare and food for the November NPA meetings, an annual event called Neighborhood Improvement Nights (NIN). Each year, all NPAs host NINs to raise awareness of the NPAs and to link directly the residents and city officials. Each NPA has an annual budget of $200, which different wards use for different purposes (a banner to raise visibility and encourage voting, a wireless microphone) but none of which is used to support the NINs.