Apply Today! Go Human Mini-Grants Program Now Available

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At SCAG, we’ve been thinking about how community engagement is changing under the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While people stay at home and limit travel to essential services to reduce the rate of transmission, agencies and organizations must continue to rethink conventional in-person engagement in this landscape. To support these efforts, Go Human, with support from the California Office of Traffic Safety, has launched the Local Community Engagement and Safety Mini-Grants Program, which provides up to $10,000 to community-based organizations, artists, students, and creators, for projects under the umbrella of traffic safety and mobility justice. The Mini-Grants aim to build street-level community resiliency and increase the safety of vulnerable street users. Projects may include, but are absolutely not limited to:

  • Identifying, documenting or responding to emerging mobility and safety issues

  • Engaging communities on safe practices

  • Increasing access to safe routes for vulnerable users and essential workers

  • Envisioning safety improvements in historically disinvested communities

Projects may take the form of virtual conversations, safety and resiliency planning, audits or mapping, digital/graphic campaigns, webinar series, and more. We encourage applicants to think creatively about ideas to propose that provide safe engagement opportunities with their communities. If you’re already doing this work, please let us know what your efforts look like so we can look at ways in which we can possibly support you with funding.

The Call for Projects is now open, and the application deadline is May 14 at 5 p.m. Check out the Mini-Grants page on our website for more information, which includes the Mini-Grants guidelines and application. The application is intended to be simple and easy. For inquiries, contact Andrés Carrasquillo, Community Engagement Specialist, at carrasquillo@scag.ca.gov or (213) 630-1401.

Go Human previously awarded Mini-Grants to projects in 2018. In that round of funding, groups had paired their projects with back-to-school events to support parents and students with safe walking and biking strategies. Projects connected people with important resources in multiple languages, and created opportunities for communities to “talk back” with feedback. These efforts gained the attention of local officials and coverage from media outlets.