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| At the Abrego/Jazmin intersection in Green Valley, sand from a nearby wash gets dumped in the road by every heavy rain. A neighborhood group from Country Club North HOA and a team of professionals will develop a plan to address erosion in that wash and restore some natural vegetation. The professionals, including a landscape architect, a hydrologist from a private firm, a principal hydrologist with the Pima County Regional Flood Control District who specializes in ecosystem restoration, and a civil engineer who specializes in sustainability planning, will all donate their time and talents. Together with the neighbors, they are looking at ways to redirect the flow in the wash through projects the volunteers can implement on their own, like building gabions to slow runoff and planting native species for visual screening and wildlife habitat. After their plan is established, they will be welcome to apply for a small grant from PRO Neighborhoods to get some of those projects under way.
The Chinese Cultural Center wants to be a good neighbor to its community along River Road and La Cholla. A group of those neighbors have embarked on a project to create multipurpose, multiethnic, multigenerational gardens at the Center: courtyards, water features, tea houses and other elements will provide attractive places to meet and relax in a neighborhood that does not have many. The community garden will also serve an educational purpose, explaining the history and importance of Asian agriculture in the Southwest. The professional team contributing to this project is up to seven members now, including volunteers from the City of Tucson Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development, Pima County Regional Flood Control District, and landscape architects and hydrologists from both the public and private realms.
This coalition of residents and park users are looking for ways to revitalize an aging public space and enhance a sense of identity for the neighborhood. Working with personnel from Tucson Parks & Recreation and Norris Design, a private firm whose planners and landscape architects will offer their time pro bono, they will develop a vision and then a concept plan for the park. Possibilities abound. They may reorganize placement of practice fields and other recreational areas, create new walking paths, design rest areas around artwork by community members, and plant a new generation of shade trees. In the end they will have a priority list of projects that will continue to bring neighbors together for years.
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Awarded: $4,853
Originally organized as a Neighborhood Watch group to combat crime in the Midvale Park area (Ward 1), this group decided to focus on a positive project that will mix the diverse cultures in their neighborhood. They will convert a 750-foot strip along a city parkway into a butterfly/ hummingbird habitat, collaborating with the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Desert Survivors and Tucson Clean & Beautiful. They have already planted 14 Palo Verde trees in the area; grant funds will be spent on desert-friendly plants and seeds, boulders, tools, and benches.
Awarded: $5,000
In 2006, Sweetwater in the Foothills Neighborhood Association was the first neighborhood in Arizona certified by the National Wildlife Federation with a Community Wildlife Habitat. Members of the neighborhood have partnered with Robins Elementary School to develop three sites on the school property to teach students to understand and interact with desert ecosystems. Areas will include a butterfly garden, cactus and lizard garden, and natural desert landscape area. The gardens will be available to the school and neighborhood. Tohono Chul Park will provide advice on landscaping.
Awarded: $3,496
Twelve neighborhoods – about 1600 homes – were built in the Sunrise/Sabino area 25 years ago. Many of the original homeowners are now in their 80s and 90s and in need of various types of assistance. “Initiate SNAP” is a start-up aging-in-place project targeting one of the 25 neighborhoods. Volunteers trained by the Neighbors Care Alliance, a program of Pima Council On Aging, will recruit volunteers and clients, and identify potential donors and in-kind services. The project will expand from the initial neighborhood to eventually serve all 25 neighborhoods. Their long-range goal is to address the lack of transportation that drives seniors out of their homes and neighborhoods.
Awarded: $2,310
Villas West, Green Valley’s first condominium housing development, is interested in a project that will integrate newer and younger residents with the well-established older generation. The renovation of structures and landscaping at the entrance to the development will be of common interest to the whole community. Neighbors plan to donate design services and architectural drawings. The group plans to do landscaping, to start-up a “good-news” newsletter, and launch a series of fundraising events that will pay for remaining materials, work parties, a celebration and other community-building opportunities. |
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Once a year PRO Neighborhoods joins forces with local engineering, landscape architecture, and planning professionals to help neighborhoods in Pima County. Providing their services pro bono, professionals help neighborhoods define a common vision, develop a concept plan, identify required permits and estimate construction costs
Midtown the Garden District, a large neighborhood spanning Grant to Speedway and Swan to Alvernon, currently has no open space or public parks. Utilizing a large space next to Martha Cooper Library, the neighborhood will work with professionals to create conceptual plans for a learning garden. The intention is to provide a sanctuary for residents, and a place to learn about environmentally friendly landscaping and rainwater harvesting. The neighborhood plans to partner with Martha Cooper Library, Tucson Botanical Gardens, and Wright Elementary School. The plans will be used to seek funds for future phases of the project, including installation of the garden and development and implementation of educational programming.
The volunteer professional team includes: John Anderson, Westland Resources; Mike Barton, HDR Engineering; Barbara Becker, University of Arizona Planning Dept.; Kathryn Gerber, Stantec; Jorge Gonzales, Psomas; and Scott Leska, City of Marana.
The Valley of the Moon, the historic fantasy garden tucked away on Allen Street, was begun in the 1920s. Its rock cliffs, fairy houses, winding paths and secret grottos touched the magical imagination of children, and by the early 1950s the Moon was one of Tucson’s leading attractions. Over the ensuing decades families celebrated weddings and birthdays in the grassy amphitheater in front of the Wizard’s Tower, and popular amateur theatricals still feature neighborhood kids as fairies or gnomes, but the infrastructure, inevitably, has degraded. This Planning & Design Service Award will help a group of neighbors and supporters create a plan to assess restoration possibilities and generate ideas for public engagement and fundraising.
Guiding the effort pro bono are Rebecca Ruopp, lead planner for the City of Tucson Department of Urban Planning & Design, John Anderson, landscape architect from Westland Resources, and Scott Leska, engineer from the City of Marana.
Currently the roadside along the north side of Pima Street between Columbus and Alvernon contains a bare strip of dirt between the bike lane and a paved road giving access to homes. Professionals and neighbors will work together to develop a conceptual plan for a linear park that will include trees and other landscaping. This vegetative "buffer zone" will provide a means for catching rainwater runoff, create a visual screen and buffer for sound and pollutants to protect the homes facing Pima, beautify this stretch of Pima, and separate pedestrians from dangerous traffic. The neighborhood will utilize the plan to apply for grants to fund the project.
The professional team includes Mark Holden from Pima County Planning Department and Jennifer Bartlett, Blessing Hancock and Jeff Carrier from Norris Design.
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Awarded: $4,140
In 2006, this neighborhood utilized the pro-bono services of professionals provided through a PRO Neighborhoods Planning & Design Service Award to develop a design for a shady community gathering place in an oversized intersection. They have planned a variety of fundraising ventures to pay for the work. This grant will support a project directed by neighborhood youth, who will produce, market and sell commemorative ceramic tiles that will be used in the plaza. A facilitator who works with youth and specializes in developing leadership skills will assist with the project.
Awarded: $2,371
Located in an Eastside neighborhood that has few park resources, this run-down community garden is being revived and maintained by mothers and children from a neighborhood playgroup and some community volunteers. Grant funds will be used in the following ways: Improve and expand fruit and vegetable beds (produce will be sold at the Community Food Bank); Create “Paths of Discovery” to engage children (a circular ABC path, a numbered hopscotch path, etc.) and lead them to a presentation area for puppet shows and speakers. An Eagle Scout is guiding preparation of this area.Install a community information board (partnering with Eastside Parks & Rec).
Present a series of community gardening workshops and other family events.
Awarded: $1,387
This project is part of the early community-organizing activities of a grassroots group that wishes to provide alternatives to drink, drugs, crime and gentrification. Their goals are to celebrate barrio culture and diversity, do some relationship-building for youth and elders, and create opportunities for parents to share quality time with their families. Specifically this will be done at a series of seven carne asada barbeques where information can be collected from neighbors in a safe family setting. The core group will transcribe and edit the stories and lay out the pages, then host a binding party where community members will help assemble the barrio history. Grant funds will be used for materials and production costs, refreshments, and mileage reimbursement (there is no bus service to the barrio). The group has already funded their first gatherings by collecting aluminum cans.
Awarded: $4,300
This group is from the Blenman/Elm neighborhood, which received a grant in 2005 to create and host a series of workshops to teach neighbors how to install water harvesting cisterns at home. This grant will launch a project to plant 40 low-water-use trees in contoured, rock-lined tree wells along a section of Treat Avenue and to irrigate them by making curb cuts to divert rainwater runoff from the street. The neighborhood has been canvassed. The City of Tucson DOT is treating this as a pilot project as they develop policy and a permitting process for curb cuts. Partnering with DOT will be a capacity-building experience for the group, and new members have stepped into leadership roles.
Awarded: $2,359
A strong core of longtime homeowners is now getting older and wants to engage younger members, foster neighborhood cohesion, and improve the appearance of a weedy patch of City property at the entrance to the neighborhood. A neighbor who is a landscape architect has donated the design. The City has approved the plan. Grant funds will pay for plants, equipment and neighborhood name signs; labor will be done by community volunteers. If this initial project is successful, the group hopes to connect the walking paths on either side of the neighborhood.
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Awarded: $1,800
Aging in Community will build awareness of available community support for the elderly in Civano. Grant funds will be used to create a descriptive brochure with contact information, to launch a series of at least nine Power Point presentations exploring such topics as elder cohousing and health issues, and to establish a database. The goal is to maintain and train the current base of 50 part-time volunteers and increase the number of senior clients by 100 percent. As a byproduct of these activities the applicants hope to promote cohesion between pioneer residents and newcomers.
Awarded: $2,185
The project will create a comprehensive resource guide to fire and emergency services, support agencies and care providers across a large, scattered rural area. A core of 26 volunteers will create a comprehensive directory of such services; they will also build and maintain a web site that will inform the community about emergencies (flash floods, fires, road closures, animal control bulletins) and community events (school open houses, health fairs, immunization clinics, AA meetings, classes at the community center).
Awarded: $5,000
In order to prevent further growth of the unwanted animal population in their neighborhood, Friends for Feral Cats will set up a one-year pilot project in which they will recruit and train neighborhood volunteers to trap cats from designated feral colonies, transport them to participating veterinarians who provide low-cost spay, neuter and microchip services, then return the cats to hold their home territory. Grant funds will be used primarily for spaying or neutering and inoculating approximately 84 cats from designated colonies over a one-year period. In addition to trapping, the group will produce and promote a series of open-house presentations to educate neighbors about the root causes of feral cat problems and to begin planning for fundraising if the pilot is successful. The goal: in one year, 85 percent of the cats in the designated colonies will have been altered (indicated by a notched ear).
Awarded: $4,000
This neighborhood preservation and revitalization project will document the neighborhood’s history, distinctive vernacular architecture, and the native and heritage plants. Four neighborhood barbecues will serve as planning meetings to recruit neighbors (including several professionals from the University of Arizona and the public library system) with skills to carry out the various components of the project:
* Videotape oral histories with the neighborhood’s longtime residents (30-50 years)
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Photograph hand-built vernacular structures from the 1920s and ‘30s, including fences, gates and garden sheds with ingenious functional design details
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Create a print portfolio and information booklet
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Mount a public exhibit at local Woods Library, University of Arizona, city venue
Awarded: $5,000
Ajo Movie Nights will purchase portable equipment to show weekly movies outdoors, and in the Curley School Auditorium. They will have a concession stand and request donations for admission.
Awarded: $3,870
This project will create a park from a 12,200 sq ft. space west of Paseo Lobo. The space improvements will consist of an access path, a charcoal grill, stone chimney, picnic tables, benches, an ornamental fountain, and a drinking fountain. The access path and all open areas will be handicap accessible.
Caballero Run - Awarded: $2,000
The Flowing Wells High school has an eleven event circuit-style fitness course (the Caballero Run). The Flowing Wells JROTC will be completing the final circuit event, and leveling the ground around the base of events for the participant’s protection. PRO funds will be used to purchase a metal cover for the cool down area, the final stage of the Caballero Run.
Awarded: $2,500
The Midvale Park Seniors project will conduct a survey in the neighborhood and use that information to create a database to identify the seniors in the Midvale area that have asked for help. The survey will also identify those people who have indicated their willingness to volunteer for the seniors, which will be compiled into the database.
Jacinto Park Improvements - Awarded: $5,000
Currently the neighborhood has no area that serves as a playground or gathering place. Jacinto Park is vacant and is the potential site for such a place. PRO funds will provide a swing set as part of a larger City of Tucson Park Improvement project.
Community CPR - Awarded: $1,200
The Mt. Lemmon Homeowners Association will purchase three Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and place them at the Mt. Lemmon General Store, Living Rainbow, and Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley. The Mt. Lemmon Fire District will train Mt. Lemmon residents in CPR and AED skills.
Canyon View/Genemates Island Beautification - Awarded: $1,700
The Oracle Foothills Neighborhood will transform a barren street island into a neighborhood mini-park. Walls will be repaired, decorative aggregate spread, invasive plants replaced with drought tolerant native species, and a monument with commemorative tiles installed.
Awarded: $5,000
Casa Alegre Neighborhood Association plans to turn an empty lot into an outdoor meeting space for neighborhood meetings and events, and provide a place where youth can play. Developing the lot will also serve to mitigate flood issues and bring neighborhood cohesiveness.
Develop Triangle Park - Awarded: $4,815
Rosemont Beautification Group will enhance their neighborhood by beautifying a small, undeveloped park owned by Tucson Parks and Recreation. The area will be landscaped using low water use plants and in addition residents will add a bulletin board where neighbors can post upcoming events.
The Linda Avenue Project - Awarded $4,500
Menlo Park Neighborhood Association will bring together residents of all ages to create a mural under the direction of David Tineo, a well-known local artist. Youth will learn the neighborhood history from elders and in turn develop imagery that reflects what they have learned. The project will address negative issues by: inclusion, reclamation of space, skill building, and a development of pride of place.
The Garden Party - Awarded: $2,655
The English Ivy Norteños project will focus on returning the displaced flora and fauna to several common areas within the neighborhood. Permaculture and water conservation techniques will be incorporated and will be used to educate residents about these issues. A library of landscaping and permaculture materials will be created for use by residents.
Clean "A" Mountain - Awarded: $1,000
"A" Mountain Community Association will organize a cleanup committee, recruit volunteers, purchase tools and equipment to clean the community on a regular basis. The cleanups will instill pride in the neighborhood and will be used as an event where neighbors meet.
Something to CROW About - Award: $3,530
Citizens to Restore Our Wash Something to CROW About address three tasks to complete the revitalization of critical wildlife habitat in Anklam Wash between La Cholla Blvd. and Silverbell Rd. They are: waste control, flora and habitat restoration, and erosion control. Volunteers will coordinate with the City of Tucson Department of Parks and Recreation to remove eleven consolidated trash piles, will install signage at seven access points of Anklam Wash, and will conduct outreach and education aimed at greater public awareness of issues that affect the healthy ecosystem of the wash.
Pioneer Day - A Celebration of Conservation Successes - Award: $3,500
Cienega Corridor Conservation Council is made up of property owners, business leaders, residents, ranchers, recreationists, scientists, and local and regional entities from the Rincon Valley and Vail area. Cienega Corridor Conservation Council will host a community-building event called Cienega Corridor Pioneer Day at Collosal Cave Mountain Park. The event will be catered to children with the idea that the children will help plan the event and in turn bring their parents. The event will allow them to share successes, celebrate their home, and invite them to become part of future efforts.
Water Harvesting Workshop - Award: $2,000
Blenman Water Conservation Group will have a one-day hands-on workshop presented by Sonoran Permaculture Guild to understand how to plan and design a water-harvesting system to collect rainwater. The morning will be devoted to planning and design, such as how to measure the amount of rainwater that will be collected. Prior to the workshop, a group will have laid pipe in a concrete slab at one site and prepped a second site for the installation of a cistern. In the afternoon, like an old fashioned barn raising, everyone at the workshop will work together to set one culvert in the cement and do the finishing touches on the other cistern. Finally, participants will determine how to assist each other in installing additional cisterns at additional sites.
Harmonizing African and Mexican Communities through Art, Dance, and Culture - Award: $4,444
During two visits to Mexico, S.P.AR.C.C. will research and document on film dance that captures the "African presence in Mexico." The dances will be replicated in the largely African and Mexican-American neighborhood of South Park. S.P.AR.C.C. will document folklore that has been passed down by predominately Afro-Metizo villages during annual festivals and celebrations. S.P.AR.C.C. will create five performances for neighborhood residents where they can socialize, participate and dialogue as a community through arts and culture programming. The research and documentation will provide the traditional Afro-Mexican arts and culture that will give validity and integrity to the project.
Senior Softball - Award: $1,444
BAJA has over 100 active senior softball players from Green Valley and Sahuarita. The group will work together to purchase and install fencing, grass, seed, and infield mix to complete two fields at Sahuarita Park. They will maintain the fields with the help of the Parks and Recreation Department. The completion of these fields will allow them to build more partnerships with new members and strengthen their relationships with the youth groups also utilizing the fields.
Playground and Parking Lot Project - Award $2,000
Primavera Preschool is a cooperative of community residents. Parents and preschool staff will work together to plant large shade trees in the play yard and decorative plants and vines in a flower bed. A parking lot will be resurfaced and stripes painted to designate walkways and parking spaces.
Camino Kino Revitalization - Award: $2,882
Landscaping and beautification project that aims to increase interest in volunteering. Although this is a 55 + community, there is diversity between those who are still relatively young and active and the older residents who don't get out much. They hope to attract more of the older residents to become active in their community, therefore improving their health both mentally and physically.
Learning Library - Award: $4,000
The group will create a lending library through which community childcare providers will have the opportunity to borrow furniture, toys and teaching materials so that each provider can work different areas of their curriculum.
Bi-Lingual Literacy Book Bag Program - Award: $3,450
To promote the love of reading in Amado, the Sopori Family Literacy group plans to loan English and Spanish books to the Sopori School community.
Annual Community Heritage Festival - Award: $2,550
The group will organize a Fall Festival in October 2006. This event would feature storytelling, historical and educational presentations, food, children’s crafts and activities, ethnic basket weaving, music, and community resource booths as well as private craft vendors
Bristol Park Art Project - Award: $2,000
This project involves installing mosaic art on park benches and mural art on adjacent walls, building ramadas for shade, and organizing a neighborhood festival at conclusion of the project.
La Madera Fitness Outreach - Award: $1,500
As a part of a multi-year plan to transform La Madera Park into an open access fitness resource, the group’s objective is to purchase and install fitness equipment for adults and children.
Neighbor to Neighbor: Award - $1500
Neighbor to Neighbor proposes to set up a network of volunteers to provide services to elderly and disabled neighbors with a temporary need ( e. g ., help after surgery). The project will include recruiting volunteers, publicizing the service to potential recipients, and matching volunteers with neighbors requesting the services.
Edgebrook Village II Recreation Area - Award: $5,000
Project involves the purchase and installation of modern playground equipment for the children and benches for the adults.
Ebonee Marie Moody Park Safety Project - Award:$4,300
This project includes a bench, flower garden, lighting and playground equipment at the newly re-named neighborhood park.
Community Survey - Award: $4,900
Tucson Estates will conduct a community survey twice a year, to discover the people that require assistance as well as those who are willing and able to volunteer their time. They will use the existing distribution system, which consists of a special can already in place at each resident's home and a team of volunteers that deliver the Association Report (our newsletter) on a monthly basis. The group will provide volunteer training and education using the resources of PCOA and other community resources. They will create a database matching the care providers with those requiring services. This program will be year around on an ongoing basis.
The Bird House - Award: $1,000
A youth-organized carpentry class will be held at the Urban League as part of the after-school program. It will be available to kids ages from 9 to 18. The project will continue to teach participants how to work with specialized tools, teamwork, structure, and discipline. The members of the group will take on leadership roles and be involved in decision-making and accountability. The members will take field trips to a local furniture warehouse and our local neighborhood association meeting to learn how the meetings are run.
9th Avenue Traffic Circles & Neighborhood Building Improvements - Award: $2,400
The Dunbar Spring Neighborhood wants to lessen the negative traffic impacts of the Entrada Real Apartment Complex and the soon to be completed Sahara Apartment Complex through the construction of two traffic circles, planting of trees, and neighborhood involvement incorporating the principles of the City Repair Project. The group will build two traffic circles at the intersections of University and 9th Ave., 2nd St. and 9th Ave. With the traffic circles built they will then landscape the traffic circles. Landscape designs will be created by the neighborhood through various meetings and the City Repair community decision-making process. Neighborhood volunteers will then implement the landscaping in both circles.
Adopt-a-Circle - Award: $2,250
"Adopt-a-Circle" to identify select "Circles" within the community for beautification and ongoing care by adjacent homeowners. The project will engage homeowners within the community to join together as a neighborhood team to participate in the planning, design, development and maintenance of their "Circles". The project will also be a model for "declining-neighborhood improvement" that may be passed on to other neighborhoods, the Green Valley Community Coordination Council and other interested groups.
Blenman Elm Neighbors Care Alliance (BENCA) - Award: $1,150
The Neighborhood Association will complete a survey in our large neighborhood. There are about 1000 homes and they need a creative/energized approach to reaching people. The group plans to send a postcard announcing BENCA, hand delivering a newsletter with a survey sample, contact number and solicitation for volunteering. They plan to link with the churches and schools.
Casa Paloma II Conceptual Plan and Demonstration Project - Award: $2,925
The project consists of the development of a conceptual plan for the neighborhood and the preparation of a specific plan for construction of a demonstration project. These projects will help the HOA to convince members to establish a proper reserve fund for needed rehabilitation and improvement of the neighborhood. With a conceptual plan and an adequate reserve fund the membership will be more likely to support an investment in the Casa Paloma II neighborhood thereby providing a safe, friendly, aesthetically pleasing community where the quality of life improves.
Soil Sement™ and Road Resurfacing - - Award: $2,100
In the area used by all residents we will prepare the road by grading and adding proper moisture. Dave Buckland, a local resident will prepare the road at a 50% discount. Then Earthcare Consultants will lay down the Soil Sement™ to stabilize the dirt road, which prevents dust from occurring. We also want to post signs to curb speed and create a sense of community awareness.
Picture Rocks Pride - Award: $2,300
Picture Rocks Pride Project volunteers will organize and execute quarterly neighborhood clean-ups for one year (November 2004 –November 2005) and bi-annual potlucks in the fall and spring after community clean-up events. Our initial focus will be to pick up trash in front of our schools, community center, park, and health clinic. We will also assist elderly, disabled, and families with key members absent in active military duty to clean up their properties.
Sparkman Butterfly Garden - Award: $2,500
Working with Tucson Electric Power and the Tucson Botanical Gardens, we want to paint the brick walls, install drip irrigation system, enhance the soil, plant approximately 110 1 gallon or 5 gallon native plants (20 species), place boulders for butterfly propagation and lay down decomposed granite for weed control. TEP will be responsible for watering and tree maintenance and the neighborhood association will be responsible for weeding and upkeep.
Project SAFE - Award: $3,500
Project SAFE will trap feral cats. Kittens who can be tamed will be re-homed. Adults will simply be returned to the mobile home park. Every trapped cat will be sterilized, vaccinated for rabies and will be tattooed for easy identification by our volunteers. Cats which are FIP or HIV positive will be euthanized to eliminate the spread of disease among the colony.
Getting the KINC/KYNCs Out: Step One in Forming a Working Neighbors Care Alliance - Award: $2,000
Youth and adults will plan and conduct a Caring-Call-a-Thon to assess elder needs and available resources within each of the four neighborhoods in the coalition. The pre-publicized calling campaign, in addition to follow-up mailing and interviews will provide the information needed to match elderly community members in need of assistance with willing community volunteer caregivers.
Neighborhood Identification and Beautification Project - Award: $1,000
We are going to create a sign from metal showing the silhouette of the cityscape and “A” Mountain against a backdrop of the silhouette of the Catalinas, backlit by a solar light. We are going to purchase desert plants and plant them in the medians of Bella Vista Drive and Panorama Circle. We will engage walkers in the neighborhood to carry water on their walks and water these plants for a few weeks until they get started.
Samos Neighborhood Traffic Circle Landscaping - Award: $3,675
We will complete the landscaping for the traffic circles according to the city approved landscape plans. This plan includes extensive trees, shrubs and cacti as well as boulders and gravel. The neighborhood association will purchase and plant the trees, shrubs, and cacti called for in the plans, as well as coordinate the placement of boulders and gravel in the circles and chicanes. We intend to promote neighborhood involvement by holding “Planting Parties” and informational meetings combined with pot-lucks to generate enthusiasm.
Indian Ridge Communicating Effectively - Award: $800
We will erect two weatherproof display cases/bulletin boards, one on the exterior wall, one on the interior wall of the Indian Ridge pool. These will be lit with motion lights and the exterior walkway lit with solar path lights for safety. We will create an IR web site and write and deliver quarterly newsletters to all households.
Neighborhood Get-Together - Award: $2,000
In order to bring the neighborhood together for the purpose of forming a neighborhood coalition we would organize a street barbecue. Everyone in our community would have the chance to interact on a social yet positively informational level. We would advertise in English and Spanish, Invite local fire, rescue, police and other officials as well as other associations, rent shades, tables, chairs, BBQ’s, generators, lighting, portapotties, DJ or band, jumping castle, purchase food, drinks, paper plates and plastic cutlery, and donate a large number of volunteer hours in preparation.
Catalina Community Garden - Award: $1,830
Our goal is to establish and maintain a community garden with the collaborative efforts of Catalina residents. Our intentions are to produce quality fruits and vegetables to be donated to low income families and senior citizens of greater Catalina through the Catalina Food Bank and the Senior Programs Center.
Westside Helping Our Precious Elders - Award: $3,300
We will do a community survey over a three-month period, using both door-to-door interviews and telephone calls to determine the needs of our elders, and recruit adult and teen volunteers for an ongoing Westside HOPE Volunteer Project that will receive its funding in 2005 to provide services to elders.
3535 calle del prado
We will clean up the Mountain Avenue drainage, paint a mural on the spillway wall, place a river rock-based skyline on the concrete wall bounding the Park and Ride, and build a permanent neighborhood bulletin board for local notices and activities.
Rose Beautification Project - Award: $3,090
In partnership with Pima Council on Aging, the Rose NA will match seniors in need of yard work against a roster of available volunteers ready to contribute their time and experience. The funds will be utilized to purchase landscaping equipment such as weed eaters, rakes, shovels, gloves, garbage bags, etc,. and monies will be used to pay for printing costs associated with flyers, needs assessments and surveys to evaluate the success of the project.
Meyer Avenue Beautification and Community Enrichment - Award: $1,500
The project focuses on the creation of sitting/gathering areas, where neighbors can get together and socialize in the evenings after work or dinner. We already seem to congregate often. However, having a designated, comfortable and visually pleasing area will make it even more appealing. Our vision is to enhance our streetscape in a manner that encourages neighbors to get to know each other. It is important to us that we not only live next door to each other but that we feel a sense of community.
Neighborhood Kiosk/Bulletin Board - Award: $1,000
We wish to construct a permanent adobe kiosk, which will serve as a bulletin board and as a neighborhood focal point and gathering place. We have been working on this project for several years, have done construction drawings, obtained contractor bids, city approval and a temporary revocable easement for the small strip of city land on which this kiosk is to be constructed. The bulletin board will be used to post community and neighborhood notices.
Mi Jardin Es Su Jardin- My Garden is Your Garden - Award: $4,565
We are going to organize volunteers to develop three beautiful public community gardens, using native pollinator plants. These pollinator gardens will serve as models, teaching tools and motivators for the broader development of at least 30 smaller yard gardens in homes throughout our community. In addition, the three public gardens will have water features which function as small refuges for the endangered Quitobaquito pupfish. The three garden sites are spaced to create the backbone of a pollinator corridor and at locations designed to involve a wide variety of people. Together town residents will be able to establish Ajo as a significant desert pollinator garden community supporting the migratory corridor.
Future Entrepreneurs - Award: $1,140
There are members within our community who want to start their own small businesses, but do not have the education or knowledge to do so. The project will help us acquire needed information. We will attend start-up business classes through MAC (Micro Advancement Center), which conducts business classes in Spanish. We will attend a fourteen-week class. We will present three workshops to members of our community and continue to be resources to the community. We also hope to sponsor other students with money made from our small business ventures.
Old Pascua Youth Artists Mosaic Tile Project - Award: $4,425
The project is an intensive arts education and intergenerational community building project that will engage and train 15-20 youth ages 8-21 in the following activities: researching Yaqui culture and history, designing art and documenting community history through mosaic tile art, developing leadership skills, interacting with adults and elders from the community, learning new and marketable job skills, enhancing and beautifying the community, and increasing individual and community pride. The project will begin with a mosaic mural tour followed by eight weeks of mosaic tile workshops. It will culminate in a training on art exhibit curation along with three exhibitions/celebrations at Old Pascua, New Pascua and Congressman Raul Grijalva’s office. Collaborative pieces and selected works will be kept and included in future public projects planned for the community.
Community Cleanup - Award: $3,349
The Three Points community is a rural, low to moderate income area which has had a problem with illegal trash dumping. By providing the incentives and resources to each neighborhood, it is expected that the residents will become motivated to participate in this project and continue to keep their property and neighborhood clean. The Council will identify cleanup coordinators in each neighborhood, determine the date for neighborhood cleanup, advertise (newsletter, flyers, direct mail and word of mouth) time and date of cleanup, invite the media to to the neighborhoods, determine how many will participate, and on the day of the cleanup, the Council will join the residents and provide tools, bags, protective clothing and refreshments.
Farmacy Garden Adobe Project - Award: $2,216
Spirit of Service, Inc./Farmacy Garden was established to address the growing health care needs and food security issues surrounding lower-income Tucson populations. The Farmacy Garden provides a community where diverse participants can engage in cultivating organic produce and medicinal herbs. We are going to build an adobe structure with on-site earth materials. It will serve our needs as a secure tool storage and seed-saving facility as well as rainwater harvesting mechanism. Primarily, this project will serve as an outreach to and educational facility for youth in the community.
Northern Peter Howell Traffic Calming Project - Award:$2750
Peter Howell Safe and Beautiful (PHSB) was formed to reduce traffic and speed and to create a sense of security along the streets of the northern part of Peter Howell neighborhood. The project will consist of up to seven traffic calming centers which will reduce traffic speeds in an area that is subject to cut-through traffic from cars at the intersections of Alvernon/Speedway and Columbus/Speedway. PHSB has collected over 120 signatures (over 60% of all residents in the affected area) in support of the project. With the help of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT), volunteers will conduct "design days" at each of the traffic calming locations. All residents of the area will be encouraged to attend to help design the traffic circles and/or bump-outs and also the landscaping there. Funds for construction and landscaping will be solicited from residents and area businesses.
Midway Wash Greenway - Award: $4,500
Our vision is to transform the current Midway Wash- an unattractive swath of weeds where standing water ponds for days after a heavy rain creating mosquito, health and safety problems- into a greenway with proper drainage, where neighbors can congregate and walk. The project integrates the issues to the vision through professional planning as the first step. PRO funds would be used in this planning stage. Plans include creating a pedestrian path, planting native trees and other native vegetation to beautify the pedestrian and bicycle route while benefiting birds and other small animals, and applying permaculture methods that allow infiltration of rainwater to benefit plants and defuse the mosquito problem.
The Land Conservation Project - Award: $2,750
Our main goal is to preserve the following historic sites and open space: 1) Steam Pump Ranch site and buildings on Oracle Road near First Avenue. 2) Hohokam site at Rancho Vistoso Blvd. near Moore Road. 3) Kelly Ranch including Joessler Home on Oracle Road north of Tangerine Road. In addition, other historic sites and open space such as scenic and wildlife corridors, as they are identified, will be added. PRO funds would be utilized to educate the public, including school children, to the value of these historic sites and open space through the creation of a brochure which will be made available at public forums and at public events such as the Greater Oro Valley Arts and Music Festival, Jazz Festival, 4th of July Celebration and at school assemblies. PRO funds would also cover booth and/or meeting room rental at these events. We will also organize a Friends Group and fundraising campaign.
Operation Get Costumes - Award: $1,000
At this time, our school does not incorporate much of the Hispanic culture into its curriculum or after-school activities. We worry that many aspects of our students’ culture will not carry on through the generations. We also know that when students’ cultures are not represented by the school, lack of interest can lead to high drop-out rates. Our program will bring cultural awareness to the school and surrounding area. The project will bring parents and community member to an elevated level of involvement by asking for their time and effort in making costumes. Our children will also be able to represent each regional culture better with correct dance costumes. More elegant costumes should also lead to more elegant performances, thus high attendance and community interest. We will buy the materials necessary to make Folkloric costumes. We will then invite parents, teachers, and all interested community members to sew the costumes.
Backyard Wall for Grace Home - Award: $2000
More than 200 homeless children benefited from the services and care provided at the Grace Home. Safety for children is a major issue in this community. We will put up a solid wall across the back yard, where currently there is a four-foot high chain-link fence (state safety requirement). Strangers and non-custodial parents are able to see into the back yard and children can climb over. We will plant trees and we plan to landscape the play yard, which is currently dirt with a sandbox. We also plan to put a gate across the front entrance for security.
Villages Improvement Project - Award: $2,000
Improve the landscaping of the twenty foot-wide county easement that runs parallel to the sidewalk and La Cañada frontage road adjacent to many of our homes. This area is on county property and the county has given us permission to do this project. The area will be improved by placing 5/8" gravel, river rocks, boulders and doing planting in the area.
Art and Oral History Documentation - Award: $4,000
Staya Pic Hills will host the annual Día de San Francisco for the entire Tohono O’Odham reservation. We would like to create an oral history video and booklet of the significance this tradition has for our people. We will also create a bronze art piece for San Pedro plaza where the festival is held. We will address cultural preservation and intergenerational teamwork, passing on the knowledge from elders to youth. By involving youth in creating the oral history and art we will build skills that can be shared with the entire reservation and the final product will capture our findings of the ancient tradition of gathering as one community.
Kids Krops - Award: $1,300
We want activities for kids in our community, especially kids that are 6-12 years old. They will plant and harvest, bake bread, make tea, collect compost from neighbors and make compost. We will sell crops we grow and create a cool play area in the garden. We will tile donated tables to make checker and chess boards.
Grande Avenue Enhancement Initiative Strategic Planning - Award: $1,440
For some time, the neighborhood association has been concerned with trying to revitalize Grande Avenue, the main corridor and heart of our neighborhood, which has fallen into considerable disrepair. Grande Avenue is home to at least ten family-owned businesses, several churches, and residences. Grande is a street with heavy pedestrian and bus traffic, but is lacking in landscaping, pedestrian facilities, public gathering spaces, public art, and transportation safety improvements which would increase the overall livability of our community and also the economic viability of the local businesses. This project will allow the neighborhood association to conduct a community visioning and strategic planning process as the initial step toward the enhancement of Grande Avenue.
Dunbar/Spring Hammermill Project - Award: $4,900
We want to acquire a community hammermill that can move about the Tucson area for neighborhood-based milling of mesquite pods into delicious edible flour. Milling days will double as community-wide gatherings and celebrations. A mobile community hammermill will make the processing of the flour free for participants, making this abundant, local and nutritious food convenient and affordable.
Arivaca Safety Fence Project - Award: $995
Install a 500 foot long, 5 foot high chain-link safety fence between the fire station and the community center where local children go for after-school programs, TOTS, summer recreation programs and to use the public playground. Lack of a barrier fence is a safety issue since activity (helicopter landings for emergency evacuation, fire and medical calls for the vehicles) has increased. Hauling and labor will be donated. Community members will contribute tools, specialized fencing equipment and the flatbed truck or trailer for hauling the materials.
Zuni Avenue Artisans Project - Award: $1,631
The Zuni Ave. Artisans Project is one of four projects offered at the Zuni Ave. Peace Center, a 501(c) (3) non-profit, community and peace-building organization located in the Corbett neighborhood. The project offers workshops in ceramic tile mosaic and carpentry. To date, over 45 youth and 10 adults have participated in two, ongoing weekly workshops: Saturday Art Days and Girls with Tools. This workshop was the brainchild of neighborhood girls who desired more experience in the use of hand and power tools. Confidence and self-esteem are natural by-products of this workshop, as girls are empowered to learn, create and problem-solve. Since August, 2002, 15 girls have participated in this unique workshop.
Amphi Acres Community Garden - Award: $5,000
The Amphi Acres Community Garden will be for educational, recreational and home economics purposes. We want to have a workshop space/social area where a ramada will be built off of an existing backstop, benches for seating, a youth garden with interactive cob/adobe structures, a water feature, desert forest perimeter interplanted with native desert edibles and herbs, desert-hardy fruit orchard, pollinator/beneficial insect-attracting plants, a water harvesting feature to store rainwater runoff from school roof, a community compost site, a shed to store materials and tools for the garden and finally, educational signs to communicate names, functions, and how-tos of all the specific features of the community garden.
Vista del Prado Park Upgrade - Award: $4,775
Vista del Prado Park is 30 years old. Little League baseball has been the primary activity over the years, with Pop Warner football also using the park. In recent years, the residents have begun using the park for family activity and exercise. The walking path was installed in 1998 using Back To Basics funds. The International Baseball League was instrumental in obtaining additional lighting for the baseball fields. Neighborhood children use the park for baseball and football. Tucson Parks and Recreation approached the neighborhood association in 2001 about installing playground equipment in the park and their help was gratefully accepted. They are also planning to install lights by the playground and walking path so that they can be used at night. Our goal is to paint the bleachers and existing benches as well as install new benches, lighting and drinking fountains along the walking path.
Cholla Breakaway Strategic Planning Workshops - Award: $5,000
Substance abuse is a continuing problem on Cholla High Magnet School’s campus. This abuse has increased dramatically over the last few years, becoming even more evident during the 2002-2003 school year. In order to address this serious issue, students need time for strategic planning. Creating action plans in student teams is facilitated by leaving the physical school and influences present on the campus, as we intensely discuss how personal stories impact our understanding of drug abuse, and formulate specific projects with timelines and accountability. Our main proposal is for funding of the strategic planning workshop this spring and a follow-up check-in and evaluation of our action plans in the fall.
Community Gardens - Award: $648
The project is to update our existing community garden facilities. The community garden has been in active use for 20 years and the facilities need a replacement of the water distribution system (plot feeder lines) through each plot. The funds would also be used to rebuild our ramada and repaint our tool shed.
Mountain View H.S. LINK Crew (Marana)
Leading, Linking & Leaving a Legacy - Award: $1,500
LINK Crew is a freshman transition program that welcomes freshmen and makes them feel comfortable throughout the first year of high school. Built on the belief that students can help students succeed, LINK Crew trains recommended juniors and seniors to be LINK leaders. As positive role models, LINK leaders are motivators, leaders and teachers who guide freshmen to discover what it takes to be successful in high school. The Leading, Linking, and Leaving work with the upcoming freshmen during their 2nd semester in eighth grade. LINK leaders will go to Tortolita Middle School for one period per week from January through May. The focus of the LINK leaders will be both social and academic. Ideally, each eighth grader will receive one folder to store all of their valuable resources. The LINK leaders will work with them and provide handouts on study skills, making positive choices, and the importance of working well with others.
The Changing Vistas - Award: $1,228
The only thing many people in Tucson think about the South Side and Las Vistas is that it is a dangerous, crime ridden place; somewhere your roll up your car windows and drive through as fast as possible. Five young people from Las Vistas, a neighborhood south of 36th St. and east of Campbell Ave., are determined to challenge their neighborhood's reputation and bring a rarely seen side of it to view. This group of 12 and 13 year olds will conduct interviews with elders, church leaders, local business owners, and their neighbors to discover some of the past of this transient area. Through the publication of these ethnographic interviews, the entire Tucson community will gain an understanding of the people that have lived in the Vistas and it's cultural changes. The community will become the author of its own history through its youth.
Agro labs youth projects - Award: $2,500
The project is dedicated to teaching "Native Peoples sustenance agriculture" to our students so that they might better understand the desert environment in which we all live. The Agro Labs project will be one of the places where youth can provide leadership and make decisions about what to grow and how to grow it. It provides a place where we as youth leaders can plan for harvest on a year round scale as we provide teaching skills. It offers chances for young people to be a part of planting and learning about growing the land and a return to Native American values and working with Mother Earth. Teaching in our culture the land, water and plants are all sacred.
YEP Teen HIV Prevention Brochure - Award: $1,040
The Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) Advisory Council is a group of teenagers and adults who are interested in how to protect teens and others against HIV, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. The YEP Advisory Council meets on a weekly basis to talk about what is happening in the lives of teens in our community. Our goal on the YEP Advisory Council is to prevent teens from getting HIV, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Amphi Neighborhood Strikes Back - Award: $1,800
We will make a video that will clear up the stereotypes of the Amphi community. The Amphi community will be involved with this project every step of the way.
Girls to the Rescue! - Award: $2,000
To purchase the reflective signs that are used in rural areas to mark the house numbers that can be viewed from the road by emergency vehicles, postmen or whoever needs to find them. The girls have learned from the local fire department that they very often have trouble finding the homes of people who live in these rural areas when the house numbers are not visible from the road. These address markers could be the difference between life and death in some cases.
Pathway to Character - Award: $1,725
We would like to remodel our visitation area. We would like it to look nice for our families and we want them to see that we are in a nice place and are well taken care of. We would like to purchase bricks to complete a walkway, which is currently a plain dirt path. By creating this "Pathway to Character" we feel this would give our park a better look as well as increase the safety for our visitors. Eventually we would also like to purchase six concrete tables that we could decorate as the six pillars of character. We would like these tables to have fixtures for umbrellas so that there will be more shade for our families. We would also purchase paint and other supplies that would possibly be used for decorating. Our maintenance department will provide us with most of the tools necessary for our project.
Learning about Limberlost - Award: $4,000
The Limberlost Neighborhood Association (LNA) would like to embark on a two-pronged effort to assume stewardship of our neighborhood. Having organized, and having accumulated a strong core of interested neighbors, we would like to be able now to make informed decisions regarding issues which come before the group either from neighbors or from outside sources such as the Planning and Zoning Commission. We propose to study our neighborhood demographics such as land use, property ownership, and block-level data; identify neighbor-to-neighbor skills and resources; and examine and compare two sets of census data, again at the block-level, to give us an in-depth picture of this neighborhood.
Arivaca Enrichment Center - Award: $4,000
The Arivaca Yogis are requesting $5,000 to build a permanent structure at the Arivaca Community Garden that will serve as an appropriate long-term site for multiple types of yoga classes. A community greenhouse for experimental growing, e.g. ornamentals, tropics, native seed, and medicinal herbs. And a center of health and well being for all members of the community in which we can offer a variety of classes and activities.
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Community Organizing
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