Neighborhood Connections, with additional funding from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, announces $150,000 in grants to 66 neighborhood projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland.

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, Cuyahoga County’s local public funder for arts and culture, will co-fund 25 of the resident-led arts and culture projects through a partnership with Neighborhood Connections.

Some of projects are:

• Hands That Speak Volumes, Inc.* will receive $1,400 for Everybody Can Make Music, workshops and drum sessions for the deaf or hard of hearing in downtown Cleveland.
• African American Men Who Excel in Fairfax will receive $3,000 for Developing Youth to Make a Difference in the Community After School Program, a mentoring and tutoring program for elementary and middle school kids.
• Ty and the Knight Writer LLC* will receive $2,000 for Youth Fighting Stigma, an intergenerational program where 20 mental health patients write their memoirs, which are then designed and edited by youth in Midtown.
• Fullerton Block Club in Slavic Village will receive $3,000 for Bike-a-Thon and Night Out Against Crime. These two events will help strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships.
• Clair Superior Youth Leadership Council* will receive funds for a Teen Center that will host teen-led cooking, art, skateboarding, computer and gardening programs for leadership development in St. Clair Superior.

* Co-funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and Neighborhood Connections.

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture invested $85,000 in Neighborhood Connections in 2014 to fund vibrant arts and cultural programs in Cleveland and East Cleveland, with the aim to support community-based arts and culture activities organized by and for residents.

“We believe that empowered, active residents are at the heart of the Cleveland renaissance,” said Tom O’Brien, program director of Neighborhood Connections. “We see Neighborhood Connections grants as an investment in those folks and their innovative ideas, which are invigorating our city block by block.”

“Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s vision is to create energetic neighborhoods that are infused with arts and culture,” said Karen Gahl-Mills, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s executive director.  “A partnership with Neighborhood Connections has ensured that public funding, which comes from the community, is helping residents to make their neighborhoods more vibrant.”

Neighborhood Connections’ grant program offers grants of $500 to $5,000 twice a year in May and November to groups of residents in Cleveland and East Cleveland who organize projects to improve the quality of life in their neighborhood.  Groups are encouraged to work with partners, and to propose creative solutions to challenges in their neighborhood.