Publication Date: Wednesday May 26, 1999

COMMUNITY: Good neighbors get grants for community improvements

Reflecting the idea that some of the best community building goes on at the neighbor-to-neighbor level, the Peninsula Community Foundation recently gave individual grants of up to $5,000 to 11 neighborhood groups.

Youth United for Community Action, the Gloria Way Homeowner's Association, Comite 5 de Mayo East Palo Alto, the Alameda Streetscape Task Force and St. Mark's-Peninsula Interfaith Action were among the Midpeninsula groups selected to receive grants this year.

"We want to help people build a sense of community in their neighborhood, encourage people to get involved and promote civic engagement," said Mario Paz, the Foundation's neighborhood grants program officer.

Launched two years ago, the neighborhood grants program focuses on grass-roots, volunteer-driven organizations. Any group of residents with a specific project in mind for their neighborhood is eligible to apply for a grant. Because small communities are the target of the program, larger nonprofit organizations are excluded from funding.

The latest round of grants, ranging from $3,000 to $6,000, totals over $50,000. Among other things, the recent grants will fund a quarterly youth-produced "'zine" (magazine) in East Palo Alto, workshops on urban planning for residents of west Menlo Park and community safety classes and family activities for residents of Gloria Way in East Palo Alto.

"We saw the need for youth to have their opinion heard so they can interact within the community and make a change in the community," said Lourdes Best, 18, a Youth United for Community Action member who helped write the group's grant proposal.

YUCA members will use their $6,000 grant to create a magazine addressing teen issues in society. Four members of the group are planning the upcoming issue and delegating tasks to other group members.

At Gloria Way, a 24-unit, low-income housing development in East Palo Alto, residents will use their $5,000 grant to fund family activities, summer child care for families who can't afford it, a possible new picnic area and garden improvements, the purchase of tools for common resident use and community safety classes.

According to Tonya Alexander, a Gloria Way resident and board member, writing the grant proposal for residents of the 3-year-old housing development was an exercise in group collaboration.

"I was leaning over my balcony, asking (other families living below), 'What do you want?'" Alexander said. "That's how I wrote it."

Most Gloria Way residents are first-time homeowners, Alexander said, and sharing responsibility for a housing complex can be overwhelming. Gloria Way residents are required to participate in the homeowners' association and in maintenance of the buildings.

"We're still learning. It's like running your own small corporation. We're just trying to get the feel of it and orient everyone to community-style living," Alexander said.

The Alameda Streetscape Task Force, a group of 40 residents living on and around Alameda de las Pulgas in west Menlo Park, will use its $5,000 grant to educate local residents and business owners on how to solve traffic and infrastructure problems in the district.

The district was rezoned last year by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors to discourage a proposed 50,000-square-foot office building development. According to Leslie Wambach, an Alameda resident and task force member, the group was formed because the rezoning failed to address ongoing problems in the district, including a lack of contiguous sidewalks and unsafe roadway conditions that encourage speeding.

These traffic problems, Wambach said, make the neighborhood dangerous for children who congregate in the area after school, as well as cyclists and motorists.

The grant will help fund a series of workshops with urban planners, so that residents and business owners can come up with their own plans to make the district safer and more attractive. The task force will then pass these recommendations on to the Board of Supervisors.

"We want to pull in and inform as many people as possible and have them describe their ideal vision of the district," Wambach said.

The Comite 5 de Mayo will use its $5,000 grant to plan and mount its annual Cinco de Mayo parade and festival in East Palo Alto. This year's parade was held May 2. Also, the St. Marks-Peninsula Interfaith Action Local Organizing Committee will use its $4,000 grant to improve the Jordan After-School Study Center, for middle school students from Palo Alto and East Palo Alto.

The neighborhood grants program was created in partnership with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, with support from Peninsula Community Foundation donors.

The deadline to apply for the next round of neighborhood grants is Aug. 31. Grant applications are available at the Peninsula Community Foundation, 1700 S. El Camino Real, No. 300, San Mateo. For more information on how to apply, call Mario Paz at 358-9369.1 n