GILROY
– Gilroyans interested in sprucing up their neighborhoods will
have a chance to get some major financial help Wednesday night.
GILROY – Gilroyans interested in sprucing up their neighborhoods will have a chance to get some major financial help Wednesday night.
The Community Foundation Silicon Valley and the Gilroy Police Department are holding an informative meeting at 7 p.m. in the Senior Center, 7371 Hanna St., to help local citizens and community leaders apply for annual neighborhood grants distributed through a county-wide program.
The grants are designed to bring neighborhoods together through social events, awareness programs, neighborhood improvement training and beautification activities.
“The grant money (CFSV) has made available has enabled neighborhoods to organize, mobilize and act as positive catalysts in their communities,” said Rachel Muñoz, a community service officer with the Gilroy Police Department involved in the program. “Once these neighborhoods get focused it is easy to improve the quality of life. These grants have helped neighborhoods strengthen themselves by taking back their neighborhoods and reducing crime.”
In April, six Gilroy neighborhoods were granted more than $20,000 by the CFSV – the largest number of grants to Gilroy in the program’s history – which has been used for everything from organizing neighborhood watch programs to hosting ice cream socials. That money had an effect on more than 350 local families, Muñoz said.
The GPD, South County Housing and United Neighborhoods helped the CFSV award the money to Rogers Lane, Murray Avenue, Summer Hill, IOOF/San Ysidro, Fairview and Southgate neighborhoods during its last grant cycle. The $20,550 in grant money given to these six communities was more than half of the $39,506 distributed by the CFSV throughout Silicon Valley.
“Look at Rogers Lane to see how much this grant has helped that community,” Muñoz said. “San Ysidro Park use to be a gang-banger hangout and now it’s a family park. Now there’s a stop sign at the corner of Sixth Street and Rogers Lane; now there’s a crossing guard. There use to be drive-by shootings in this neighborhood all the time, now there’s none.”
CFSV was founded in 1954 with $55,000. With the goal of community building, the endowment fund gives out its own money, and connects potential donors to the causes they wish to sponsor, according to a spokeswoman.
“We see ourselves as being sort of a catalyst for philanthropy,” said CFSV Spokeswoman Michelle McGurk in a statement following the naming of last year’s grant recipients. “Our community is only as strong as our least healthy neighborhoods.”
Anyone interested in applying for a neighborhood grant can call Rachel Muñoz at 846-6372 or check the CFSV Web site at www.cfsv.org.
