Gilroy
– Neighbors sick of not knowing their other neighbors are
invited to attend the Neighborhood Grants Information Meeting on
Tuesday, Feb. 6, where would-be leaders can learn about money
available to make neighbors out of the people-next-door.
Gilroy – Neighbors sick of not knowing their other neighbors are invited to attend the Neighborhood Grants Information Meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 6, where would-be leaders can learn about money available to make neighbors out of the people-next-door.
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation offers yearly grants up to $5,000 for ice-cream socials, block cleanups, Neighborhood Watch and other programs to bring neighbors together.
“The money is a catalyst,” said Community Service Officer Rachel Munoz, who is helping coordinate the workshop. “It works so that neighborhoods can unite, get to know each other, and build community.”
During the past decade, several Gilroy neighborhoods have won funds, and watched their neighborhoods take shape. Among them is Rogers Lane, which applied for the grant in 1996, said Munoz.
“The neighborhood was high-density, but very isolated,” Munoz recalled. “People didn’t talk to each other. There were drive-by shootings. There was apathy. People felt helpless. They felt like there was nobody out there to help them out.”
Using the funds, Rogers Lane residents sponsored community events, where neighbors met each other and connected. Doing so, they began to feel more comfortable reporting crime in their neighborhood, and talking to each other about what they’d seen, said Munoz. Since then, at least nine more neighborhoods have received the grant, including Stoney Court, Summerhill, Glenview, Fairview Drive, San Ysidro, Forest Street, Eigleberry and E. Eighth Street, and the latter two received community organizing awards for their work, Munoz said.
Award-winning neighborhood leader Judy Hess said the grant transformed the Summerhill neighborhood, part of South County’s Los Arroyos development. After receiving the grant several years ago, Summerhill sponsored a Fourth of July party, a neighborhood cleanup day and a Mardi Gras party with the funds.
“Many of us live in a time where people open their garage door and close it, and don’t see their neighbors much,” she said. “Now, we have a safe neighborhood. If someone has a problem, they’re comfortable sharing it. We’ve pulled together.”
Hess added that the workshop, sponsored by Gilroy police, South County Housing and the city’s Housing and Community Development department, taught her how to apply for the grant, from figuring out the finances to paging through the necessary paperwork.
In the Eigleberry neighborhood, community organizer Art Barron said the two grants the Gilroy Eigleberry Neighborhood Association has received have paid for cleanups, community health days, barbecues and a beefed-up Neighborhood Watch program.
“It’s what got us going,” said Barron. “Before, people were so quiet. They didn’t even want to talk to each other. There were lots of drugs going on, and people were afraid … Now, crime is reduced, and neighbors report suspicious people to the police.”
Like Hess, Barron said the workshops walked him through the grant process – something he’d never done before.
“There aren’t many grants like this, that we’re aware of,” said Munoz.
Two more workshops will follow Tuesday’s meeting, for groups that want help preparing their grants, on Tuesday, Feb. 20 and Tuesday, Feb. 27, at the Gavilan College Computer Lab at 385 IOOF Ave., Building 1. Computers will be available for those who don’t have them at home.
