 Good evening everyone. Thanks for joining us. This evening we are holding the City of Santa Rosa's Community Advisory Board Grant Program Information Meeting. So I've been advised that you've already picked up your application so you may have that in front of you. And we'll be going over some of these topics and our staff will be presenting to us. So first I'd like to introduce myself. I am Leslie Graves. I am the Chair of the Community Advisory Board. And we meet on the fourth Wednesday of each month usually. There's a little asterisk there because in the month of May we will be meeting on the third Wednesday. So you can pick up that information on the City of Santa Rosa website. This evening we will be joined by our staff that is part of our liaison group for the Community Advisory Board. And we will have our Community Engagement Coordinator will be running the agenda. That will be Danielle Garduniel. Danielle is here. And we also will be joined by one of our Community Engagement Coordinator, AmeriCorps VISTAs, Montse, Salas. I'll be going over the little bit of the agenda right now. Just a little bit of a review and then we'll be going more in-depth during the meeting. So after this brief welcome we'll be reviewing the application that you may have in front of you now or that you picked up on the website. We'll be going over the evaluation criteria, the application process. We'll also have time for Q&A and that will conclude our meeting. So thank you again so much for joining us. Thank you for being interested in this process of applying for a Community Advisory Board grant and for all that you do within our community. At this time I'll be passing it over to Danielle. Thank you Leslie. Good afternoon or early evening everyone. I'm Danielle Garduniel, the Community Engagement Coordinator for the City of Santa Rosa. Thank you again for being here with us. As I mentioned in the chat box, if you do not have the application packet yet you can access that by going to www.srcity.org slash cabgrants. And I apologize it looks like I put in the cab website in the chat box. Just add grants to the end of that or you can still go to the cab website and access the application from there. We will be getting to Q&A after we go through the grant application packet. So I'll hold on to those questions. Feel free to put them in the chat or raise your hand once we get to the Q&A. And also just to let everybody know we did do a similar meeting yesterday held in Spanish for our Spanish language residents, our Spanish-speaking residents. And the recording for that particular meeting will be available shortly on the cab grant website. We're just trying to figure out how to get it uploaded as well as after this one is over we will also upload to the website as well. Alright, so jumping into the application, we'll start with what the community improvement grant program is. So the City of Santa Rosa Community Advisory Board, also known as the CAB, connects the government to residents so the public can have a voice in decisions that impact their lives and to build a stronger community. The CAB partners with the community to build connected, empowered and resilient neighborhoods through its community improvement grant program. So with the grant program, these are beautification projects that you can do in your neighborhood or in the Santa Rosa area that will benefit all Santa Rosans. Or it could be a capacity building type project that allows for a large number of let's say a neighborhood group or a community wide group to receive training on a certain leadership skill that will help with their community work. So how much are grants? Grants are available up to $2,500. What types of projects can be funded? The projects that can be funded must take place within the city limits of Santa Rosa. And again, they are either physical improvement projects such as a garden restoration project or installation of a community garden, a community mural. It could be the installation of a memorial plaque. And then as I mentioned before, it could also be a training that benefits a neighborhood group or a community group that's free and accessible to all group members that will then provide them with skills to then go out and do work in the community. Who can apply? Non-profits, neighborhood groups and or associations, homeowners associations, service clubs, community groups and or organizations and schools may apply to fund a project in Santa Rosa within the city limits. So those neighborhood and community groups, they don't have to be a formal neighborhood association or homeowners association. It can be an informal group. And we do also encourage those particular groups if they would like to partner with a nonprofit to go ahead and reach out to those nonprofits to do so. What are eligible expenses for the community improvement grant program? These include contractor fees, supplies, equipment rentals, permit and insurance fees or costs, other permits related to the project, food and group trainings. Ineligible expenses include cost incurred prior to the grant award, indirect costs, ongoing maintenance or and operational costs or overhead business expenses like rents, mortgage payments, property taxes, utilities or office supplies. Again, ongoing maintenance, upkeep, landscaping and repairs, fundraising, staff salaries, membership dues, new business startup money, individual training or education and travel expenses. So the community improvement grant program is a match program, a grant match program. So what does this mean? This means the applicants must have a one to one match of funds or in kind donations that match the requested grant amount. For example, the applicant, if the applicant is requesting a grant amount of $2,500, they must have matching funds or in kind donations of at least $2,500. There is no maximum amount of matching funds. So matching funds can either be donated cash, labor, materials or equipment or any combination that qualifies as matching funds. These include volunteer hours. So materials should be valued at market rate. Equipment should be based on actual rental rates and volunteer labor should be valued at $22.14 per hour per person. Now I'm going to cover the evaluation criteria. So the Community Advisory Board, after staff looks for eligible applications, receive the applications to review at a meeting that is open to the public, which we will notify the public when this meeting will be happening. The CAB, when they review the applications will look for the following areas. Community building, does the project support community building, strengthen neighborhoods, and or build relationships among residents? Project team, are volunteers and project partners a significant part of the project? Are there are there partnering organizations, individuals and or associations involved in the project? Now this is a pretty significant piece of the evaluation. The Community Improvement Grant Program is designed to support community building, social cohesion and relationships among neighborhoods. Community support, does your project have clear neighborhood and community support? If so, does the applicant demonstrate that support? So you do have to demonstrate this. This could be through letters of support. It can be through just signed, not so much a petition, but signed a list of neighbors that support the project and that would like to be involved. Also, what value does this project add to the community? The budget. Is the budget well thought out, reasonable and realistic? And also remember in the budget form, you do have to show those matching funds. And where those funds are coming from, whether they be volunteer hours, other grant funding sources, etc. Project reach. How many people in the community community will benefit from your project? Environmental consciousness. Does the project reflect environmental consciousness regarding materials, energy and conservation? And finally, accessibility. Is your project open, free and accessible to all community members? The Community Improvement Grants can best serve the community by making each project funded through the Community Improvement Grant Program as broadly accessible as possible. This means by creating opportunities for people of all abilities and thinking expansively about how to be widely inclusive, welcoming and collaborative. All projects funded by the Community Improvement Grant Program need to meet these requirements. All right, so now I'll review the application process. So all applications submitted must include the application form, which is located on page eight of the application packet, project budget and matching funds sheet, which is located on page nine of the application packet, responses to grant application questions, no more than three double-sided pages, 12 point font, which are located on page 10 of the application packet. Grant applications must be received by the date listed in the table on page one of the application packet in order to be considered. This year, the CAB is going to be doing their program a little bit differently. Whereas in previous years, we had one deadline per year and that was it. This year, we will have three separate deadlines. The first deadline is June 30th. And then afterwards, the CAB will be reviewing those applications and selecting grantees at their July 2021 meeting. The next application deadline is September 30th. The CAB will then hold their selection, grant selection meeting in October 2021. And then finally, the third application period, all grants will be due by December 31st. And then the CAB will hold their selection meeting January 2022. Expect exceptions will not be made and late submissions will not be considered. Applications may be submitted via email, mail, or in person. This information can be found on page one and two of the application packet. Staff will review applications for eligibility and completeness. All eligible and complete applications will be distributed to the CAB for review. The Community Advisory Board votes on final approval or denial of all grants. All applicants will be notified in writing of their grant status after the CAB has voted. All right. So that concludes the application itself, the evaluation criteria and the application process. And now we will go ahead and open it up to question and answer with those who are in, who are participating in this meeting. So let us go ahead and see what we have here. Great. It looks like Leslie did post the link to the application packet. I don't see any questions so far. If you do have a question, please feel free to raise your hand and we will go ahead and unmute you. Danielle, I would love to just clarify those dates because I know you are lightning fast going over this information. It's so awesome. Danielle is such an asset to the city and to the Community Advisory Board and this grant process application process. So I know it's something new. Those of you that may have heard a little bit about the Community Improvement Grants in the past that for a couple of years, there was a neighborhood fest kind of component where neighborhoods were actually gathering an event and lots of different different people coming to that event in order to table. This year, that's not the case. COVID regulations and COVID restrictions are making it to where this is an improvement grant process. So there's no events required and also, which I think is fabulous, it's something that we're expanding the accessibility of the grant itself with it being a quarterly process. So if you're applying during this quarter, you make your application in by June 30, then you're eligible for those grants that are going to get decided in July of this year. But let's say that you have a great idea and you're just not able to get that idea off the ground, get all the information onto the application forms, get all the community support that you know that you can get. You can actually then just wait until the next quarter deadline and that next one being September 30 or you may even want to wait until the December 31 deadline. So those quarter deadlines being at the end of June at the end of September and then again at the end of December is really giving you the flexibility in order to get your grant application in when it is most appropriate for you and your neighborhood and the different organizations that you're going to be working with. So we will be actually awarding grants on a quarterly basis. So don't feel like you're getting left out and also don't ever feel like you're behind. You're right on time because there's going to be another quarterly process and application process that you can apply to. So I hope that that helps to clear it out and know that these are improvement grant projects. So whatever you might have heard in the past, go ahead, put that on a shelf. We might get back there after COVID is taken care of. But for now, we are doing community improvement grants. And so this application is what we need to look for. And this is what we need to fill out. So thank you. And also, if you're wondering like what what ideas are out there, what could I do using these funds? The community improvement grant website actually lists previous rantees and their projects on the site. So if you scroll down to the bottom, there is a list of two previous cycles, as well as actually there's three, the one from last year and then two prior to that. So take a look and see what those applicants did or are currently doing. Also another thing real quick and I see Sheila that you have your hand up. I'll get to you in just one moment that I wanted to let everyone know is that once the cab grants your award, you will have one year from that award date to complete your project. There are no extensions. And that is due to the fact that the council gives the cab money, but it also has the power to take that money away. So we want to make sure that you get your project done and get reimbursed for it. So now I'm going to go ahead and let me see Sheila. Alrighty, and then all right, if you go ahead and unmute your microphone, Sheila, you should be able to ask your question. I just wanted to put out that on my screen, it says the chat is disabled. Oh, OK. Thank you. I appreciate that. So let's see here. See if I can go ahead and get that working for everybody. Right. Hopefully. I think it's OK now. OK, perfect. Thank you. All right. With that chat enabled, that means that we might get some more questions here. I'll get folks a little time to get those keyed in and talk about one of the things that I noticed in previous grants application process is the completeness of the grant application. That's something to really hone in on. If you have questions, again, like I mentioned earlier, Daniela is such an asset here with the city and with this process of the Community Advisory Board grant program, you know, she's available to ask questions and has her email address that you can send her a question even after this presentation. So that completeness, I think another great reason why it is going to a quarterly system. If you're unable to complete all of the details of your application, it is best to get the application complete before turning it in because you don't want your application to be put to the side because it is incomplete. So and sometimes it's really simple questions. So if there is an onslaught of applications that come in to the Community Engagement Department, though they're not going to be able to chase every single empty space down. So better to get those applications complete. We do have a CAB meeting that's coming up actually next Wednesday on the 28th. And so that might be something that you that you want to come to and listen and see all the different CAB members that are there so that you know who are the people who are going to be looking at your application. I think one other thing that I wanted to go ahead and point out here as well. If you're looking for ideas for your project on page three and actually, no, it's just sorry, it's just page three of the application packet talks about more in detail what types of projects may be funded, including some focus areas. And so we always like it when the projects can be aligned with city council goals. So one of those goals happens to be fostering neighborhood partnerships and strengthening cultural assets. So again, I mentioned some ideas like a community garden, community clean up day, art projects, et cetera. The council also has some crisis response response priorities which include COVID-19 responsive recovery. So some ideas we had about that are food and our clothing distribution to some of our more vulnerable populations. Again, community garden or food pantry creations trying to get some food out to folks that might need it. Public safety priorities and reform. So really around public safety is all about disaster preparedness and getting ready for that next next crisis. If we ever have we should have it kind of used to those wildfires by now, unfortunately, but it's always a great thing to do if you want to do some disaster preparedness with your neighborhood school or community group. Organizational diversity, equity and inclusion is a big one for the council this year and for our staff here at the city. And this can be shown in so many different ways such as mural creations. We've had an applicant in the past create some really colorful crosswalks, street murals. Someone asked us about quilt making, yarn bombing, et cetera. Any any type of art project or again, like a training or some type of communities discussion around diversity, equity, inclusion. We would love to see that. And then finally, you know, we do get some applications having to do with homelessness. And we do request that those applications align with the city's goals and services for homelessness. So if you have any questions relating to that, you can either put them in the chat box or feel free to reach out to me directly as well. I'll go ahead and put my contact information in the chat box. Daniel, great information right there. I still see that we have a good number of participants here and I really would like to give you the time to ask your questions and make sure that we're not only giving you the time to ask your questions and get those answers right here, but this is being recorded. So as I mentioned in the chat earlier, this this presentation and meeting is being recorded so that it can be uploaded onto the website and of the city of Santa Rosa. And then it can be there for reference if you want to go back to it and find that little nugget of information in the meeting that you may have missed or even pass it on to someone in your group or another group that you're working with or another neighborhood that you know might be interested in the grant program. So this recording will remain available on the website. Go ahead. Oh, yep, we do have a question from Sheila. Go ahead. Go ahead and unmute yourself, Sheila. OK, we already had a preliminary planning meeting to come up with some possible projects. OK, we we are the West End neighborhood emergency prep arm. And we spend our time getting people ready for the next thing. But we realize that you can't build an integrated community unless you have a community base. Right. So a lot of our projects are related to building a stronger network within the community. And and they they're they're sort of off anything you've mentioned. So I'm not really sure if they fit, but we'll make them fit. They're all going to be COVID-19 appropriate whenever the timing is. That's critical. Yeah. But like one thing we want to do for children in the neighborhood is do a bike rally. And the intent is to have the kids decorate their helmets, have them make posters on bike safety, have the police come and do a short bicycle safety overview. And then we want to send the riders out to two parts of our neighborhood that we don't spend as much time in and ride through the streets. And of course, they'll all have adults with them and we have to have people on the sidewalks. We want to give a bike away and we want to have certificates for bike repairs to give away. Is that an appropriate event? Yes, it is. Absolutely. It's outdoor. And the likelihood. So I'm assuming you'll probably want to hold that some time, you know, in the summer or maybe even early fall. I from what I understand, the tier system that the state has will be lifted as of June 15th. However, the city still hasn't figured out, you know, its own processes for for events and what those will look like. But for a neighborhood, I think that's an excellent idea to have. You know, you'll be outside. I'm sure you'll have proper social distancing protocols, masks, etc. And I think the project that you have outlined sounds like it would fit really well with this grant program, including the bike giveaway. You can include that in your budget as well as the certificates. Just make sure to reach out to SRPD as early as possible to make make sure that they're available. And then I would also suggest including the Sonoma County and Bite Coalition in that particular event. That would be fantastic if you were able to partner with them and have them as part of your application packet, just to make it that much stronger. That's a great idea. I love it. Can I put one other out? Yes, absolutely. OK, we're going to do sidewalk music. OK, and we have a lot of young people and we're starting with the young people, but the group asked that this be extended to include adults as well. And what the concept is will be within COVID protocols, but we'll go in groups from house to house and listen to the kids play the piano, for example, through the windows and we would be outside and we'd go maybe five houses or six. And we can have a stage so there are small groups that go through. And then we'd give the musicians a certificate of appreciation and we'd end up with some place with drinks and maybe snacks. And that depends on where we are with COVID at that time. Does that sound like inappropriate? That that does. I would also maybe even suggest if you have room in your budget to maybe do some prizes for the kids. OK, rather than certificates. Yeah, you could do both certificates and prizes for them. I think that that's a great community building activity. You could have the adults, you know, be. I guess not so much the judges, but really, you know, the ones that go, you know, door to door and listen and then hand out the prizes and such, I think that would be great. Yeah, I think that would be another excellent project. I'm thinking other people can do something like that, too. If it works for their neighborhood. Yeah. We have a third one we're working on. You want me to share it? Sure, go for it. I think this is great for people that are listening, that are trying to get ideas to you. Well, we're the West End emergency prep. And last year when we had that evacuation call, nobody could figure out where they were in terms of which neighborhood we were in our designation. So we are creating door hangers on those door hangers. We will have all that emergency information in one place. We'll have things like our designation Northwest three. It'll have which Santa Rosa Police Department beat we are in our contact. It will have all the alerts and emergency numbers and we will deliver them door to door. That's awesome. That sounds good, too. That sounds like another good one as well. OK, I won't take any more time. We have seven. We have seven. Those are great ideas. I like those. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for listening. Yeah, if anybody wants to know, happen to know that there is a national play music on the porch day. And that is on this year is on August 28th. So Sheila, you have you now are armed with that information. And it truly is a day. I think it last year it was August 20th. And it is a day around the nation that people go out onto their porches, strum their guitars, bang on their drums, play their music. I think it's beautiful to think of a piano out there as well playing through the window. So March 28th, 2021 is national play music on the porch day. All right. Are there any other questions or maybe even someone wants to share their project idea for others to hear? I see a bet. I see you're here. Thanks for joining us. All right. Well, if there are no other questions and no no other ideas that anyone would like to share, we will go ahead and wrap up the meeting again. Thank you so much for attending. And the the website for the CAB grant program is srcity.org slash CAB grants. We will again have the recording from this meeting up as soon as we can figure out how to do that. We will get there. And again, it will also be available in Spanish for our Spanish speaking community. And I will turn it over to Leslie. Do you have any final remarks? Just thank you, Dan. Now, thank you for all of your work to put this together in a very, very accessible, very efficient manner for us to share this information. Thank you for also being extremely accessible. I know your email address is right there in the chat so that people can get ahold of you with any questions that they have that are still remaining. And thanks to our participants again for doing all of the work that you do in your neighborhoods and in the community in order to bring about more cohesiveness and get folks more connected even in this time of COVID. So thank you so much for all thinking about applying for a grant. All right, you're welcome. And thank you to everybody again. We will we look forward to seeing all of your applications. And we hope you have a great evening. Bye bye tonight, everyone.