Grants: Love Thy Neighborhood
New Program to Award Grants for Local Neighborhood Improvements
![](https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/10/neighborhood.jpg)
The City of Santa Barbara’s Parks and Recreation Department recently introduced the new Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP). The program will provide small grants to area organizations for improvement projects. The goal of the project is to encourage community members to take their neighborhoods’ well-being into their own hands through grassroots organizing. The grants will range from $1,000-$5,000 and will go toward projects such as helping elderly neighbors with yard work, adopt-a-park efforts, and murals. The proposed projects must be in one of the following downtown neighborhoods in Santa Barbara: Eastside, Westside, Lower Eastside, Lower Westside, Laguna, or West Downtown. Applications for grants are due by June 16 and are available on the city’s website. For more information, contact Neighborhood and Outreach Services at 897-2560.