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2025 Green Neighborhoods Grant Program Update
PURPOSE: This agenda item provides an update on the 2025 funding cycle of the Green Neighborhoods Grant Program.
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Department
DEPARTMENT: Town Manager’s Office
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Council Direction
COUNCIL DIRECTION:
__X_ Race/Equity _X___ Climate __X__ Comprehensive Plan ____Other
Council Direction Statement
Recognizing that climate harm disproportionately affects low-income and Black and Brown communities, the Green Neighborhood Grants program focuses on race and equity, community engagement, and impact.
The Green Neighborhoods Grant aligns with several of the Town Council’s strategic objectives. Staff utilized a racial equity lens when developing the program and worked to ensure that the scoring criteria awarded more points to projects which engaged and benefitted low-income and communities of color. The program supports the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan as well as the Community Climate Action Plan. The Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan (Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan | Carrboro, NC - Official Website) was developed with the foundational themes of race and equity and climate action. Chapter 4: Climate Action and Environment recommends expanding equitable and inclusive community participation in the decision-making and implementation of climate change goals and policies. Chapter 10: Public Services and Communications calls for the development of a Green Neighborhoods participatory budgeting program.
This program also supports the implementation of the Community Climate Action Plan (Community-Climate-Action-Plan---Updated-Oct-2020). The Community Integration recommendations include: Create grassroots partnerships to engage community, expand capacity to pursue community sustainability initiatives, and create participatory green neighborhood budgeting program to reduce carbon emissions, build community, save money and reallocate savings to new green project initiatives.
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Information
INFORMATION: The Green Neighborhoods Grant Program seeks to benefit low-income, communities of color by bringing neighbors together to pursue projects which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create natural areas that are more resilient to the impacts of climate change. This is the third year that the Town has awarded up to $2,500 to neighborhood teams seeking to implement sustainable projects that align with the goals of the Town of Carrboro Climate Action Plan.
The goals of the program are to: 1) educate and empower neighbors to take climate action; 2) build neighborhood capacity to engage in climate action; 3) develop and enhance community and Town partnerships; 3) leverage Town and neighborhood involvement and resources, and 4) distribute resources to low-income and communities of color who are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Since 2023, the grant has funded 27 projects, including 11 last fiscal year, enabling neighborhoods to plant trees, create community gardens, install energy-efficient lighting, hold educational workshops, and increase recycling and composting. The six grants awarded in 2023 reduced greenhouse gas emissions in Carrboro by over 29 tons (58,000 lbs). These initiatives have also fostered stronger community bonds and built positive relationships between communities and the Town. In the program’s first year, of the six grants, one was awarded to an underserved community. In the second year, two grants out of ten were awarded to underserved communities. This year, the Climate Action team has made it a priority to encourage applications from the communities this grant is designed to serve – low income, communities of color.
With input from the Racial Equity Commission, staff worked to further target program outreach in these communities. Information about the grant was distributed to barber shops, laundromats, churches, and apartment complexes. Information was shared with key local organizations, including the Jackson Center, RENA, the Carrboro Farmer’s Market and the NAACP. Yard signs were placed in key intersections, posters were hung at Town Information Centers and throughout town by the Poster Guys, and information about the grant was posted on the Town’s website and on social media. The grant was accepted both as a paper application and digitally and the grant deadline was extended to allow for more participation.
As a result, six of the eleven grants awarded this year went to underserved communities: one in the Lloyd-Broad neighborhood; one to McDougle Middle and Elementary Schools, where 30% of students are eligible for free lunch and 45% of students are minorities, and four to neighborhoods within Carrboro’s qualified census tract.
This year’s grants will fund tree planting projects in three neighborhoods, three community gardens, and five neighborhood compost drop-off stations.
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Fiscal and Staff Impact
FISCAL IMPACT: Below describes the total costs and benefits of this grant.
Total FY 25 Cost: $25,688
Total Grants Awarded: 11
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Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that council receive the staff report.
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