KAB announces 2010 Graffiti Hurts grant program
Stamford, Conn.-based Keep America Beautiful (KAB) has begun its 2010 Graffiti Hurts Grant Program, which offers three grants of $2,500 to help communities step up local graffiti prevention activities. This year’s program will present one grant to a community with a population under 75,000, one to a community with between 75,000 and 250,000 residents, and one to a community with more than 250,000 residents.
The funds must be used for projects that will be initiated in fall 2010 and completed no later than Dec. 31, 2011. “With increasingly tight local budgets for policing and graffiti remediation, the Graffiti Hurts Grant Program is one small effort from [KAB] to bring attention to this community blight and help support grassroots efforts to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods,” said KAB President and CEO Matt McKenna in a statement.
Local governments, police departments, youth groups, downtown associations, crime prevention organizations, and other groups dedicated to eradicating graffiti vandalism are encouraged to apply. Proposed projects can address graffiti prevention and education, eradication, or enforcement of local anti-graffiti laws. Programs that focus on prevention initiatives, including Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, and engaging and educating youth are encouraged to apply.
Graffiti Hurts was developed in 1996 to respond to the blight of graffiti vandalism in communities nationwide. The 2009 grant recipients were the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe, Calif., whose “Unity Project” helps youth express their art within the framework of city laws; Crime Prevention & Control Commission of Denver, which provides diversionary art and leadership skills to local youth as a substitute to graffiti vandalism; City of Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services’ graffiti intervention program, which allows youths to educate their peers through radio PSAs they create; and Keep San Antonio Beautiful, which, through its Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design component called “Place Light Upon Graffiti,” has disseminated solar-powered motion detecting lights to businesses and homeowners who experience chronic graffiti.
The application deadline is June 1, and awards will be announced by Sept. 15. Complete an online application for KAB’s Graffiti Hurts program.