Community Foundation Announces Fall Grant Opportunity for Creating Safe, Equitable and Thriving (SET) Communities Fund

The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation announces the fall 2020 grant cycle of the Creating Safe, Equitable and Thriving Communities (SET) Fund. The fund was established in 2018 in partnership with the City of Cedar Rapids, Linn County and the Cedar Rapids Community School District. The purpose is to address the inter-relational factors that lead to youth violence in Cedar Rapids as identified by the Safe, Equitable and Thriving Communities (SET) Task Force.

The application deadline for the fall grant cycle will be on September 18, 2020 at 4:30 p.m. Funding is available to organizations and community groups with programming that approaches systemic causes of economic, racial and academic disparities and/or aims to avoid, reduce or stop high risk behaviors that can lead to involvement with the criminal justice system. Priority will be given to projects informed by research and evidence-based practices, and to applicants who involve directly affected community members in program design and implementation.

Because this grant program is seeking to address complex issues, the Community Foundation recognizes that potential applicants might benefit from exploring effective and promising solutions and community connections. Three virtual planning sessions will be held in July and August at the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation to help foster learning and collaborative efforts between public, private, grassroots and nonprofit organizations.

The Planning Sessions will be on Fridays from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on July 24, August 7 and August 14. The July session will review SET Fund evolution and identify what has been learned so far. The August sessions will have expert presenters including Paul Smith from the National Network for Safe Communities and Emily Nydle from the Northern District US Attorney’s Office.  The Planning Sessions will be recorded and available for viewing after each event.

For information about the Planning Sessions as well as the SET Fund grant application, guidelines, and funding priorities, click here.

For information about the SET Fund community collaboration, click here.