Today Mayor Edwin M. Lee and City Administrator Naomi Kelly announced 28 award recipients of the Community Challenge Grant Program (CCG), which provides matching grants to local residents, businesses, schools, non-profits and other community groups to make greening and beautification improvements, totaling $832,600. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) also contributes funding to CCG projects which provide stormwater benefits to the City’s sewer system.

“Community Challenge Grants allow the City to partner with our diverse communities to make immediate improvements to our public spaces,” said Mayor Lee. “We are inspired by these twenty-eight innovative projects that will bring neighbors together to keep the City beautiful and make real, long-term investments in our neighborhoods.”

CCG continues to provide funding to residents and businesses to take pride in their neighborhoods and work together toward making San Francisco a cleaner, greener and safer city. The funding for CCG awards comes from City businesses that voluntarily designate one percent of the business tax they already pay. The program is an important tool for enabling communities to leverage public and private dollars to conduct small scale improvement projects.

“The Community Challenge Grant Program works best when community groups are empowered to take charge to improve and green their neighborhoods,” said City Administrator Naomi Kelly. “Clean and green neighborhoods are essential to our quality of life, economic development and the environmental health of all San Franciscans.”

The bulk of the awards are for permeable sidewalk landscaping, public artwork, graffiti/litter abatement, community gardens and gathering spaces, equitably covering all areas of the City.

“This Community Challenge Grant will enable the Excelsior Action Group and SF Clean City Coalition to realize a greening and art project that community members have been calling for since the 2010 Excelsior Art Summit,” said Excelsior Action Executive Director Group Nicole Agbayani. “The Excelsior Art and Greening Gallery will have a tremendous positive impact on the neighborhood, especially the shopping district. Most importantly, it helps to demonstrate that ideas formed through grassroots community processes are valuable and actionable in San Francisco.”

Community Challenge Grant Program Summer 2012 Grant Award Recipients

1. Argonne Elementary School PTO
Grant: $20,000
Project: Public Artwork

2. Bloom Justice, sponsored by Collective Impact
Grant: $15,000
Project: Community Garden Project at Ella Hill Hutch Community Center

3. Calvary Hill Community Church
Grant: $30,000
Project: Public Artwork & Sidewalk Garden Project

4. Chinatown Community Development Center
Grant: $27,000
Project: Chinatown Alleyway Clean-Up & Graffiti Abatement Program

5. Collective Impact
Grant: $40,000
Project: The Community Environmental Ambassadors Program in the Western Addition

6. Community Grows, sponsored by The Tides Center
Grant: $22,500
Project: Youth Mentorship & Green-Jobs Training Program in the Western Addition

7. Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing, sponsored by the Tides Center
Grant: 30,000
Project: Sidewalk Garden Watershed Stewardship Project in the Tenderloin

8. Enterprise for High School Students
Grant: $40,000
Project: Youth Employment Gardening Program

9. Inner City Youth
Grant: $20,000
Project: Youth Employment Litter Abatement Program in the OMI District

10. Lower Polk Neighborhood Association
Grant: $32,200
Project: Multi-Phased Community Beautification & Greening Project

11. Market Street Association
Grant: $15,000
Project: Decorative Holiday Snowflake Program

12. Mission Community Market, sponsored by SF Parks Alliance
Grant: $50,000
Project: The Mercado Plaza Beautification Project

13. North Beach Partnership
Grant: $30,000
Project: Street Sweeping & Beautification Program

14. North of Market/Tenderloin CBD
Grant: $35,000
Project: Installation of an Ecologically-Friendly Composting Toilet & Sidewalk Garden

15. North West Bernal Alliance
Grant: $11,840
Project: Graffiti Abatement Program

16. Portola Neighborhood Steering Committee, sponsored by Community Initiatives
Grant: $65,000
Project: Street Park & Community Gathering Space on Burrows Street

17. Precita Eyes Muralists Association
Grant: $25,000
Project: Public Artwork at the All In Common Community Garden

18. Progress Park, sponsored by SF Parks Alliance
Grant: $21,170
Project: Street Park & Community Gathering Space at 23rd and Iowa Streets

19. SF Clean City Coalition & Excelsior Action Group
Grant: $45,000
Project: Public Artwork & Sidewalk Garden Project in the Excelsior District

20. SF Women’s Center (The Women’s Building)
Grant: $55,000
Project: Restoration of the Historic Maestra Peace Mural

21. Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Center
Grant: $15,000
Project: Mural Restoration Project

22. WCP I, LLC, sponsored by Economic Opportunity Council SF
Grant: $45,000
Project: Green-Job Training Employment Program in the Western Addition

23. Yerba Buena CBD
Grant: $17,500
Project: Community Seating Project

24. Young Community Developers, Inc.
Grant: $25,000
Project: Street Adoption & Job-Readiness Training Employment Program

A portion of the CCG is supported by the SFPUC and is called the Urban Watershed Stewardship Grants. These include sidewalk landscaping and a rainwater harvesting system at a public elementary school.

“Community groups and schools are important partners in our long-term plan to wisely manage the City’s stormwater using innovative and sustainable green technologies,” said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington.

CCG & SFPUC’s Urban Watershed Stewardship Grant Summer 2012 Grant Award Recipients

1. Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing, sponsored by the Tides Center
Grant: $21,980
Project: Sidewalk Garden Watershed Stewardship Project in the Tenderloin

2. Friends of the Urban Forest
Grant: $43,000
Project: Sidewalk Garden Watershed Stewardship Project in District 9

3. SF Green Schoolyard Alliance, sponsored by the SF School Alliance
Grant: $15,402
Project: Rainwater Harvesting Cistern & Garden at New Traditions Elementary School

4. Surfrider Foundation, SF Chapter
Grant: $20,000
Project: Sidewalk Garden Watershed Stewardship Project in the Outer Sunset