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Alliance Awards $104,000 in Grants to Grassroots Advocacy Organizations

Posted: 11/03/2009

Washington, DC - November 3, 2009 - The Alliance for Biking & Walking is awarding $104,000 in grants to five grassroots biking and walking advocacy organizations.

The Advocacy Advance Grants will be used to jump-start emerging advocacy organizations and to fund innovative campaigns with the potential to dramatically increase biking and walking. 2009, the first year of the Advocacy Advance Grants program, resulted in $259,000 in grants to state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations. 

The second round of 2009 grants was extremely competitive with 76 proposals totaling over $1.2 million. The Alliance is please to announce the following recipients:

Active Transportation Alliance

Chicago-based Active Transportation Alliance will receive a $30,000 matching Innovation Grant for its Active Living on the Block campaign. The campaign will facilitate community planning charettes into 24 neighborhood block parties. Active Trans will use charette information to integrate transportation elements into neighborhoods’ Quality of Life Plans; and will provide technical assistance for neighborhood-level funding requests for built environment changes. The campaign will use community-based design to empower and energize neighborhoods with fewer economic resources and networks to make their built environment safe and accessible for biking and walking.

Cascade Bicycle Club Education Fund

Seattle Area’s Cascade Bicycle Club will use a $16,500 matching Innovation Grant to create a replicable bikeability/walkability assessment tool to understand unique neighborhood needs and issues and identify barriers to bicycling and walking.They will also custom-create appropriate programs to address identified barriers. Tactics in working with this underserved community likely will include multi-lingual materials, door-to-door outreach, community rides, family-friendly events, and grassroots advocacy for street improvements/bicyclist safety. The ultimate objective of this pilot is to increase the number of Southeast Seattle residents who bike and walk to Link light rail stations by 50%.

LivableStreets Alliance

Boston-based LivableStreets Alliance will receive a $30,000 matching Startup/Capacity Building Grant to launch a neighborhood outreach campaign to build grassroots support for improved bicycle, pedestrian and public transit design and facilities to make the Boston metro area more connected and livable. The campaign will also ensure that the soon-to-be renovated bridges over the Charles River includes improvements for bicycle and pedestrian access. In addition, this grant will allow them to hire an Executive Director.

Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance

The Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance (CCBA) will use a $15,000 matching Startup/Capacity Building Grant to transform from a regional to a statewide bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization. As a new statewide voice for biking and walking in Connecticut, they will educate the public and state and local leaders to promote and accelerate the implementation of the recently passed CT Complete Streets law, which requires that the rights of all road users be considered in road design. This grant will also help CCBA hire their first Executive Director and work to broaden and promote their current bike safety education programs to reach more communities across Connecticut.

New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition

A $12,500 matching Startup/Capacity Building Grant will boost the New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition’s (MBC) efforts to ensure inclusion of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in New Orleans recovery projects. MBC willl also hire their first Executive Director and will work to implement the bicycle and pedestrian policy and ordinance recommendations included in the New Orleans Master Plan.

Advocacy Advance is a partnership between the Alliance for Biking and Walking & the League of American Bicyclists. These grants are made possible with generous funding from SRAM, Planet Bike, Bikes Belong, and 42BELOW.

Learn more about the Advocacy Advance Grants Program at http://www.PeoplePoweredMovement.org/grants. 

About the Alliance:
Alliance for Biking & Walking is the North American coalition of over 150 grassroots biking and walking advocacy organizations. The Alliance works to strengthen state and local organizations through grants, training, sharing best practices and resources. More information about their work or to find a local organization you can work with, check out http://www.PeoplePoweredMovement.org.