Arizona Republic
April 24, 2011
Apr. 24, 2011 12:00 AM
If you’ve got a community project, if you’ve got even a seed of a community project, here’s a chance to make it grow.
The Center for the Future of Arizona is sponsoring a competition to increase civic involvement and cooperation. The initiative, known as the Five Communities Project, is deliberately broad, leaving enormous room for creativity.
Applicants must have clear geographic boundaries, but those could be based on anything from school districts to economic-development regions.
The project has to promote at least one of eight goals that are part of a citizens’ agenda, developed under the center’s leadership, called the Arizona We Want. They range from creating quality jobs to protecting the natural environment to building effective transportation.
Here’s a sampling of possible proposals: linking East Valley economic "incubators," preventing dropouts and promoting an Arizona wines region.
Letters of intent are due by May 16. The 10 finalists will receive $5,000 grants to develop their proposals and will be honored at the 66th National Conference on Citizenship, which is coming to the Valley in September, the first time it has been held outside Washington, D.C.
The five winning participants will get help in creating action plans and in applying for national funding to carry them out.
For more information, go to thearizonawewant.org.
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