UC Invites Applicants for Community Project Grants

UC Berkeley is inviting applications for funding for projects that would benefit the Berkeley community.

Each year, the program – the Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund – gives grants to a wide range of Berkeley-based proposals that involve some kind beneficial university-community collaboration.

Funding ranges between $5,000 and $50,000 per project. The number of projects varies from year to year. Eleven were funded in the current 2013-14 cycle.

Here are four examples of the more than 130 diverse proposals that have been funded since the program was established by former Chancellor Robert Birgeneau in 2006:

• A Healthy Smile – $20,000 for the Berkeley Free Clinic to work with the student-run Suitcase Clinic to provide dental services to those who lack access to them
• The South Berkeley Bioremediation Garden and Public Education Project – $40,000 for bioremediaton gardens of brake ferns in South Berkeley remove arsenic in the soil and promote public education
• Mapping Environments: Kala Art Institute's Artists-in-Schools Program –$20,000 for the Kala Art Institute to work with Berkeley middle school students and Bay Area Mathematics Project (Lawrence Hall of Science) in workshops that culminated in a mural at Martin Luther King Jr. Park
• Greening Berkeley Hands-On – $5,000 for several community groups to work with students from Cal Corps to improve city parks

The program guidelines describe the areas of funding:

The Fund supports neighborhood improvement projects and community service programs that utilize collaborative relationships between UC Berkeley and the community to address critical needs in the following thematic areas:

• Arts and Culture
• Community Safety
• Economic Development 
• Education 
• Environmental Stewardship

The total funding for the 2014-15 cycle, for projects beginning next summer, is approximately $253,000, the campus said.

The deadline for "pre-application forms" is Dec. 9. 

The campus will hold a workshop for interested applicants and potential community or university partners on Oct. 30 from 4-6 p.m. at the Berkeley Skydeck, 2150 Shattuck Ave. 

More information about the program, the workshop and how to apply can be found on the fund's web site.

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