FY23 CSW-Facility and Community Improvements Details

Instructions

Review the steps - read carefully

1. Applicant Eligibility Criteria:

   Facility and Community Improvement:

   Eligible Applicants: A tax-exempt nonprofit organization, including faith-based organizations

   Business District and Neighborhood Safety:

   Eligible Applicants: A tax-exempt nonprofit organization or local government

   Crime and Violence Intervention and Prevention:

   Eligible Applicants: A tax-exempt nonprofit organization

2. Application Process:

   • Community Safety Works application portal opens: 12:00 pm, Wednesday, September 28, 2022.

   • Application deadlines are as follows:

   5:00 pm Friday, October 21, 2022: Facility and Community Improvements

   Applications will be reviewed in the order they are submitted.

   5:00 pm Friday, October 21, 2022: Business District and Neighborhood Safety

   Applications will be reviewed in the order they are submitted.

   5:00 pm Wednesday, November 2, 2022: Crime and Violence Intervention and Prevention

   This is a competitive grant. All applications will be reviewed after the application round closes.

   • At any time, the portal may close sooner if or when grant requests exceed available funding.

   • Funding decisions will be made by December 15, 2022. Awarded funds must be used within one year.

3. Application Information:

   Sample applications are posted to https://dhcd.maryland.gov/Communities/Pages/csw/default.aspx. Applicants are encouraged to review the application, prepare answers and gather required documents in advance of completing and submitting the on-line application.

4. Use of Funds:

   Facility and Community Improvement:

   Eligible requests will be for physical projects and community services that make a facility or a community managed open space safer for residents and visitors to those properties and/or support community-led cleaning and greening activities. These include but are not limited to:

   • Surveillance tools such as lighting, cameras and technology that increase visibility of vulnerable spaces. Networks of cameras and license readers should include monitoring plans and partnerships with law enforcement and other relevant public agencies.

   • Auto and pedestrian circulation improvements to create natural and man-made environments via landscaping, fencing and other means to better control pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Examples include site fencing and alley gating.

   • Improving opportunities for “eyes on the street,” including the removal of barriers to sight lines (such as trimming overgrown trees/shrubs), opening up closed off spaces, improved lighting and renovating public spaces/playgrounds to draw regular visitors and family activity.

   • Reinforcing community ownership, solidarity, and pride, through clean and beautified streets, sidewalks, and signage. Removing blight and signals of blight (such as litter, graffiti, and bulk trash dumping) and instead creating “markers” of community pride and ownership such as signs, gardens, new trees, other plantings and upgraded public spaces.

   • Contracted cleaning services to maintain and clean improved open spaces.

   
   

   Business District and Neighborhood Safety:

   Eligible activities will be part of a comprehensive plan for making public and private spaces safer for residents, business, and visitors. These include but are not limited to:

   • Surveillance tools such as lighting, cameras and technology and operating programs that increase visibility of vulnerable spaces. Networks of cameras and license readers should include monitoring plans and partnerships with law enforcement and other relevant public agencies.

   • Auto and pedestrian circulation improvements to create natural and man-made environments via landscaping, fencing and other means to better control pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Examples include site fencing and alley gating and sidewalk improvements to prioritize the safety of pedestrians.

   • Improving opportunities for “eyes on the street,” including the removal of barriers to sight lines (such as through trimming trees and shrubs), opening up closed off spaces, improved lighting, renovating public spaces/playgrounds and expanding restaurants to sidewalks and outdoor spaces to draw regular visitors and positive activity.

   • Reinforcing community ownership, solidarity, and pride, through clean and beautified streets, sidewalks, and signage. Removing blight and signals of blight (such as litter, graffiti, and bulk trash dumping) and instead creating “markers” of community pride and ownership such as signs, gardens, new trees, other plantings and upgraded public spaces.

   • Purchasing litter removal equipment such as “All Terrain Litter Vehicles” and funding staff or contracted services to provide ongoing cleaning, maintenance and beautification of public spaces.

   • Increasing citizen and merchant stewardship through organizing, education and outreach activities that seek to engage residents and other neighborhood stakeholders to actively participate in keeping residential areas and public spaces clean, safe, and green.

   • Contracted security services or “Ambassador” programs.

   • Contracted cleaning/landscaping services to maintain improved open spaces.

   
   

   Crime and Violence Intervention and Prevention:

   Eligible grant requests will be for a comprehensive strategy that includes a set of partnerships and coordinated activities that go beyond physical changes and enhanced security services. Applicant strategies should directly engage people at-risk of becoming involved with or affected by violence and crime. Evidence-based interventions will provide restorative life choices for at-risk individuals; strategies will remove illegal activities from communities and interrupt the cycle of violence that can result from such activities.