The city of Aurora has awarded $60,000 in grant funds to 14 groups across all city wards as part of its 2024 Neighborhood Improvement Grant Program. Among the projects selected are neighborhood little libraries, back-to-school neighborhood celebrations, neighborhood cleanups and landscaping initiatives.
These competitive grants, of up to $5,000 each, support projects that enhance a neighborhood's physical condition, foster community pride and identity, improve neighborhood communication, and introduce new assets that encourage gathering and positive experiences.
The awarded neighborhood groups and their projects for 2024 include:
- Del Mar Rebel Marketplace (new community events and programming at existing seasonal market)
- Aurora Economic Opportunity Coalition (community clean-up event in northwest Aurora, and shade structures and benches to be installed in their facility parking lot)
- 45th Place of Hawks Landing (community events for neighborhood youth)
- Meadowood Neighborhood Association (neighborhood “dump day” for bulky waste items and document shredding)
- Highland Park East Neighborhood Association (neighborhood “dump day” and door hangers to advertise event)
- Bayberry Community (refresh communal gathering spaces and parking lots, install raised garden beds, composters and little free library)
- Peachwood Homeowners’ Association (repair and refresh community entryway fencing and signage)
- Mission Viejo Homeowners’ Association (neighborhood “dumpster days”)
- Lake Shore Community Association (update community entryway landscaping and lighting)
- Sterling Hills Homeowners’ Association (little free library installation)
- Red Sky Condominiums (repair and refresh common areas)
- Dam East Townhome Association (replace outdoor furniture in common areas and community events)
- Star Pass at Saddle Rock (replace entryway island median landscaping with waterwise materials and install informational signage around waterwise landscaping plus a community event after landscaping installed)
- Quincy Hill Townhouse Community (replace entryway landscaping with waterwise materials)
Neighborhood organizations and residents (where a neighborhood organization may not exist) were encouraged to apply. Awarded groups have until October 2024 to use the grant funds and complete their projects.
Although the Neighborhood Improvement Grant Program is now closed for the year, residents are encouraged to apply for one or more neighborhood mini grants, including a Know Your Neighbor Grant for a block party or clean-up events, a Printing Assistance Grant to provide posters and flyers for community activities, and a Small Neighborhood Activity Grant for events like festivals or tournaments. Mini-grant applications are open now at AuroraGov.org/NeighborhoodGrants.
For questions, email [email protected] or call 303.739.7280.