Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Imagine What Pittsburgh Can Do

My title today reverses the "official" slogan of the Pittsburgh 250 celebration ("Imagine What You Can Do Here") in the spirit of the Manifesto, Pittsburgh being virtual and metaphoric and well as physical and literal.

To that end, can the Pittsburgh Diaspora take advantage of the Community Connections funding being made available for community development as part of the anniversary celebration? If I'm reading the site correctly, there is up to $1 million being made avaiable.

This is what CC is looking for:

Community Connections wants to hear your ideas, both large and small! We believe that the spirit of your work is what this region was built upon. So, our goal is to help your plan come to life. Keeping in mind the scope of this program, the projects that you submit to Community Connections must fit the theme of “Pride & Progress” and fall into one of the three categories outlined below.

Regional Projects
Regional Projects will involve large areas of the region or large population groups and be eligible to receive grants up to $50,000. These large-scale projects will be chosen by a panel of representatives from the 14-county area and should be spearheaded by established community groups. An important thing to keep in mind while generating ideas for Regional Projects is that one of the primary goals should be that it has a lasting impact on the region.

Community Connections wants to hear your ideas, both large and small! We believe that the spirit of your work is what this region was built upon. So, our goal is to help your plan come to life. Keeping in mind the scope of this program, the projects that you submit to Community Connections must fit the theme of “Pride & Progress” and fall into one of the three categories outlined below.
Regional Projects

Regional Projects will involve large areas of the region or large population groups and be eligible to receive grants up to $50,000. These large-scale projects will be chosen by a panel of representatives from the 14-county area and should be spearheaded by established community groups. An important thing to keep in mind while generating ideas for Regional Projects is that one of the primary goals should be that it has a lasting impact on the region.

Grassroots Projects
Grassroots Projects will be smaller in scale than the Regional Projects and should be developed and led by local community members. These projects will involve local residents and organizations and be focused on local interests. A decisionmaking panel comprised of leaders from each individual county will decide which projects are to be awarded grants up to $5,000 apiece. Through these projects, Community Connections hopes to create a groundswell of activity indicative of the character of our region.

Affiliated Projects
Affiliated Projects do not require monetary support, but will be endorsed and promoted as part of Community Connections. These ideas will run in conjunction with Regional and Grassroots Projects while supporting the vision of Community Connections—Pride & Progress.

Project Selection
During the project selection period, three important criteria will be used to award grants. Grant-winning projects should build long-lasting and valuable relationships between organizations and communities, be dedicated to civic engagement, and join in the overall spirit of Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary celebration. With awards totaling $1 million, this initiative will play an important role in the communities surrounding Pittsburgh during 2008 and beyond—catalyzing positive change for our region and its citizens for generations to come.

While you're thinking about Manifesto- and Diaspora-ish projects, the Manifesto/Diaspora needs a logo. Something that captures the connections theme and simultaneously captures Pittsburgh. Something more compelling than the Community Connections logo (below). I'm thinking of running a contest -- all entrants, including the winner, get to keep their copyrights. The winner agrees to license the logo under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. The logo would go up here at Pittsblog and could be hosted and posted by anyone who wants to support the Manifesto and/or signify being part of the Diaspora. Thoughts?

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