Grants › Community enhancement grants › North Portland enhancement grant program
Do you have an idea to help make your community greener, cleaner, safer or healthier? Metro has grants to help fund neighborhood improvement projects in North Portland.
On June 30, 2011, the Metro Council announced $15,000 in grants to benefit residents of North Portland. Learn more
The North Portland enhancement grant program was established in 1985 by act of the Oregon Legislature, which created a mitigation fund to compensate the community affected by the now-closed St. Johns Landfill. Funds were generated from a 50-cent surcharge imposed on each ton of garbage disposed of at the landfill. Today, interest generated on the fund supports the grant program. Projects must directly benefit residents or neighborhoods around the landfill, including Arbor Lodge, Cathedral Park, Kenton, Overlook, Portsmouth, St. Johns and University Park.
The funding cycle for Metro's North Portland enhancement grant program is from July through June. Typically, an announcement about the availability of funds is made in February, a free grant-writing workshop is offered in March, grant applications are due at the end of April, and awards are announced in May. Funds for selected projects are available in July. To be added to the mailing list for future notification, call Metro at 503-797-1506 or email karen.blauer@oregonmetro.gov.
Any individual or any organization may submit proposals for funds, including but not limited to neighborhood associations, non-profits and charitable organizations. Applicants should note that liability insurance coverage may be required and that all grant awards are conditional upon review and approval of Metro's Risk Manager. Successful applicants will be required to enter into a Professional Services Agreement, which outlines the responsibilities of both parties.
Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, District 5, chairs the seven-member committee made up of people who live in and represent neighborhoods in North Portland target area. The North Portland Enhancement Committee solicits and reviews grant applications, selects projects to fund and evaluates outcomes of funding choices.
Metro's North Portland enhancement grant program has invested more than $2.2 million in 440 projects to date. Projects range from distributing food to the hungry and nutrition education projects, health care clinics and screenings, a tool-lending library for low- to moderate-income residents to free concerts in Cathedral Park, dance classes for children at a local community center and more.
The Sauvie Island Center used grant funds to develop lessons that hundreds of North Portland schoolchildren learned in the fields at Sauvie Island Center about food, farming and the land. Fresh as leafy greens, crisp as carrots, and tasty as a turnip or radish, the lessons come to life in a take-home recipe book.
