South Mountain Mini-Grant Round Has Opened!

The South Mountain Partnership Mini-Grant program, administered by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), has been awarded grant funds from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and will be accepting grant applications until the program deadline of July 31, 2012. This program provides grants that communities and organizations can use to preserve and promote their natural and cultural assets.

An in-person and online grant workshop will be available to those interested.  An RSVP is required to attend either of these workshops and can be done by clicking on the button to the right or calling Kim Williams at the ATC office at 717.258.5771.  The workshop will lay out details of the program and application and allow participants to ask questions.  The two grant workshop details are as follows:

• March 29^th, 2012 Workshop: The first workshop will be in-person at the South Mountain Partnership’s quarterly meeting on March 29^th at 3:30 p.m. at the Shippensburg University Conference Center and will last under an hour.
• May 23^rd, 2012 Workshop: This online webinar will be similar to the March 29^th workshop but will allow participants to access the workshop from a computer.  The workshop will begin at 4 p.m. and will last under an hour.

The South Mountain Partnership Mini-Grant Program has been developed and overseen by the ATC since 2009 to encourage economic development among local communities by funding projects to build trails and regional trail feasibility studies, conduct outdoor festivals, develop promotional guides for local agriculture and forest products, and much more. Since the mini-grants inception, $161,000 have been awarded with over $390,000 in grantee’s match.

Mini-Grant applications
are due July 31st, 2012

In 2012, $100,000 in grants will be available with a required 1:1 match.  The application is available for download and is due July 31, 2012. The ATC and DCNR encourage any municipality, registered Pennsylvania non-profits, or learning institution to begin considering projects that may fit the grant criteria. Projects must be located in Cumberland, Franklin, Adams, or York counties.  Go to www.southmountainpartnership.org  for an application and many other grant resources .

“The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s grant program emphasizes multi-partner regional collaborations and in result we have seen incredible long term relationships develop.  It is a major goal of the South Mountain Partnership to foster these strong partnerships that steward and promote our assets,” stated Kim Williams, Environmental Planner of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

The ATC and DCNR lead the South Mountain Partnership, an alliance of the private and public sectors, non-profits, universities, and local citizens in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, and Northern York Counties. The Partnership identifies its key role as being a regional facilitator and leader in projects that preserve and promote the natural and cultural assets of the region. ATC was chosen to be the lead of the Partnership because of its local roots and extensive conservation work across Pennsylvania and especially in Central Pennsylvania. 

Funds come from DCNR’s Community Conservation Partnership’s Program and come from the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund, the Environmental Stewardship Fund (Growing Greener 1) and the Growing Greener Bond Fund (growing Greener 2), and several federal funding sources.