Grants Team Raises Over $3.9M
Money Helps Fund a Host of Projects

In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, the City of Boynton Beach's Grants Team was able to raise over $3.9 million in funding to help underwrite a variety of projects ranging from the Youth Violence Prevention Program to the Category 4 hardening of Fire Station No. 5, which will house the City's Emergency Operations Center and Communications Center, Grants Coordinator Debbie Majors reported recently to the City Commission. During the same period, she said 28 federal, state and local grants totaling nearly $1.8 million were closed out as projects were completed. In addition, the City received almost $3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for use in its Neighborhood Stabilization Program. That money will be used to enable the City to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties that might otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight within the community.

"Boynton Beach has been on the cutting edge of grants since April 2001 when the Grants Team was established," said Majors. "Over the past eight years, the team has made significant changes in the way grant opportunities are sought, communicated and managed in the City," she added and said that the team is continually seeking ways to improve and meet the City's funding needs. She credits the City's support of the team for the increase in grant awards despite a more competitive funding environment.

Majors said that in 2009 the Team will focus on legislative changes and sustainability. She was a member of the City's Green Task Force that examined a number of key areas for incorporation into a Climate Action Plan for the City and has been tracking the impacts of Florida House Bill 7135, which relates to energy. "As we move forward," she said, "Grants Team members will work with City staff and community alliances to provide viable funding sources for the Boynton Climate Action Plan."