• The 8-week project teaches photography to local youth who will use their newfound knowledge to develop exhibits that illustrate the community around them. The project is designed to teach, encourage community conversations, and change community perspectives on life in the neighborhood, break down barriers held through stereotypes, and increase connections around positive images.

Community Safety Links – Martindale Brightwood Weed & Seed, awarded $1,500 for the $10,000 project.

• This project will complement existing block club and crime watch programs by planning and hosting Neighborhood Public Safety Forums. It was recommended that the forums be conducted throughout the year on a regularly scheduled occurrence.

September 15th Street Festival – Eastside Community Organization (ECO), awarded $3,700 for the total $12,840 project.

• This project will celebrate the ECO neighborhood organization, creating a solid partnership with one of the neighborhood’s great assets, IPS School #88, and seeking to identify and connect with neighbors who are interested in volunteering. Another $1,200 in funding is expected to be generated by neighbors and business partners before or during the festival. The festival is expected to help promote further activities and to become an annual neighborhood event.

Cultural Trail Celebration and Celebration of the Arts – IPS #2 Center for Inquiry Parent-Teacher-Student Association, awarded $5,000 for the total $11,864.70 project.

• The project aims to bring together parent leaders, neighbors and students in celebration of a diverse student body at IPS #2 Center for Inquiry, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, and the arts community. Motivated by the goal of increased neighborhood, school, and stakeholder connections, the Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA) at IPS school #2 Center for Inquiry will host a Celebration of the Arts on October 2nd, 2007 that will display art created by students as well as popular local artists in the Indianapolis community.

Taste the Difference – Lafayette Square Area Coalition, awarded $5,000 for the total $10,100.40 project.

• Beginning the week of November 12, 2007, members of the Lafayette Square Area Coalition along with other neighbors, local businesses, and other organizations will hold a week-long celebration of that neighborhood’s diverse dinning options. Roughly twenty restaurants in the Lafayette Square Area will offer special fixed priced menus to their patrons during that week. Residents and other partners will produce marketing materials and maps to distribute to participants that showcase the restaurants that are participating in the Taste the Difference Event. As folks dine at these restaurants throughout the week, they will be asked to complete asset inventories which pose questions about their interests in getting involved with the neighborhood, as well as what they would have to offer to the neighborhood. After the week-long Taste the Difference event, neighborhood leaders will compile those asset inventories, connect people together around general themes and hold monthly meals throughout the year to talk about their experience with their neighborhood and ways they can deepen their involvement.

CAFE Idea and Engagement Discussions – Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFÉ), awarded $3,000 for the total $6,077 project.

• CAFE will produce a video about the history of that organization, its roots in the neighborhood, and its impact on life over the years. The video will be first displayed at CAFE’s 10th Anniversary Celebration on November 1, 2007. Following the Anniversary Celebration, CAFE staff and volunteers will use the video at several, ongoing discussions with neighborhood residents and leaders in a manner that seeks new connections and encourages further engagement with residents.

Youth Sign Design and Engagement Project – Norwood Place Community Organization, awarded $1,450 for the total $3,173.23 project.

• Residents in the Norwood Place Neighborhood will be working with area youth to design signs that provide a graphic brand for the neighborhood. A few designs will be handed over to a graphic artist who will recreate the signs in a professional manner. With professionally rendered, youth-created designs in hand, residents will go door to door to ask neighbors to vote on their favorite sign. While they gather votes, they will also be filling out asset inventories of their neighbors with questions like “What are your talents?” and “How would you like to get involved with the neighborhood?”. The Norwood Place Community Organization will hold an unveiling of the winning sign in December and work to connect neighbors based on their asset inventories in a way that truly engages their neighbors together.