Local nonprofits tried to get their voices heard Wednesday night as they competed for money from a federal grant that is only half the size of their combined requests.
The Housing and Community Development Act committee heard presentations from groups requesting money from the Community Development Block Grant fund. Organizations have requested more than $5.3 million, but Evanston has only about $2.3 million to deal out.
Members of the committee expressed support for several groups, including two looking to work with Northwestern students. These are both new programs, which some members said they found especially promising.
“We’re always encouraging people to take advantage of this opportunity,” said Ald. Ann Rainey (8th). “It’s hard to get new people to come here.”
The money for the program comes from the federal government and is to be used for community development in moderate- to low-income neighborhoods.
One group asking for funds is a partnership between the Youth Job Center of Evanston, 1114 Church St., and ice cream chain Ben & Jerry’s. The PartnerShop, to be located at 1634 Orrington Ave., will allow the nonprofit to run a franchise with all the benefits of a normal shop but with help because of its nonprofit status — including waiving the franchise fee. Evanston City Council approved the store in July.
The shop already involves one NU student — Communication senior Andre Watson works as a scoop truck coordinator and helped the group lobby for funds. He also will be involved as a mentor. Watson said his goal in the project would be to “help youth realize that college is possible.”
Representatives from the Job Center requested $185,000 from the block grant as a one-time start-up fee to cover training and initial operating costs. They said the group could create 25 jobs through the franchise with opportunities for advancement.
Several aldermen said they thought the partnership was a good idea. Ald. Joseph Kent (5th) suggested ways the shop could get involved with the community, and committee member Kenneth Rodgers said he was “looking forward to it.”
However, none of the committee members guaranteed they would support funding for the partnership. Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) suggested that the committee could offer the group a loan instead of grant funds. Rainey said the group could use part of a separate $600,000 grant to Evanston schools for use in job training and technology.
“We could go 50-50,” she said. “It would just be brilliant to do it that way.”
A representative of another group, Shorefront NFP, said he hopes to establish a tie between NU students and his magazine, which explores black heritage in Evanston and the North Shore. Dino Robinson, the organization’s founder, said he wants NU students to write stories.
Robinson said the city needs to invest more in the black community’s history. He said the historical society records on blacks would fit on the podium from which he spoke, while the rest of the records would fill the whole room. The first time he found records on blacks at Evanston Public Library, in the mid-1990s, the file still read “colored,” he said.
“That’s the last time research had been done in Evanston,” he said.
Rainey said Robinson’s request was “exciting and rewarding,” though she also suggested that he look to NU for funding.
Robinson said if he received a grant, he hoped he would not need one the next year.
“I see myself not coming back here,” he said. “I want ‘Shorefront’ to become self-sufficient.”
This was supported by Rainey, who asked Robinson if he was “ready to write that in blood.”
The committee scrutinized organizations that requested more money than they did last year. The Infant Welfare Society of Evanston received a grant last year to add soundproof walls to one wing of its baby and toddler nursery. But the project cost more than expected, and they requested more money this year to make the other wing soundproof.
“We need to know what you’re doing with the money,” Rainey said.
