On May 30, 2018, Historic Macon Foundation announced its inaugural list of Neighborhood Small Grant Program recipients in Napier Heights, a neighborhood that received one of the eight projects.

Part of Historic Macon’s Neighborhood Incubator programming, the Neighborhood Small Grant Program is made possible with generous support from a $50,000 Knight Foundation grant. The NSGP is designed to strengthen Macon-Bibb County neighborhoods to support a wide range of community-based initiatives. These selected projects will connect neighborhood residents, engage skills and knowledge of neighbors, and build neighborhood capacity while executing neighborhood improvement projects.

The funded projects include:
 
The Longest Dinner Table | $1,000
Fort Hill Neighborhood Watch, Deborah Evans
 
The Longest Dinner Table, a shared meal stretched hundreds of feet along Maynard Street, will foster conversation and build relationships across economic, racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. Fort Hill Neighborhood Association has partnered with Rosa Jackson Community Center to execute the project in conjunction with Community Foundation of Central Georgia’s On the Table initiative on October 17, 2018.
 
Paint it Up | $500.00
Lake Wildwood Association, Linda Hurd
 
Lake Wildwood neighbors will repaint the homes of their elderly and disabled residents while improving the aesthetics of the neighborhood and encouraging community engagement between neighbors during the Paint Days.
 
Lynmore Estates 2nd Annual Neighborhood Appreciation Day and Membership Drive | $900.00
Lynmore Estate Neighborhood Association, Ernestine Thomas
 
This second annual event aims to build relationships among neighbors through food and fellowship. The event will also be an opportunity to assist registration of Nextdoor.com to increase and improve neighborhood communications.
 
Tindall Spring Fling | $300.00
Tindall Heights, Stacy Jenkins
 
This project will encourage community engagement through planting neighborhood flower beds while providing the opportunity to capture community feedback on neighborhood issues.
 
Napier Heights Neighborhood Website | $355.00
Napier Heights, Sara Nourachi and Stephanie Woods-Miller
 
Napier Heights will create and launch a neighborhood website as a starting point for regular communication while enhancing neighborhood identity with both residents and community partners.
 
Napier Heights Community Clean Up | $600.00
Napier Heights, Sara Nourachi and Stephanie Woods-Miller
 
This project aims to use a community clean-up day to address a primary neighborhood concern of trash and debris while providing an outlet for both sense of pride and sense of community within Napier Heights.
 
Little Free Library Project | $403.00
North Highlands Neighborhood Association, Miki Fluker
 
Neighbors will work together to install the first Little Free Library in North Highlands to encourage a renewed sense of pride in the neighborhood and raise awareness of North Highlands as a desirable neighborhood to live.
 
12th Annual Pleasant Hill Reunion | $900.00
Pleasant Hill Reunion Committee, Antonio Williams
 
This project supports the 12th annual Pleasant Hill Reunion, which reunites former and current Pleasant Hill residents, by documenting the event with professional photography to raise awareness and provide new children’s activities during this annual event.

HMF Executive Director, Ethiel Garlington said, “Historic Macon is excited to see a wide range of community projects across six different Macon zip codes – representing neighborhoods across our community. Small grants can make a big impact, and we’re excited to see how these projects bring neighbors together. We see our Neighborhood Incubator initiative as an opportunity to strengthen Macon’s neighborhoods.”

“Providing people with the building blocks to shape and contribute to their neighborhoods helps create stronger communities. Neighborhood Incubator does exactly that, using small grant projects to encourage civic engagement across Macon,” says Lynn Murphey, Knight Foundation Program Director for Macon.
 
Over the past 18 months, Historic Macon has executed Neighborhood Incubator, an initiative funded by Knight Foundation in an effort to strengthen Macon’s neighborhoods. As part of the programming, neighborhood leaders participated in the Neighborhood Leadership Institute. NLI is a leadership development program facilitated by University of Georgia’s J.W. Fanning Institute, where over 20 neighbors represented 18 Macon neighborhoods to strengthen their skills to be effective neighborhood leaders. Historic Macon intends to launch the second NLI later this year.
 
For over 50 years, HMF has executed neighborhood revitalization efforts in historic neighborhoods, and Neighborhood Incubator is an innovative approach to expand Historic Macon’s mission and empower neighborhoods across Macon-Bibb County through community engagement initiatives. Neighborhoods interested in becoming involved with Neighborhood Incubator are encouraged to contact Historic Macon at 478-742-5084.