West Bank Business Association

Safety & youth engagement- dramatically expanded our youth gardening program to hire 16 youth affected by housing insecurity and substance use to garden in 8 garden areas, beautifying the neighborhood- hosted 20 weeks of free arts and music, distribured healthy food, and hosted homelessness resource fairs in a blighted lot off cedar avenue- hosted the monthly neighborhood safety meeting and advocating for safety programs in the neighborhood, serving almost 2,000 people- engaged with community educating people about the safety and healthfulness of tap water- hosted transportation and parking committee for the neighborhood- hosted a west bank puppet show by neighborhood youth

Technical assistance and outreach- assisted two neighborhood grocery stores to receive over $100k in funding for improvements to make healthy food accessible and affordable in the neighborhood- delivered over 500 hours of direct techincal assistane to businesses. 75% of hours delivered were to immigrant-owned businesses- distributed over $50k in faade grants, all to immigrant-owned busineses, leveraging an additiona $43,000 in private funding for improvements- supported businesses in receiving over $150k in state funding for improvements to their buildings- fundraised and distributed $15k to businesses displaced by a fire

Collaborations & policywe helped sponsor several community events including the multicultural dinner, women's night out, and youth council programs.