Miami-Dade County awarded grant to support local urban agriculture & healthy communities initiatives in GreenPrint

(MIAMI, July 26, 2012) – Miami-Dade County was awarded $65,000 by the Local Sustainability Matching Fund (LSMF), with a dollar-to-dollar match of $75,000 from the Health Foundation of South Florida, to jumpstart community-led, community-funded initiatives with an urban agriculture and health focus that supports GreenPrint, our community’s sustainability plan. Through this grant, the County will replicate the ioby (in our back yard) technology platform/website to raise money, showcase local projects, organize volunteer workdays, and share new solutions to community challenges related to sustainability and urban revitalization projects that can address the healthy eating and healthy community goals for both partners, and move components of GreenPrint forward.

“Miami-Dade County shares the Health Foundation of South Florida’s aim of building a healthy and active community,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez.  “This grant will help us move closer to our mutual goal.”

“HFSF is committed to building healthy communities by supporting projects that increase access to healthy foods and physical activity opportunities through policy, environmental, and system changes,” said Dr. Steven Marcus, President and CEO.  “We have always valued the coming together of entities like Miami Dade County and our Foundation collaborating to create a public/private partnership and leveraging our grant to receive matching funds.  Our goals are aligned in the establishment of farmers markets, community gardens, and urban agriculture in underserved communities, while supporting park improvements such as walking/bike trails, and working to change local zoning to allow for urban agriculture opportunities.”

ioby is a non-profit organization that offers the community the only online microphilanthropic venue to encourage local civic environmental action among neighbors. In Miami-Dade, ioby presents a new funding stream for sustainability initiatives that enable community groups, formal and informal, to implement grassroots sustainability and urban revitalization projects.  Goals for replicating ioby in Miami are:

1. To direct an untapped, new source of funding and volunteers to GreenPrint initiatives/sustainability projects;
2. To establish a partnership between The Office of Sustainability and community foundations to work toward common sustainability goals;
3. To support and establish a link between Miami-Dade County government and the urban grassroots environmental movement in Miami;
4. To strengthen the grassroots environmental movement and bring meaningful opportunities for civic participation to environmental philanthropists and microphilanthropists;
5. To stitch together the stories of innovation, change and community-building into a larger narrative on the importance of urban revitalization as a mechanism to address global environmental challenges.
6. To facilitate the establishment of a Miami-based ioby office that is self-sustaining (independent of Miami-Dade County government) that can work toward the above goals beyond the term of initial grant funding.
   LSMF, a collaborative effort of the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, is designed to catalyze partnerships between local governments and local, place-based foundations and to advance community-based sustainability initiatives. The County was one of five communities, including Appleton, Wisconsin; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Salt Lake City, Utah, to be awarded a total of $250,000 by the LSMF for projects ranging from urban agriculture to collaborative capacity-building.

For more information on the LSMF, visit the Funders’ Network website.

For more information on GreenPrint, visit http://green.miamidade.gov or call 305-375-3008.