The City of Champaign Neighborhood Services Department, as leader of the CommUnity Matters team, submitted a grant proposal in March 2012 to the American Heart Association to provide funding for Operation Hope activities promoting heart health activities. The original request was for $5,000 and the CommUnity Matters team received notification on June 14 that the request was approved for reduced funding at $4,000. According to the American Heart Association’s grant coordinator, this is quite an achievement since they received 158 applications and were only able to fund 27 grants this year.
The award is scheduled to begin July 1, 2012 and end June 30, 2013. In the next few days, the City will receive the grant contract to complete. Once the City submits the contract and the American Heart Association processes the paperwork, a check will be mailed to the City for $4,000. The funds will be provided to the Unit 4 school district for exercise equipment and fitness training for the Operation Hope/CommUnity Matters program expansion that otherwise would have not been viable due to limited resources.