On August 6, Seattle neighborhoods will celebrate the annual Night Out event. If your neighborhood plans to participate, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods has a fund available to support your Night Out event and activities.

The Small Sparks Fund provides matching dollars for neighborhood-initiated projects that promote community engagement. Community groups can request up to $1000 to help fund Night Out planning and activities such as outreach efforts, educational fairs, youth concert, bike parades, neighborhood cleanups, and entertainment, to name a few. The deadline for applications is July 8, but you must register to apply by July 1.

For information and the application process, visit seattle.gov/neighborhoods/nmf/smallsparks.htm or call 206-733- 9916. The Small Sparks Fund is open for applications year-round.

 Night Out is a national Crime Prevention event designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite communities. To learn more about Night Out, visit www.seattle.gov/police/Nightout/default.htm.

When the PACE (People’s Academy for Community Engagement) Program ended last year, our staff wanted to keep the graduates involved, but also open up opportunities for the public to learn more about community engagement. So the PACE seminar program was born. Since most every graduate felt they had experienced situations where their ideas faced opposition and advocating was tough, the first seminar, “Effective Communication,” was held for a ready group of residents, PACE graduates, and members of community groups. Our guest facilitator was Thomas Pitchford, who runs a consulting firm that specializes in campaign finance and strategy and has been involved with many local campaign efforts.

Mr. Pitchford highlighted the fundamentals of clear, concise, and persuasive communication and shared examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly in political messaging. He also emphasized the importance of conducting research on both sides of an issue and engaging others through collecting and sharing stories. 

To practice what they learned, attendees split up into groups, crafted their own messages around current hot-button community issues, and presented them to the rest of the audience. Fun and lively, this interactive seminar was the first of several that DON is planning to offer this year.

If you would like to receive updates about future PACE events, contact Wendy Watson at Wendy.Watson@seattle.gov.

The Seattle P-Patch Market Gardens CSA (community-supported agriculture) program is accepting subscribers for its farm-fresh organic produce. Each week subscribers receive up to 15 items of seasonal produce grown at the NewHolly and High Point Seattle Market Gardens, a city of Seattle program that helps to establish safe healthy communities and economic opportunity in low-income neighborhoods. 

The cost ranges from $15 to $25 a week based on size of the share. Prorated shares are available. Two of the pick-up locations are at the gardens where subscribers can meet the immigrant farmers and visit the site. 

The pick-up locations, dates, and times are:

Thursdays from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. – June 6 through October 17

High Point Market Garden (32nd Avenue SW and SW Juneau Street)
NewHolly Market Garden (42nd South and South Rockery Drive)

Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to dusk – June 8 through October 19

St. Andrews Episcopal Church (111 NE 80th Street)

Community members can subscribe now by completing and mailing an application (see form for address) with payment or by contacting Julie Bryan, P-Patch Coordinator, at 206-257-8257.

Seattle P-Patch Market Gardens is a program of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods P-Patch Community Gardening Program in collaboration with the Seattle Housing Authority and P-Patch Trust to support low-income gardeners. Its mission is to establish safe, healthy communities and economic opportunity through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and farm stand enterprises. To learn about the Seattle P-Patch Market Gardens, visit www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch/marketgardens/.

http://westseattleblog.com/2013/05/video-big-parade-launches-west-seattle-bee-garden

The P-Patch Community Gardening Program will also honor the work of Paul Horiuchi through the development of a new P-Patch community garden. Named the Horiuchi Park P-Patch Community Garden, this P-Patch will recognize his artistry through design elements along with biographical signage and an honorary garden. To be completed this summer, the P-Patch is located at the corner of Boren and Yesler and will have spaces for 30 families to grow organic food.

If you have problems or questions when submitting for P-Patch events, contact either Lisa Uemoto, lisa.uemoto@seattle.gov,  or 684-0303 or Sandy Pernitz, sandy.pernitz@seattle.gov,  or 684-0284. For all other activities, contact Wendy Watson, wendy.watson@seattle.gov or  684-0719.

*hint – when filling out the form, you can select more than one neighborhood and event type.