Boise Urban Garden School (BUGS) – $2,800

Mission: Use organic gardening as a way to engage students, teachers and community members in issues of ecology, local food economies, sustainability, nutrition, health and environmental literacy.
Funding: Fund a 7-month extension program, Spread Your Roots, so motivated, experienced BUGS students expand their knowledge, share their passion for sustainable agriculture, become leaders, teachers, and builders of new gardens and share a new way of looking at our food. These young leaders will increasingly impact our community as they take on more ownership of the BUGS mission.

Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN) – $2,500

Mission: Provide a voice for Idahoans committed to progressive social change, empower disenfranchised people and develop new leadership in Idaho.
Funding: Support the Idaho Manufactured/Mobile Home Owners Association, ICAN’s newest project, which will educate and organize residents of mobile home parks to promote policies that respect their rights as homeowners.

Idaho Hispanic Caucus Research & Education – $2,500

Mission: Promote the social welfare of the Latino community through research and education about social justice issues that affect the social well-being of Idaho’s Latinos.
Funding: Increase IHCIRE’s capacity to work on a range of issues, including Census 2010, redistricting, the continued need to create an Office of Minority Health and address nonpartisan civic engagement issues in the Latino Community during a year of statewide elections.

Idaho Rural Council – $2,800

Mission: Preserve the economic well-being of Idaho’s family farms and rural communities; build a more sustainable society to secure positive economic and social choices for present and future generations; and achieve good stewardship of humanity, land, air, and water.
Funding: Support IRC’s community organizing by grassroots members in rural areas though their “Fighting Factory Farms” and “Paving the Way for Renewable Energy” campaigns.

Idaho Women’s Network – $2,500

Mission: Use community organizing, advocacy and education to unite the voices of Idaho women, families, and communities to strengthen democracy and promote human rights.
Funding: Continue human rights work with the main areas of focus to include reproductive justice and LGBTQ equality. To achieve this, we will use grassroots organizing, education, public forums, leadership development and advocacy to work for improved conditions for all Idahoans.

Interfaith Alliance of Idaho (TIA) – $2,500

Mission: Offer a mainstream, faith-based agenda committed to the pursuit of individual dignity and the importance of community; and promote the positive, healing role of religion in public life through fostering civic participation, facilitating inclusive community activism, and challenging religious political extremism.
Funding: Expand Democracy Circle: Building Beloved Community, a grassroots organizing program to increase membership in TIA and build a broader base of informed, civically active, people of faith and good will statewide.

Kootenai Environmental Alliance “Community Roots Project” – $2,800

Mission: Work cooperatively to develop a local food system that: increases local fresh produce donations, plays a role in reducing greenhouse gasses, promotes healthy eating habits, engages citizens in sustainable food practices, and strengthens our community.
Funding: Fund the “Community Roots” Project to create a small Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) on a demonstrations farm near Coeur d’Alene, ID. Half the CSA subscriptions are targeted to low-income families, so this project both feeds people and brings them out of hardship. This model creates a network of people around vulnerable citizens to share the experience, risks, and rewards of a CSA.

MAS (Movimiento Activista Social) Matching Grant – $1,000

Mission: Build equal and just communities in Idaho that appreciate the worth and value of all humans. Build leadership within our membership and take action on social justice issues affecting our low-income minority communities and families, such as immigrant rights, racial equity, gender equity, cultural awareness, and fair access to education.
Funding: Send members to CSTI (August 2010) to gain leadership and organizing skills and learn about social justice work being done around the region. Participants will bring back important knowledge that will allow them to develop programs and events that promote their mission and create significant social change in their communities across Idaho.

Mujeres Unidas de Idaho – $2,800

Mission: Bring Idaho Latinas together to examine and take action on issues affecting their communities; develop new Latina leaders and ensure that each new leader takes an active role in society; and value the power of every woman.
Funding: Send 3 “new” Latinas to CSTI; work on reproductive justice in Wilder, ID; continue “Parent Power” mini-conferences; increase civic participation among Latinos and low-income Idahoans in Canyon County through work with the ICAN coalition; engage Amigas in board-run monthly trainings and community projects; enhance the importance of the MUI Annual Conference through relevant high-quality workshops focused on community issues; and recognize prominent local Latinas at the Mujer del Ano event.

NAMI Far North – $2,800

Mission: Use advocacy, research, support and education to improve the quality of life of seriously mentally ill persons and their families. Raise awareness of the connection between mental illness and homelessness, discrimination, victimization and the stigma experienced by the mentally ill. Protect their human rights while advocating for effective treatment; thereby empowering them to become productive citizens.
Funding: Decrease stigma, teach tolerance and respect, create understanding of symptoms and behaviors, and encourage recovery and re-entry through educating families of those living with severe mental illness, the mentally ill themselves, the community at large, and the public service workers who are the first responders in the event of mental illness crises.