The Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance will hold two public workshops, which will deal with the necessary requirements for preparing applications under their recently announced Community Grant Program. Tupelo will host the first workshop at the Mississippi Hills Exhibit Center on Dec. 15 from 1:30-3 p.m., and the second will be in Oxford at the Oxford Conference Center on Dec. 17 from 10 a.m.-noon.
The Alliance is the coordinating entity for the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area, which covers all or portions of 30 counties in North Mississippi and are eligible to apply for grants. Grants available include Transportation grants up to $1,000 for school field trips; Flash grants up to $2,500 for local cultural and heritage projects; Small Cap grants up to $5,000 and Large Cap grants up to $20,000 for larger community or regional initiatives. The Large Cap grants are available to Alliance dues-paying members only.
MHHAA President Neal McCoy of Tupelo said, “We really like the potential of this program and feel like it can make a real difference by providing funds to all types of cultural and heritage endeavors. We have established a $150,000 grant fund in this year’s budget and we hope to see it fully disbursed.”
All awarded grants carry a Federal match requirement of 1:1 with the applicants’ match coming from either cash or a cash/in-kind combination. Those interested in learning more about the program will find complete guidelines and applications at the Hills website mississippihills.org. Applications are currently in a “read-only” mode and will be activated Dec. 15.
“Once the applications become interactive and can be completed, those applying may submit email questions about the process and we will provide an answer as quickly as possible,” McCoy added. Feb. 1, 2016, is the submission deadline. Grant awards will be announced March 15, 2016.”
He also pointed out that while attendance at the workshops is not mandatory for submitting a grant, it is “strongly” encouraged. Register at the workshop or pre-register by emailing [email protected].
The CREATE Foundation in Tupelo will administer the grants.
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