Austin Offers 'Reimagining Public Safety' Grant Funding

AUSTIN, TX — The City of Austin’s Equity Office is accepting applications from the community for the Reimagining Public Safety Grant Fund — aimed at providing flexible resources for local, community-based organizations to support community engagement projects that are focused on the reimagining of public safety in Austin — officials announced Friday.

Interested applicants are encouraged to apply online by Nov. 6. Awards will be announced Nov. 23.

“The work of racial equity is to critically examine the role our systems play in the quality of life of our communities of color and other vulnerable communities,” Chief Equity Officer Brion Oaks said in a prepared statement. “Nowhere is that more important than in the city’s approach to and definition of public safety. As we as a city organization work to reimagine, we need to center the communities most impacted by the violence and surveillance of our enforcement-based approach. These grants will play a major role in that.”

Funds for these grants are a part of the Austin Police Department budget re-alignment and will support projects that are aligned with advancing one or more concepts from the framework created by the Leadership Team on Reimagining Public Safety, officials explained.

Officials said the input obtained through this grant will work to inform the recently created City-Community Reimaging Task Force, which includes community organization representatives, on addressing questions such as What is a ‘reimagined’ public safety system in Austin and how do we get there?

Awards up to $20,000 will be considered with a program cap of $200,000. Examples of projects eligible for support include:

• Strategies to address root cause solutions to issues of public safety.
• Community organizing efforts as alternative models to policing.
• Depiction of new innovative responses to community issues that do not include policing.
• Leveraging and strengthening existing efforts that address the impacts of policing as public safety.

Applications must center around responses to issues facing heavily impacted communities. Funds awarded through this grant must include strategic engagement on the reimagination of public safety. Applicants may apply jointly with other community-based organizations but only one organization will be awarded.

Organizations are evaluated primarily on connection to, and the ability to reach, directly impacted communities on one or more priority areas. Applications will be evaluated by a panel comprised of City of Austin staff. Once awarded, organizations must provide the City of Austin’s Equity Office a narrative report 4 months after the contract agreement date.

For more information on supported activities, eligibility requirements, evaluation criteria, and to apply, visit the grant dashboard.

About the City of Austin Equity Office

The City of Austin Equity Office works to achieve a vision of Austin in which race, orientation, or gender do not predict a person’s outcomes. Our work centers on normalizing conversations around race and systemic inequity, organizing among City staff and community members to advance equity, and operationalizing the principles of equity across all of the City’s programs and services.