What would you do with $1000?

The City of Prince George wants to know what you would do with $1000…

At Tuesday’s Talktober meeting, the City laid out monopoly money in front of different jars to see what people would do with small amounts of money around their neighbourhood.

The jars had labels like beautification, parks and playgrounds, festivals and events, and recreation.

Community Partnerships Coordinator Cheryl Livingstone-Leman says it’s part of a revamped City grant initiative.

“They’re small micro-grants for neighbourhoods, groups, and individuals who want to do something neat in the community that doesn’t require a lot of money, just a little seed money to the project off the ground.”

The City looked to other municipalities for examples, and found good things tend to happen when people are involved with their neighbourhood.

“One thing we’ve seen in other communities is a block party program!” Added Leman, “The City would prepare a kit, we’d block a road off in a neighbourhood, and a package would be developed so people could have a BBQ or block party where they get to know their neighbours.”

While there are several grant applications for larger amounts of money available through the City, Leman found the smaller groups just weren’t going for them.

“What we find is that some of the smaller groups, these little non-profits groups are clubs were kind of intimidated to go an apply on a big grant process. They’re usually all volunteer boards, they don’t have a lot of time, and they don’t have a lot of expertise sometimes. So this grant program is an easy application to fill out for smaller amounts of money.”

Leman noted the thousand dollar benchmark isn’t final, but will be discussed when City budget talks begin.

She’s hoping the grants will be rolling a few months down the road.