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SCRANTON — Lackawanna Heritage Valley has announced the start of a new spring cycle of partnership grant funding. The deadline to apply is March 1 at noon.
LHV works with community partners on projects that conserve, preserve, and educate the public about Northeastern Pennsylvania’s historic, cultural, economic and natural resources.
Through the grants, LHV provides financial assistance to nonprofit and civic organizations, heritage partners, educational institutions, and municipalities located or operated within the Lackawanna Heritage Valley, or whose projects will benefit LHV’s service area in Lackawanna County and portions of Susquehanna, Wayne and Luzerne counties.
The heritage area includes the parts of Luzerne County that are in the Lackawanna River watershed area. That includes Duryea, and parts of the City of Pittston, Hughestown and Avoca.
Since inception, LHV has provided $3,357,576 in grant funding to organizations for projects and programs in place-based education, interpretive programming, historic preservation, cultural conservation, community trails, and community and economic development.
This investment in Northeastern Pennsylvania stimulates the region’s economy, enhances tourism initiatives, strengthens community organizations, and increases the quality of life for area residents, said Julie D. Imel, public relations and programs manager for LHV.
This program is limited to small grants, since available funding to LHV for these programs has been cut dramatically in the past few years. In 2015, LHV awarded $21,381 in grants funding.
Eligible applicants include:
• Nonprofit organizations with tax-exempt status proposing projects that preserve or promote cultural, historic, community, or natural resources, or ethnic traditions or folkways;
• Municipal and county governmental agencies; and
• Educational Institutions, including public schools and colleges and universities.
Through this program, LHV has supported a wide variety of projects in the region, such as:
• Exhibits, interpretive displays and panels, trail signage, video and audio displays, on-site interactive media, and digital products;
• Public programming, films, activities, events, and outreach activities;
• Program materials, including training materials for docents at historic sites, publications, including brochures or guidebooks, interpretive driving or walking trails and tours, and/or annotated itineraries;
• Preservation and adaptive reuse of historic structures, i.e. “bricks-and-mortar” work;
• Cultural conservation activities including oral history projects, conservation of traditional folkways, and artifact identification and preservation; and
• Feasibility or planning studies, management action plans, and special purpose studies.
For general information about the heritage area, visit www.LHVA.org. For program guidelines and grant applications, visit www.lhva.org/grants or call 570-963-6730, extension 8200.