SLCBC Earn-a-Bike Grant Writing

Name and Purpose

What is the name of our program or project?

Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective Earn-A-Bike

What is the program’s mission? How does it fit within our overall organization’s mission and make sense given our values and other programs?

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

In a world of disposable products today’s youth has lost touch with their mechanical aptitude. Our Earn-A-Bike classes re-acquaint the concept of repair, provide an affordable means of transportation, promote a sustainable and healthy lifestyle, as well as build self-confidence and pride in the participants. The students tear apart and learn how to rebuild a bicycle from scratch using the proper tools and techniques under the supervision of qualified mechanics. Not only do they gain mechanical skills but they are also taught, both formally and informally, what safe cycling is.

Community need

Is this program new or ongoing?

Ongoing.

If this program is ongoing, why and when was it started? Is it expanding? If so, why?

In the summer of 2003, Earn-A-Bike became the first official program of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective. Partnering with a Salt Lake City after-school program called YouthCity, we offered a 6-8 week class for 10-12 students, often at-risk or refugee youth. Since then the class has been offered xxx times serving xxx kids. That success and the demand for the program opened up another partnership with the local YWCA for their resident youth.

If the program is new, why is it being created? What is the specific community need for the program?

• Pollution Prevention
• Recycling
• Safety
• Obesity Epidemic
• Science & Technology (Engineering)

According to the American Obesity Association (www.obesity.org, Dec. 20, 2006) nationwide over 45 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese.

“30.3 percent of children (ages 6 to 11) are overweight and 15.3 percent are obese. For adolescents (ages 12 to 19), 30.4 percent are overweight and 15.5 percent are obese.”

However in Utah more than HALF of the population is overweight or obese (http://health.utah.gov/obesity/, Dec. 20, 2006). Promoting bicycling as a form of exercise is a solution to this epidemic. These bikes aren’t just given to them, students earn them with their own labor, as a result they take pride in that bike and ride it everywhere.

Can you tell me the story of a person who needs this program?

Kenzie Hamblin self-proclaimed herself the “most mechanically challenged person on the planet.” In casual conversations she mentioned her household lacked a hammer – making the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective her first real exposure to tools. She came to us tired of being called a “city-girl.” To use her own words:

“I found myself forgetting basic stuff [but] after giving myself a minute…I could remember. Then something positively amazing happened I was asked for help and without thinking VOILA I said something and holy Hannah it was right too.” “I am so amazed that I did it through every step of the way.”

Kenzie is just one of many who lacked the opportunity to explore their mechanical abilities and now have found confidence, knowledge, friends, and a good time in the Earn-A-Bike program.

Do you know of any good sources for statistics to substantiate the need for this program? Would you give me copies of any reports or links to any Web sites you use?

In the three years we have been doing this program, the …

Contact Bikes not bombs, transportation alternatives, http://www.cyclesofchange.org/

Nuts and bolts

If our program is new, is this a pilot phase? Of how long?

This is not a new program, it exists in other states, and has successfully run in Salt Lake City for three years.

If it is a one-time special project or event, what is its duration, including planning and post event evaluation?

N/A

If it is an ongoing program, what is the timeline expansion? How does the program work? What are the specific services or goods the program will provide to the people it serves?

The course takes 6-8 weeks with students attending twice a week for an hour and a half. Each student completely disassembles a bike in the first 2 weeks, at which point they go on a field trip to the local powder coating facility to choose a new color for their bike. While they are there they see observe the powder coating process and learn about the environmental benefits of powder coating vs. traditional liquid paint. In waiting for their bike frames to return, they clean and polish their parts, true (straighten) and rebuild their wheels. Finally when the frames return they complete the process and rebuild their brand new looking bikes. While there are specific tasks that need to happen, they develop their own sense of time management – with the reality that they need to finish their bike before the end of the class. Upon successful completion students keep the bike they have so carefully built along with a helmet and a lock.

How many people do we plan to serve or involve per year (or total, for one-time events)? What do these people have in common with one another?

Student to Teacher ratio varies with the age and experience of the students. The younger the students, the more instructors are needed.

When the classes run for 7 weeks (2x a week) for 14 sessions, we are able to offer 28 classes each year. With an ideal class size of 12 students, this class could reach 336 students each year.

How long have you been planning this program?Are there people involved in the decision making and shaping of the program? If so, how?

Do you have a specific work plan and timeline, and may I have copies of any printed plans?

• Media:Fall_06_Skills_Checklist.doc‎

Is this program going to be produced solely by our organization or in partnership or collaboration with other organizations? If this is a collaboration, is the partnership formal, and do we have a letter of agreement? Or is it informal, in that our organizations rely on one another and enhance each other’s work but don’t have an official agreement?

Goals and vision

What are our program’s goals, objectives, and methods?

• To provide a pre-vocational training experience, in which students learn the value of participation, productive work, punctuality and dependability.
• To provide a safe, supportive, respective environment for all participants.
• To teach students basic bike mechanics and bike safety skills, and the increased self-sufficiency that comes with having these skills.
• To provide an opportunity for students to earn bicycles through their participation in the program.

What is your vision for the future of this program? If you had all the funding you desired, how would you operate the program? What’s your dream in relation to this issue?

Ideally this program would run year round, four days a week, and reach over 300 kids every year. With students working in teams, an instructor is able to assist two teams (4 students). This would require three instructors for each Earn-a-bike class of twelve students. While volunteer instructors are a huge asset to the program, the consistency that comes with a paid instructor creates reliable mentors for youth. Funding for these instructors is essential.

Another imperative aspect for the program is the availability of sufficient tools, workspace, and consumable supplies (see below). Each team of two students would share a work station equipped with the proper tools to rebuild their bicycle. The powder coating process aesthetically transforms someone else's old bike into their brand new bike. However, it is during the dismantling for powder coating that they gain intimate knowledge of every aspect of their bike. Powder coating would be more affordable with the ability to sandblast and prep bikes ourselves.

While certainly the highlight of the course is the completion of their bicycles, the curriculum would be incomplete without bicycle safety education. Currently, students have the option of obtaining their Road I or Kids II certification, a curriculum created by the League of American Bicycles. These courses teach the importance of riding safe with helmets, locks, lights. It is our desire to provide helmets, locks, and lights to students at this time to reinforce and encourage that education.

Consumable Supplies

• Grease
• Bearings
• cable
• Housing
• pizza (food)
• gas (transportation)
• special events
• shop rags
• nitrile gloves
• waste disposal

Resources

What is the estimated cost for the project? If it is a multiple-year project, such as a three-year pilot phase or explanation phase, what is the total cost as well as each year’s cost?

-Facility – operating cost, consumed tools/parts, wear and tear -Administrative – recruiting, repair -Instruction – 2 instructors per class -Powder Coating –

May I have copies of any written budgets and any quotes from vendors or other documentation of how costs were arrived at? If the program is new, what specific things are needed to get it started? If the program is ongoing, what specific things are needed to keep going or to expand? Why seek a grant at this particular time?

- blasting cabinet, compressor

What resources are already in place for this project? Other grants or funding sources (and their amounts)? Donations? Physical resources, such as a space or vehicles? Volunteers?

What other funding is being sought? Have proposals already been sent to any other potential funders? Are there reasons why particular funders might be interested?

If the program is meant to continue in the future, how will it be funded after an initial grant or grants? Thinking creatively, how can we go beyond “looking for more grants”? For example, will the program cost less annually after it is established? Will it generate any of its own money through earned income? Is it especially appropriate for in-kind donations? Will it build philanthropy among a particular group of people who may give to it in the future?

Who are the key personnel (paid or unpaid), and what are their qualifications? Do you have any written bios or resumes for them, or how can I reach them to ask about their qualifications? What portions of each person’s time is going to be dedicated to this program or project?

Evaluation and impact

How will our program be evaluated? Who will evaluate it and how often? What exactly will be measured to determine success?

If the program is ongoing, has this evaluation been done before? What were the results

What will be done with the future evaluation results? For example, will the program change as a result of evaluation feedback?

In addition to the people who are directly served or involved, who else will our program affect? Think about a list of possible groups that the program will have an effect on:

• Direct participants?
• Their families?

-interaction of parents with kids, nostalgic bikes, tommy, sujeit (tricycle)

• Their children?
• Neighbors?
• Specific populations?

- Youth

• Schools?

- Salt Lake City School District

• Law enforcement?

- donated bikes

• Health care providers?
• Faith centers or churches?
• Service clubs?

- eagle scouts bike drives

• Local businesses?

- contender, steel coatings

• Government?

- YouthCity

• Other non-profit organizations?

-YouthCity -YWCA -IRC, Road Home, Odyssey House

Other groups that are particular to our program or the whole community?

Do you have letters of support from any of these groups, or could you identify two or three we can call to request letters?

• Rocky Anderson
• International Rescue Committee [1] (see http://www.slcbikecollective.org/content/view/94/1/)