Beyond the Five-Year Grant

Words by Sophie Vaughan

In Part 1 of this series, we introduced the City of Akron’s ACORN Project, a $1 million Urban Forestry and Workforce Development program funded by a grant from the USDA Forest Service. In Part 2, we detailed the next steps that the ACORN project’s partners need to take to get the program started, as well the cuts that had to be made to the original $6.7 million grant proposal to fit the budget for the $1 million award. This final part of the series addresses the future of the program beyond the five-year grant.

City of Akron Watershed Superintendent Jessica Glowczewski — who developed this project with Akron Zoo and Truly Reaching You (TRY) Ministries — hopes that if this program is successful, it could continue with subsequent rounds of grant funding, or that the City could adopt the program in some fashion.