Boston Main Streets Foundation Awards $32,500 to 7 Districts

November 14, 2019 (Boston, MA) – The Boston Main Streets Foundation today announced $32,500 in funding to seven Boston Main Streets Districts for its Fall 2019 Impact & Innovation Grants round.

The Impact & Innovation Grants seek to spark new, innovative, and scalable programs in Boston’s Main Streets neighborhoods and demonstrate results. Since 2005, the Foundation has invested over $3 million of funds raised from the Greater Boston business community to support the Boston Main Streets mission: making Boston’s neighborhood commercial districts thriving, vibrant centers of commerce and community.

“The neighborhoods are the center of Boston’s civic and cultural life. By driving foot traffic to the Boston Main Streets commercial districts, we’re not only giving a boost to local businesses, we’re also enriching the lives of residents, neighbors, and visitors by showing them the many hidden gems all across the City,” said Joel Sklar, Board Chair of the Boston Main Streets Foundation.

“The small businesses in our Main Streets districts add vibrancy to our communities and employ our neighbors, and it is vital that we support these businesses in their efforts to grow and thrive here in the City of Boston,” said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “Boston's Main Streets districts are the heart of Boston's neighborhoods, and I look forward to seeing how these grants lift up businesses and help communities innovate.”

The Boston Main Streets Foundation awarded the following:

$5,000 to Greater Ashmont Main Street for a Little Free Library Network. Prefabricated book exchange boxes will be purchased and offered for sponsorship by local main street businesses and civic organizations. These libraries will be placed in both high- and low-traffic areas throughout the district to create simple amenities that improve the walking experience and encourage sharing and recycling of previously read books among members of the community. To celebrate the launch of the Greater Ashmont Little Free Library Network, GAMS will co-host two author events in the newly renovated Peabody Square where we will collaborate with Write on the Dot, a Dorchester-focused literary group with a network of Dorchester writers.

$5,000 to Greater Grove Hall Main Streets for Billboard Banners using innovative billboard poster technology, which significantly reduces the cost for this public art. This will enable the district to rotate designs and artists, which is not possible with wall-painted murals. Greater Grove Hall has utilized public art to improve the neighborhood and drive publicity for local businesses. Two artists from the recent Grove Hall Mural Series won awards through the Americans for the Arts Convention.

$5,000 to Hyde Park Main Streets for Holiday Storefront Window Painting. Decorating storefront windows to entertain and entice shoppers has been a tradition for many years in the district, yet many small business owners have little or no budget to participate. The grant will be used to hire local artists to work with business owners to create beautiful, whimsical, and cohesive displays, each with the tag line “Holiday on Main,” that encourage residents and visitors to shop and dine locally.

$3,500 to JP Centre/South Main Streets for a First Thursday Scavenger Hunt. Each of the ten scavenger hunts will highlight six businesses with a monthly theme such as art, food, gifts, health, or kids. The scavenger hunts will utilize the JP Centre/South StriveOn app, which was launched in 2018 and utilizes a multi-media approach to shopping the district. When the user finds and visits the business featured in the scavenger hunt, that business will provide a sample, a taste, a free gift or discount with purchase, a 5-minute class, a quick tour, or any number of ways that are available to them to engage the visitor in their business. The goal of the scavenger hunts is to promote late Thursday business hours and create new, more successful revenue opportunities for the businesses in the district.

$5,000 to Three Squares Main Street (formerly Hyde Jackson Square Main Street) for the Hyde Square Mode Shift initiative, which aims to make parking more available for customers in the neighborhood by encouraging workers in small store-front businesses to travel to and from work by other modes of transportation besides driving. Partnering with the MBTA, Blue Bikes, the Boston Transportation Department, store-front businesses, and area transportation advocates, Three Squares Main Street will provide transit passes, Bluebikes memberships (Greater Boston’s bike-share program), and incentives to carpoolers who change their commuting behaviors by switching from driving to alternative transportation modes. The initiative will target employees and business owners who already drive to and from work and park in spaces on public streets and in the City-owned municipal parking lot.

$5,000 to Upham’s Corner Main Street for Local Restaurants, Musicians, and Artists Harmonize, an effort to highlight local restaurants during the holiday and winter season, thus illuminating the spirit of the community in Upham’s Corner through art, live music and entertainment. Bringing live entertainment into restaurants will help owners develop a loyal and dedicated clientele which will increase revenue and foot-traffic. Local artists will have an opportunity to showcase and sell their artwork and collaborate with other creative entrepreneurs.

$4,000 to West Roxbury Main Streets for the Women’s Business Holiday Market. This will be the second Holiday Market featuring the women-owned and managed retail and food businesses in West Roxbury. Last year’s event attracted over 600 visitors who shopped at the women-owned vendors, sampled local foods, were entertained by local musicians, and got a chance to visit with Santa when he arrived by trolley at the end of the evening. This year’s grant will help with a digital and print campaign to highlight the participating local businesses leading up to the event.

For more information on the Boston Main Streets Foundation, the 20 Boston Main Streets Districts, and to find details on events happening throughout the neighborhoods, visit www.bostonmainstreets.org.

About the Boston Main Streets Foundation

The Boston Main Streets Foundation (BMSF) is committed to making Boston's neighborhood commercial districts thriving, vibrant centers of commerce and community through its support of the Boston Main Streets program. The Boston Main Streets Foundation seeks to develop long-term strategies to increase the economic power and resources of neighborhood commercial districts while pursuing initiatives that build knowledge and capacity for Main Streets programs and the businesses they serve. Boston Main Streets Foundation raises corporate, private, public, and foundation support and awareness, develops renewable income streams for local Boston Main Streets organizations and provide funding opportunities to each Boston Main Streets districts.