Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Economic Development Authority have announced two competitive funds available for rural communities with a population under 20,000.
Specifically, funding of up to $400,000 has been allocated to two funds for current fiscal year (FY) 2021 through FY 2022
They are the Rural Innovation Grant Program and the Rural Housing Assessment Grant Program.
The Governor’s Office tells us the Rural Innovation Grant Program provides up to $300,000 in grants supporting creative, non-traditional ideas that focus on current issues and challenges faced by rural communities associated with the themes of community investment, growth and connection.
They say the other program — the Rural Housing Assessment Grant Program provides up to $100,000 to support the use of publicly-available online information through the “Profile of Iowa” tool and rural community efforts to interpret this hard data with supplemental information, as well as to implement through changes to development codes, local ordinances and housing incentives specific to their community needs in partnership with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
Governor Reynolds says that the Empower Rural Iowa Initiative has been instrumental in advancing projects that are essential for growing rural communities, like expanding broadband and creating affordable housing. She says that the Rural Innovation Grant program and the Rural Housing Assessment Grant program will “spark innovation in small communities across Iowa, providing the next generation of rural leaders additional tools for success.”
Guidelines and scoring rubric for both programs are available on the Office of Rural Revitalization’s website. The programs, defined in Iowa Administrative Code, are administered by the Center for Rural Revitalization, a division of IEDA, in consultation with the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative Task Forces.
Applications for FY 2021 are currently being accepted via iowagrants.gov and are due by April 16, 2021. Applications will be scored by a volunteer panel that will include the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative Task Force members and expert professionals. Successful applicants will be informed in June.
For additional program parameters and information, the Governor’s Office says you can contact Liesl Seabert at rural@iowaeda.com.
