Kentucky Civic Seal Mini-Grant Program

The Kentucky Civic Seal Mini-Grant Program aims to empower educators and students by funding civic engagement projects that align with the Civic Seal criteria. Offering grants ranging from $100 to $1000, this initiative supports planning, enacting, and showcasing civic action projects. Launched with the help of the CivXNow and community partners, it emphasizes diversity in applicant selection and encourages collaboration between students and adult sponsors to enhance civic learning and participation.

The Kentucky Civic Seal Mini-Grant program is a new initiative. It is designed to support a variety of activities, where educators and students are enacting the Civic Seal criteria.
Launched with support from the CivXNow, the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Fund, as well as support from the Rural Urban Exchange and other community partners, the program will invest a series of small grants (awards from $100-1000) to support short-term projects in service of planning, enactment, or showcasing of the Kentucky Civic Seal.
Grant Activities
Planning: Funding in this category helps teachers lay the groundwork for their civic engagement projects. It can be used to cover resources for project design, collaboration with community partners, curriculum development, and any preparatory work that ensures a strong foundation for project success.Enacting: This category provides funding for the direct implementation of civic engagement projects. Teachers can use these funds to bring their ideas to life, including covering costs for materials, event coordination, guest speakers, field trips, or any other activities that engage students in active, hands-on civic learning. The enactment phase emphasizes student participation and real-world impact.Showcasing: Funding in this category is designed to support the presentation and celebration of completed civic engagement projects. This includes creating opportunities for students to share their work with peers, families, and the broader community through events, exhibitions, or digital presentations/documentaries. It also supports documenting the project’s outcomes and lessons learned, highlighting the importance of civic action in schools and communities.

Eligibility

The purpose of the mini-grant program is to support teachers and students in enacting or reflecting upon their work on the Civic Seal.Application review will take into consideration diversity of applicants, including student demographics, grade bands, geography, proposed activities, etc.Applicants must be a Kentucky educator working directly or indirectly with a school/program enacting the Civic Seal. Interested students must partner with an adult sponsor.Mini-grant applications should revolve around one or more of the following activities:planning, enacting, or showcasing students’ Civic Seal work.