Community Engagement Grant Project. In 2021, the Legislature created the Community Engagement Grant Project within the Department of Commerce (Commerce). The grant project's purpose is to foster community engagement through neighborhood organizing, law enforcement and community partnerships, youth mobilization, and business engagement. The project includes 12 to 15 grant awards in those counties that have demonstrated their commitment to programs that promote community engagement in public safety including Spokane, Pierce, King, Okanogan, Yakima, Cowlitz, Clark, Chelan-Douglas, Walla Walla, Benton-Franklin, Grant, and Snohomish counties.
Commerce adopted policies and procedures to administer the project, including an application process, disbursement of grant funds to selected applicants, tracking compliance and proper use of funds, and measuring outcomes.
Project Eligibility. Applicants for the grant program must:
Grant Participants. Activities for grant participants are outlined. Among other requirements, a successful participant must:
Reporting. Commerce worked with the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to develop reporting guidelines for the grant recipient to measure whether the program had an impact on crime rates and community engagement with law enforcement. A preliminary report was to be submitted to the Legislature by January 1, 2022, with a final report due December 1, 2023.
The Law Enforcement Community Engagement Project expiration date of January 1, 2024, is extended one year to January 1, 2025.