Practice and potential of catalyzed minigrants for democratic community health

Disseminating community health minigrants—from $50 to $5000—offers a promising means to tap citizen expertise and generate “grassroots” community action. However, conventional granting mechanisms are unlikely to engage people currently excluded from health policy and planning tables. Building on a review of the small literature on minigrants and though examination of several case studies of community health minigrants in practice, this paper proposes and illustrates strategies for garnering applications from and generating action in communities not accustomed to writing grants and yet who are most affected by unhealthy community environments. Strategies include employing “animators” or “catalyzers” to recruit applicants and providing flexible application modes (e.g., oral). Examples discussed will include how a $500 grant enabled collaborations that installed gardens in several Head Start preschools and how $3000 seeded a new summer market at a historically African-American community center in Ithaca, New York. This paper closes by outlining the minigrant strategies five community food initiatives in the US are employing and presenting preliminary results from their experiences.