The Wellbeing Microgrant program empowers Santa Monica residents to take direct, small-scale action intended to advance new policies and spark conversations (https://www.wellbeingmicrogrants.org/). Designed in 2018 with the nationally-recognized Cities of Service, Wellbeing Microgrants quickly developed a proven track record.
This funding enables us to award three new cohorts, systematize program evaluation, and develop new training and capacity-building.
We use findings from our innovative Wellbeing Index to prompt microgrant applicants. We ask them to consider local strengths and challenges across issues of economic opportunity, place and planet, health, learning, and community. Awardees develop and lead the solutions based on their unique skills, expertise, and networks. We provide assistance throughout, connecting microgrant leaders to a cross-section of local entities – government, non-profit, business, and community leaders – who act as allies and microgrant force-multipliers.
The Wellbeing Microgrant leaders for Round 7 are:
| Lead Name | Project Description |
| Eileen Escarce | A Good Beginning for Child Wellbeing |
| Leah O’Connor | The Queer Book Club Project |
| Jane Monteagle | Compost Awareness |
| Kathleen Benjamin | Living on The Edge of Expression |
| Grace Lanzetta | Santa Monica Special Needs Siblings Project |
| Tanya Scott | Move with Pilates! |
| Carina Reyes | Callejera |
| Andrena Seals | Youth Sports & Injuries: Prevention, Training, Rehab & Sustaining Good Health |
| Gabriela C Solano | Tejiendo Nuestros Suenos |
| Dani Lunn | Deep Listening |
| Freddy Paniagua | Soccer for Everyone |
| Malikah Muied | Malikah’s Mom Mixer |
| Indy Rishi Singh | Outdoor Community Sound Healing |
| Phoebe Benun & Maeko Gross | Books for Kids |
To get connected with any of these great projects through November 2022, please email cityofwellbeing@gmail.com.
Applications to participate in Round 8 are open now: Apply Here from January 31st through March 3rd.
The Wellbeing Index
The Wellbeing Index was created in 2014 from Bloomberg Philanthropies $1m government innovation prize, (http://santamonicawellbeing.org/about/wellbeing-index).
The Index provides a baseline for understanding what contributes to wellbeing and how the city and community can work to improve it. By understanding more about what makes us thrive, we can work together on making meaningful changes in our community.
The index combines data we have, determines what new types of data we need to gather, and integrates in new ways all of the available information. It brings together a variety of data from City measures, an extensive resident survey and social media in six distinct yet connected categories of what research shows drive wellbeing.
