LTC 462-2023 Miami Beach Rising Above Grants UpdateDocuSign Envelope ID: 3159C7 A2-89E6-490A-8E54-3B24F0F691 EE
MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC# 462-2023 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
Honorable Mayor Dan Gelber and Members of the City Commission
Alina Hudak, City Mana�
October 13, 2023 \X\ -\ 1
SUBJECT: Miami Beach Rising Above Grants Update
I am pleased to announce the selected organizations for the 2023 Miami Beach Rising
Above grants. The grants, totaling $107,000, are being distributed to philanthropic
organizations with an emphasis on environmental projects and programs. These grant
recipients will help promote sustainability, marine resource protection, and environmental
stewardship.
The majority of the grants are made possible through the Boucher Brothers Miami Beach
LLC Public Beachfront Concession Agreement and the Waste Contract Agreement. These
agreements include value-added enhancements to support environmental organizations
and their work in Miami Beach.
A selection committee comprised of City staff evaluated applications utilizing scoring
guidelines that address the following criteria: applicant experience, project benefit, metrics
and data, social impact, project budget, and priority alignment.
•Clean Miami Beach -Beach Cleanups ($12,000)
o Clean Miami Beach is dedicated to keeping our community and natural habitats
free of garbage and harmful pollutants, with a focus on single-use plastics.
Their goal is to teach residents and educate the youth on how everyone can
reuse, re-purpose, and reduce the consumption of plastic. They will complete
12 beach cleanups with this grant funding and will record the most common
items of trash to inform interested parties.
•Debris Free Global, Inc. and Ascendance Sustainable Events -Custom
Sustainability Plans for Special Events ($17,000*)
o Debris Free Global dba Debris Free Oceans is an organization that inspires
local communities to responsibly manage the life cycle of plastics and waste
as part of a global initiative to eradicate marine debris from our beaches, reefs,
and oceans. Ascendance Sustainable Events utilizes its diverse backgrounds
in event production, marketing, and marine science to implement
comprehensive, scientifically-sound, and integrity-driven sustainability
programs for events of all sizes. In collaboration, they will provide 10 large
scale events with free short-and long-term sustainability plans and important
education on successful implementation.
*This grant will be funded through the Sustainability and Resiliency Fund.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 3159C7A2-89E6-490A4-8E54-3B24F0F691EE
• Friends of the Everglades - Exploring the Everglades and lmmersive Learning
Kits ($12,000)
o Friends of the Everglades was founded in 1969 to preserve, protect, and
restore the only Everglades in the world. They firmly believe in the power of
youth education and have reached more than 100,000 students through the
previous iteration of their Young Friends of the Everglades program, founded
in the mid-1990s. Their deliverables include engaging with five Miami Beach
fourth-grade classes with a field trip experience, two classroom presentations,
and Everglades Learning Exploration Kits for each class.
• Institute for Regional Conservation - Plantings to Restore Coastal Biodiversity
($15,000)
o The Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC) is dedicated to the protection,
restoration, and long-term management of biodiversity on a regional basis, and
to the prevention of local extinctions of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems.
They will host three ecological restoration events, drawing on community
volunteers to help restore critical beach dune ecosystems, along with four
educational events focused on coastal conservation.
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center - Field Trips ($15,000)
o The Biscayne Nature Center has been offering quality, memorable, and
exciting environmental education programming for over 38 years. Through this
grant, the Biscayne Nature Center will host 400 Miami Beach school children
for a full-day, hands-on, and immersive nature field trip; this grant will cover all
program costs including bus transportation, nutritious lunch served on
sustainable materials, and program equipment such as nets, life jackets,
nature journals, water shoes, and binoculars.
• Miami Beach Fienberg-Fisher K-8 Center - School Butterfly Garden ($4,600)
o Miami Beach Fienberg-Fisher K-8 Center is an International Baccalaureate
school located in the heart of South Beach. The grant funding will help to
transform its outdoor Children of the World Park and its environs into a
flourishing butterfly garden, enriching local biodiversity and promoting
environmental stewardship. This butterfly garden project will also support youth
engagement and education.
• Miami Beach South Pointe Elementary School - Sustainable Party Decorations
($1,300)
o As a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics (STEAM) and
International Baccalaureate (IB) school, Miami Beach South Pointe Elementary
is a leader among Miami-Dade Public Schools in sustainable thinking, with a
Dream in Green designation, and a Green Apple designation. The school aims
to plan events that utilize more sustainable decorations and elements. This
grant will fund the purchase of water coolers and cover the difference between
more sustainable decorations compared to wasteful items such as balloons.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 3159C7A2-89E6-490A4-8E54-3824F0F691EE
• Miam i-D ade Coastal Cleanup and Recycle Across Am erica - Stan dardized
Recycling Signage ($15,000)
o Miam i-D ade Coastal Cleanup dba VolunteerCleanup.org is widely known in the
com m unity as a long-tim e leader in the environm ental and beach cleanup
space, and as part of its core strategy, has developed and supported a netw ork
of people taking leadership roles in their own com m unity . Recycle Across
A m erica created the first-and-only society-wide standardized labels for
recycling, com post, and trash receptacles which pro ve to be the most effective,
easy, and low-cost solution available today to help solve the waste crisis.
These non-pro fit organizations will work together to im plem ent the Recycle
Across America standardized labels on multi-fam ily hom e recycling carts.
• The CLEO Institute -- Clim ate Resili ent Schools Program ($15,100)
o O ver the past 13 years, the Clim ate Leadership Engagement Opportunities
(CLEO ) Institute has made significant contributions to statewide climate
literacy, engagem ent, and advocacy in Florida, particularly for Black,
Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPO C), wom en, and youth. This grant will
fund C lim ate Resilient School program m ing in Miam i Beach public schools,
including several Cl imat e 101 trai ning s at Miam i Beach Senior High School.
If you have any questions, please contact Amy Knowles, Chief Resilience Officer at
Am yknow les@ m iam ibeachfl.gov or Juanita Ballesteros, Sustainability and Resilience Manager,
at JuanitaBallestero s@ m iam ibeachfl.gov.
A TH/EC/AK/JB/A B