Keep America Beautiful, Inc. today announced the availability of its 2010 Graffiti Hurts Grant Program, which offers three grants of $2,500 to help communities step up local graffiti prevention activities.

The Graffiti Hurts Grant Program has new population categories for 2010, with individual grants offered to one community under 75,000 population; to one community between 75,000 and 250,000 population; and to one community over 250,000 population. The funds must be used for projects that will be initiated in fall 2010 and completed no later than Dec. 31, 2011.

“With increasingly tight local budgets for policing and graffiti remediation, the Graffiti Hurts Grant Program is one small effort from Keep America Beautiful to bring attention to this community blight and help support grassroots efforts to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Matt McKenna. “Keep America Beautiful thanks The Sherwin-Williams Company for supporting our effort to meet those needs.”

Local governments, police departments, youth groups, downtown associations, crime prevention organizations, and other groups dedicated to eradicating graffiti vandalism are encouraged to apply. (Businesses that make or operate graffiti removal equipment or technologies are not eligible.) Proposed projects can address graffiti prevention and education, eradication, or enforcement of local anti-graffiti laws. Programs that focus on prevention initiatives, including Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), and engaging and educating youth are encouraged.

The application deadline is June 1, 2010. Complete an online application by going to kab.org/grants_GH2010. Grant awards will be announced by Sept. 15.

Graffiti Hurts was developed in 1996 through a partnership between Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest nonprofit education and community improvement organization, and The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE: SHW), maker of Krylon paint, to respond to the blight of graffiti vandalism in communities nationwide. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, graffiti contributes to lost revenue associated with reduced ridership on transit systems, reduced retail sales, and declines in property value.

The 2009 grant recipients were the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe, Calif., whose “Unity Project” helps youth express their art within the framework of city laws; Crime Prevention & Control Commission of Denver, Colo., which provides diversionary art and leadership skills to local youth as a substitute to graffiti vandalism ; City of Milwaukee (Wis.) Dept. of Neighborhood Services, whose graffiti intervention program is for youth to educate their peers through radio PSAs they create; and Keep San Antonio (Texas) Beautiful, which has disseminated solar-powered motion detecting lights to businesses and homeowners who have chronic graffiti through its Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design component called “Place Light Upon Graffiti” (or PLUG).

About Keep America Beautiful, Inc. and its Graffiti Hurts Program: Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization, whose network of nearly 1,000 affiliate and participating organizations forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. For additional information, visit www.kab.org. Graffiti Hurts® is a community-based graffiti prevention program of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. that provides resources to help communities assess the graffiti problem, initiate graffiti prevention activities, and educate youth and adults about the impact of graffiti vandalism on neighborhoods.

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Keep America Beautiful April 1 press release

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