Tampa Bay Water awards grants to local organizations that share our environmental stewardship goals to help protect drinking water sources and engage the community on source water education.
Tampa Bay Water’s Source Water Protection Mini-grant Program is available to non-profit groups, schools or teachers, and community groups. Grants range from $2,000 to $10,000, for projects relating to protecting regional drinking water supplies.
For 2023, Tampa Bay Water will distribute $23,950 in grants among:
The Florida Aquarium ($8,000) for the From Drops to Drink: Protecting Tampa Bay’s Drinking Water workshops. The Florida Aquarium will use grant funding to provide workshops that inform educators about various sources for our drinking water supply in the Tampa Bay area and the importance of protecting our watersheds. The project’s main goal is to provide outreach to the broader Tampa Bay community through educators and their students: approximately 40 teachers and 800 students annually.
Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation ($3,000) for interpretive signage for its Wetlands Walkway. The Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation will use the grant funding to install interpretative signage panels along the elevated Wetlands Walkway in the Florida Botanical Gardens located in Pinellas County. The signs will explain why wetlands are important to the water cycle and ecosystem in addition to helping increase awareness and stewardship of Florida’s wetlands and source waters. The Florida Botanical Gardens has thousands of visitors each year who will experience the Wetlands Walkway and educational signage.
Hillsborough County Council PTA/PTSA ($2,250) for a Water Protection Arts Competition. Every year the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) hosts a Reflections program for all local PTAs around the country in which local students submit art based on a theme and participate in a division appropriate to their grade level. The Hillsborough County PTA/PTSA will use this funding to add a second art competition following the same standards as the Reflections program with the theme “Protecting Our Water.” Students will conduct research about water protection and decide how to represent the theme in a work of art. The artwork will be displayed at an arts festival for the Reflections program. The project’s main goal is to raise awareness of ways in which we can protect our water in the Tampa Bay region. This project will reach approximately 300 students through Hillsborough County Schools’ estimated 125 local PTA/PTSAs.
Tampa Bay Kayak Anglers ($8,000) for its Hispanics for Our Environment program. Tampa Bay Kayak Anglers will use grant funding to educate Hispanic communities of Tampa Bay about the importance of our region's water supply through outings and community clean-ups that are delivered in their language and cultural representation. The grant funding will support several community clean-ups throughout the year along paddle trails, waterways and coastal areas. The project seeks to promote learning about our region’s drinking water supply and taking action to help protect it.
Tampa Bay Times Newspaper in Education ($2,700) for its Source Water Protection NIE Teach Guide/Workshop series. The Tampa Bay Times Newspaper in Education (NIE) program will use grant funding to build upon existing curriculum resources by creating an original, Florida Standards-aligned teacher guide on source water protection. The teacher guide will focus on engaging students by integrating current local, state, national and global events and issues pertaining to the environment and water topics. The grant funding will support a series of professional development workshops, both in-person and virtual, focused on showing teachers how to incorporate source water protection resources, themes and activities into existing curricula. The project’s main goal is to provide Tampa Bay teachers with a comprehensive suite of resources to teach about source water protection. With a target of 75-150 teachers attending workshops, hundreds of students will be impacted by teachers who use project resources in their classrooms.
