| Name | Linda |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Allen |
| Home Address | 208 Brookwood Drive Chattanooga, TN 37411 United States |
| Organization Name | Houston Museum of Decorative Arts |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | President, Board of Directors |
| Organization Address | 201 High St. Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403 United States |
| Website | https://www.thehoustonmuseum.org/ |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | 4235803261 |
| Alternate Phone Number | 4232677176 |
| Email Address | abey@epbfi.com |
| Alternate Email Address | houstonmuseumchattanooga@gmail.com |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Houston Museum closed on March 2020. Based on the CDC guidelines, the museum reopened a few months later with new pandemic procedures, signage, masks, sanitizer stations and reduced tour group sizes. However, tours and gift shop income plummeted as people quarantined themselves at home. To this date, visitors and tours have increased but the volunteers have continued to decrease or stop contributing time due to fear of exposure to Covid. This has requiring museum staff to perform volunteer duties taking them from their primary work activities (museum management and educational outreach). On occasion we have had to close the museum do to lack of staff. Both the museum director and the educational outreach staff are not doing their prescribed job because the have to stop what they should be doing to conduct a tour or work in the gift shop. As a result of this, educational outreach programs are not being developed and the executive director cannot focus on the important task of running the museum which has caused a severe impact on the effectiveness of our organization. This funding request is to hire a new part time staff to be museum tour guide and to work in the gift shop since volunteers have decreased. This new job will include job training by our organization for an unskilled worker. We would hire a new part time tour guide and gift shop staff that would work 25 hours a week. We would like pay a fair salary of $12/hour with a yearly salary of $15,600. Due to the long reaching negative impact of the covid pandemic, we are requesting this grant for a 3 year period and a total grant amount of $46,800. |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | The American Recuse plan is to assist with 'Negative Economic Impact and to Aid to Impacted Industries' as a result of Covid, such as not for profit organizations in the tourism sector, which the museum is a part of. It also mentions that it can be requested for payroll and jobs creation that will help mitigate the impact of the pandemic. Covid has decreased our volunteer staff by more that half and this is negatively affecting our organizations operation. Our current budget cannot afford to hire new staff and getting grant funds for hiring a new staff will not only contribute to the local economy by providing a fair wage to a local worker but will also allow our museum to do more community outreach and be a benefit to the community, the economy and tourism as listed in the benefits below. |
| Where would your project take place? | Houston Museum of Decorative Arts |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 46800 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | No |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | |
| If funded, when would your project start? | May 1, 2022 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | 3 years |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | We will measure the project progress by tracking the increase in tours/visitors to the museum and gift shop sales. We will also track the increase in the number of community outreach programs. |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | The new hire salary will be tracked by our bookkeeping and accounting. We will use Monkey pod software to track this grant and it's requirements which we will available for review and audit. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | This project to provide additional museum staff doing tours and gift shop work will allow the museum to provide many benefits to the community and will help mitigate the impact of the pandemic by: -allowing the primary paid staff to devote their time on their primary job description such as creating new educational outreach programs that will strengthen the Community and tourism. Our programs reach out to local and rural Seniors, Individuals with Disabilities, Veterans / Active Military, Teachers, families and students grades pre K-12 by teaching about history, culture, art and create diversity and inclusion opportunities. -the educational programs above will address education disparities for lower income students and adults. -allow our museum to have more capacity for visitors which has a positive impact on local tourism. It will allow for a positive visitor experience in Chattanooga. -create a new job for a person of lower income. Good jobs with fair wages create a healthy vibrant communities. -increase gift shop sales and subsequent increase in local sales tax revenue. -it is well known fact that experiencing art and beautiful things creates positive well being to its visitors and improves overall mental health in times of stress, (which is caused by the covid pandemic and the economic downturn). Keeping the museum open improves everyone's mental health which makes for a healthier society. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | This project to provide additional museum staff doing tours and gift shop work will allow the museum director and the educational outreach staff time to create relevant programs that will attract the community and tourist together by learning about art, history and culture. We will reach out to the community and tourists through social media and print with all of our educational programs and events. |
| Name | Karen Murphy |
| Contact Information | karen10murphy@gmail.com |
| Name | Amy Autenreith |
| Contact Information | houstonmuseumchattanooga@gmail.com |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? | |