I participated in an Influencer Activation for State Farm Neighborhood Assist. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

Today I am sharing something that means a lot to me. As a mom, it’s important for my kids to grow up in an environment where they feel safe and their needs are met.

Right now, State Farm is giving out grants to community programs that helps ensure hometowns thrive. The program, called State Farm Neighborhood Assist, wants to help make a difference in our communities by giving grants to the causes that bring individuals and communities together with local non-profits to build safer, stronger, better-educated communities.

This program is put on by State Farm’s Youth Advisory Board, which is comprised of 30 students, ages 17-20, from across the United States who serve a two-year term. Their directive is to implement a $5 million-a-year service-learning initiative to address issues important to youth and communities.

40 Causes Will Receive a $25,000 Grant Each – Vote for Your Favorite Today!

State Farm Neighborhood Assist is unique in that YOU get to determine the 40 grant winners. The contest is being held on Facebook, and you can vote up to 10 times each day through June 3rd.

So many worthy programs are available, I was blown away! I saw programs ranging from animal shelters to ones that battle homelessness to ones that provide food and books to low income children. Every single one of the programs is so deserving…I felt bad that I couldn’t vote for all of them!

It’s an open playing field, so make sure to vote for your favorite causes and invited your friends to help!

The Causes I Voted For 

I love helping children in all ways, so I voted for some worthy causes that help children succeed, whether by providing food, education, or other opportunities.

You get 10 votes in a day, but you can choose how to split up those votes. You can send one vote each to ten different causes or you could send all 10 of your votes to your favorite one.

Today I searched for the word “children” on the voting page, which returned 72 results. I chose to vote for the following:

• Growing Minds Garden in Portland, OR (2 votes) – A therapeutic school for children with severe mental health and learning challenges.
• Food4Kids and Books4Kids (3 votes) in Columbus County, GA – They provide nutritious weekend and summer meals to free/reduced lunch children; while providing age-appropriate books.
• Backpack Buddies (3 votes) in Effingham County, GA – I am the president of my local Backpack Buddies program, so this one was a no brainer! This program supplies at-risk children with nutritious, self-serve food that will sustain them when school meals are not available.
• Close the Achievement Gap (2 votes) in Springfield, IL – Offering homeless children an educational summer program to close the academic achievement gap and transportation to get there.

How to Vote for Your Favorite Causes

Together with State Farm, we have a chance to make a positive impact in our communities. Visit the State Farm Neighborhood Assist grant contest on Facebook to cast your votes. If you would like to see what kinds of programs have won in the past, you can see them on this map.

Share the contest with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, Google+ and Instagram if you can! If you’d like to give a shout out to State Farm for putting on this event here is State Farm on Twitter 🙂

#SFNeighborhoodAssist #IC