Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Lt. Gov. Driscoll speaks during the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s annual business meeting in Boston on Jan. 20. (Photo courtesy Joshua Qualls/Governor’s Press Office)
Community One Stop for Growth, a portal where municipalities can apply for state community and economic development grant programs, has opened for fiscal 2025.
Launched in January 2021, Community One Stop for Growth offers a streamlined application process that makes it easier for communities and entities to access a number of state grant programs and be considered for more than one grant program simultaneously.
The HousingWorks Infrastructure Program, for a variety of infrastructure-related activities to support and unlock housing opportunities, has now been integrated into Community One Stop.
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, who announced the fiscal 2025 opening during the MMA Annual Meeting in Boston on Jan. 20, said Community One Stop “reduces red tape and streamlines the process for communities to apply for critical state funding that will improve quality of life for their residents.”
She said the Community One Stop process makes grant programs more accessible to all communities, while ensuring the equitable distribution of resources across all regions of the Commonwealth.
For the fiscal 2025 round, the following 12 programs will be administered through the Community One Stop:
• MassWorks Infrastructure Program
• Urban Agenda Grant Program
• Massachusetts Downtown Initiative
• Rural and Small Town Development Fund
• Housing Choice Grant Program
• Community Planning Grant Program
• HousingWorks Infrastructure Program
• Brownfields Redevelopment Fund
• Site Readiness Program
• Underutilized Properties Program
• Collaborative Workspace Program
• Real Estate Services Technical Assistance
Fiscal 2025 applications must be submitted between May 6 and June 5, 2024. Expressions of Interest will be accepted from Feb. 9 through April 30. The Expression of Interest is now offered as a short webform accessed through the One Stop website.
A series of One Stop webinars will be held as follows:
• One Stop Overview: Feb. 5 (register here)
• One Stop Application Guidance: Feb. 7 (register here)
• Prerecorded Technology — to be posted on Feb. 8
Prerecorded webinars focused on each One Stop program, including more specific information about eligibility, project competitiveness, and examples of past awards, will be posted on the One Stop website on Feb. 16.
One Stop staff and program managers will also host two separate virtual office hour series to answer applicant questions.
In its first three rounds, Community One Stop programs awarded $396.3 million for 869 grants to 243 communities. The awards included more than $130 million to Gateway Cities and more than $100 million to rural and small towns. Of the 869 projects awarded to date, 29% were located in a community identified as a rural or small town; 47% were located in a Housing Choice community; and 32% were located in a Gateway City.