Increased funding from the Office of the Provost to the Civic Engagement Fund (CEF) will allow the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement to expand its community engagement programming.

The increase, coming just over a year after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, was one of the demands of students protesting Brown’s shooting and the lack of Washington University’s response to it.

Although the total amount of money provided to the fund remains undisclosed, staff say it has allowed the Gephardt Institute to overhaul the CEF, changing and expanding its methods of engaging with the St. Louis community.

Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the Gephardt Institute, noted that an immediate impact of the budget increase has been to streamline the grant application process. The Institute launched a new website this week to make it easier for potential applicants to learn about the three available grant categories.

Kurtzman attributed the additional funding, a significant improvement on the Institute’s regular yearly budget, partially to last year’s student protests.

These protests, organized by St. Louis Students in Solidarity, took place on campuses around the city and demanded greater civic engagement from their respective institutions.

“The Students in Solidarity Movement last year articulated a set of demands to the University, and the CEF was actually named in those demands, as well as community-based teaching and learning,” Kurtzman said. “As a result, we received through the provost’s office some additional money, with an attention to the importance of supporting community engagement.”

Junior Bianca Kaushal, the civic engagement fund coordinator at Gephardt, noted that this allows the CEF to expand both the quantity and quality of its programs and allow grant recipients to work more closely with Gephardt staff.

“This isn’t just about the $500 or potentially more that you’re getting for your project, but it’s about a relationship you build with the professional staff at the Gephardt Institute and being able to really learn how to implement the ideas you have,” Kaushal said.

The CEF intends to build these relationships by helping students and faculty who apply for grants throughout the process.

“We are fielding inquiries about which of the three grants might be the best option or if there’s a way to figure out whether it applies to two grants. We’re really hoping individuals, especially faculty and students, use that resource to help figure out what direction their project might go in,” Kaushal said.

In this way, according to Kurtzman, the CEF realizes the goal of the Gephardt Institute.

“We view the CEF as one of the opportunities for students and faculty to act on ideas, projects and initiatives that will strengthen communities,” she said. “We know there are a lot of great ideas out there, and sometimes those ideas are just waiting for that little bit of money.”