Mini-Grant Program Overview

The Consortium awarded about $150,000 in mini-grants over three years, from 2002-2004. During the first two years, the awards were designed to encourage development of new websites or Web materials on conflict resolution topics, as these were still somewhat rare. Efforts were made to find projects that would help bolster CRInfo's holdings as well, and would foster collaboration between CRInfo and other organizations and projects. Projects funded during those first two years were purposely very diverse, as can be seen from the list of awardees.

During the third year, the focus of the mini-grants changed. Most of the grant monies were awarded to people who were willing to help edit sections of CRInfo. That means that they looked at the thousands of resources that we had on a particular topic, and picked out the best in the main topic and several subtopics. The goal was to answer the question, "What are the top 10 or 20 things that I should read to find out something about X?" Several of the awardees also developed additional Web materials to supplement their editing. For instance, we contributed to the development of on online learning center on interpersonal conflict management, and to an essay on program evaluation and monitoring that will be added to the CRInfo "Core Knowledge" essays.

Unfortunately, due to a severe reduction in funding for 2004-2006, we will no longer be able to award mini-grants. All of our funds will be reserved for keeping the system operating and up to date. We are very pleased, however, with the collaboration that resulted from the three years of mini-grants, and hope to continue to work with our grantees in the future in varying capacities.