Gary receives $100K Love Your Block grant

The city of Gary will participate in the Love Your Block program, offered by the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at John Hopkins University.

The program comes with a $100,000 grant for revitalization projects in the community, an AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America, and technical assistance and training from experts at the Bloomberg Center.

“Garyites love their city, and we know that our residents have creative ideas about how we can clean up and beautify our public spaces,” said Mayor Eddie Melton in a press release. “Participating in the Love Your Block program gives our residents the opportunity to bring their best ideas to the table and fund projects that will make their fellow residents proud.”

Gary is one of 16 cities in the latest cohort of the program .

“Each Love Your Block city helps demonstrate one of the most important skills required to drive innovation in city halls – the availability to center resident voices,” said Amanda Daflos, executive director of the center. “We are excited to partner with the city of Gary to build on the successful legacy of support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and Cities of Service and accelerate their efforts to partner with communities to drive local impact through funding, staff support, and the public innovation expertise to help sustain resident-led change.”

About 36,000 volunteers have helped improve in 3,800 spaces as a result of the program, which was created in 2009.

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