Buffalo, NY – Mayor Byron W. Brown today announced the first group of awardees of the new Love Your Block Grant Program aimed at supporting community efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the City of Buffalo. The Love Your Block Community Response Fund, powered by Cities of Service and administered by the City of Buffalo’s Division of Citizen Services, awards mini-grants of up to seek to alleviate the hardships caused by the pandemic, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe.
Award winners in this round include:
- Ashland Avenue Block Club –Funding is for a project that provides masks to senior residents throughout the community;
- H.E.A.L. International – Assists in food distribution and connecting families in need to food pantries on the West side;
- Preservation Buffalo Niagara – Funding supports purchase of Narcan, masks and information that will be distributed on the West Side;
- Buffalo Resilience – Supports the purchase of materials to make masks for distribution;
- Pucho, Inc. –Supports purchase and distribution of masks at the Pucho Olivencia Center
- Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. – Funding assists the purchase of masks that will be distributed throughout the community focusing mainly on the East Side;
- Freedom Gardens – Assists in providing four families in the Coppertown neighborhood access to fresh food;
- Beau Fleuve Music & Arts – Supports the creation of murals thanking essential workers during the pandemic;
- The Tool Library – Funding to purchase supplies for a community cleanup in the Main/Bailey business corridor
Mayor Brown stated, “The City of Buffalo is filled with residents who genuinely care about their neighbors and the overall well-being of their community. You can see that by the number of individuals, businesses, community organizations, block clubs and others who have stepped up during this emergency. I thank each and every one of these organizations for working with my Administration to have a positive impact on the lives of their neighbors during the pandemic.”
Director of the Division of Citizen Services Oswaldo Mestre, Jr. stated, “It is encouraging to see so many organizations make a commitment to help their communities get through this challenging time. I am confident that we will get through this pandemic together and we will come out of it stronger than ever.”
Applications are still being accepted by community-based groups, block clubs or organizations interested in these mini- grants. Organizations can apply for the grant now through June 29, 2020 by visiting buffaloveyourblock.org. The grant funding is made possible with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).
