Buffalo, NY - Mayor Byron W. Brown and the City of Buffalo Division of Citizen Services are pleased to announce that the 2020 Love Your Block Grant Application process is now open. Love Your Block is a program in which volunteer-led community groups compete for a chance to win grants up to $1,500, as well as project planning assistance, to beautify and transform a public space in Buffalo.
“As we continue to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive city of opportunity, I continue to support programs that leverage community engagement and volunteerism to further improve and beautify our diverse neighborhoods. Through the 2020 Love Your Block program, we have an opportunity to continue to connect residents to government to further enhance public spaces and boost levels of civic engagement,” said Mayor Brown. “I encourage interested residents to apply for these grants.”
In September 2018, Cities of Service, a nonprofit organization that helps mayors build stronger cities by changing the way local government and citizens work together, equipped the City of Buffalo with two AmeriCorps VISTAs in the Mayor’s Division of Citizen Services, as well as a budget of $25,000 over two years, to develop the Love Your Block initiative, a volunteer-led neighborhood revitalization project that addresses blight. Community-based organizations, block clubs and local small businesses in low to moderate income eligible neighborhoods are eligible to apply for these small-scale grants to develop and implement volunteer-led neighborhood beautification projects. Applicants from the following target areas are strongly encouraged to apply: Broadway-Fillmore, Kensington-Bailey, Masten Park, Riverside and the Upper West Side.
The Love Your Block staff will host a series of technical assistance workshops to help applicants fill out the application:
MARCH 16
6 pm – 7:30 pm
Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library - 1324 Jefferson Avenue
MARCH 19
6 pm-7:30 pm
Buffalo State Community Academic Center, 214 Grant Street
MARCH 24
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
Fillmore Forward, 780 Fillmore Avenue
MARCH 25
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
Kensington-Bailey NHS - 995 Kensington Avenue
MARCH 30
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
Elaine M. Panty (formerly Riverside Branch Library) 820 Tonawanda Street
For more information regarding Year Two of Buffalo’s Love Your Block program and the mini-grant application, please visit buffaloveyourblock.org, or contact us at loveyourblock@city-buffalo.com or (716) 851-5515.