Gary officials will use a $100,000 grant to fund resident-led neighborhood improvement projects, technical assistance and AmeriCorps embedded staff.
The city of Gary was selected for Love Your Block, a program offered by the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, according to a city news release.
“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,” said Amanda Daflos, the center’s executive director, in the release.
As part of the program, the city will receive $100,000 to fund community-led revitalization projects, a Love Your Block fellow to support the city’s work, an AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America member and technical assistance and training from a team of civic engagement experts from the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, according to the release.
“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 the 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.”
Kianna Grant, Gary’s Director of Consistent Services, said the next steps for the program will include interviewing and hiring both the Love Your Block fellow and AmeriCorps member. Once those positions are filled, the fellow and the AmeriCorps member will be responsible for engaging residents and stakeholders about what issues face the city and solutions, she said.
The 2024-2026 cohort of the Love Your Block program includes 16 newly selected cities, which makes it the largest cohort in the program’s history. The program has reached nearly 36,000 volunteers who have revitalized 3,800 community spaces, according to the release.
Since its creation in 2009, the Love Your Block program participants have created 765 art displays, cleaned up to 116,000 square feet of graffiti, and removed 6.3 million pounds of trash in cities across the country, according to the release.
The 2024-2026 cohort also includes Allentown, Pennsylvania.; Baltimore, Maryland; Charleston, South Carolina; Columbia, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Durham, North Carolina; Evanston, Illinois; Fall River, Massachusetts; Little Rock, Arkansas; Long Beach, California; Louisville, Kentucky; Reno, Nevada; Port St. Lucie, Florida; Rapid City, South Dakota; and San Bernardino, California, according to the release.
“Each Love Your Block city helps demonstrate one of the most important skills required to drive innovation in city halls – the ability to center resident voices,” Daflos said in the release.
akukulka@post-tribune.com
