Five neighborhood groups in the city of Phoenix are the first to receive $1,000 Love Your Block mini-grants, designed to foster resident-driven neighborhood revitalization. The awardees will use their mini-grants to purchase supplies and tools to implement a neighborhood improvement project that mobilizes community volunteers to transform blighted areas into community assets.
Among the spring grant recipients are Community Alliance of Seventh Avenue (CASA), the Pasadena Neighborhood Association and the Woodlea-Melrose Neighborhood Association.
CASA volunteers will beautify the Melrose District by installing flower planters to businesses. The project vision is to encourage shopping, dining, and recreation by making 7th Avenue an attractive spot for residents and merchants. Some local merchants have agreed to help in the form of matching funds so more flower planters can be installed.
Pasadena volunteers will install two Free Little Libraries to increase community interaction through the power of sharing stories. The neighborhood plans to host reading events to gather neighbors, and has already begun collecting donated books and magazines.
Woodlea-Melrose volunteers will repaint weathered and tagged irrigations boxes all in the same color. By revitalizing this feature, the project aims to beautify the neighborhood to garner neighborhood pride and community involvement.
Love Your Block is made possible thanks to a grant from Cities of Service and support from the Corporation for National and Community Service. Partners include Helping Phoenix Neighborhoods, HandsOn Greater Phoenix and Keep Phoenix Beautiful.
For more information, visit www.phoenix.gov/volunteer, email loveyourblock@hpnphx.org or call 602-495-7195.
