Calling all Bushwick block associations, community gardens, public school students, and volunteer groups!
The grant application period is now open for the 2017 “Love Your Block” grant, the beloved New York City beautification and cleanup program that provides small organizations with a $1,000 cash grant and access to a plethora of city services to implement neighborhood improvement projects.
From now until Monday, November 7, anyone with an idea for a project and an eligible group to work with can apply to the public-private “adopt-a-block” grant program to try and earn $1,000 cash funding for an initiative.
In addition to the money for the project, Love Your Block grantees can also make use of city services provided by the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Sanitation of New York, and the Department of Environmental Protection in support of their project.
City agency assistance for Love Your Block can include vacant lot cleanup, graffiti removal, dead tree removal, tree stewardship workshops, resident surveys to plant new street trees, provision of wood chip mulch for gardening projects, repair of and installation of street signs and street lights, and traffic safety surveys, and installation of bicycle racks and speed bumps.
Grant applications will be reviewed by a selection committee, and winning grants will be those that clearly present a high-impact project that makes use of the city services with a capacity to engage at least 20 volunteers.
Other factors that will make a grant stand out include “project sustainability, the group’s capacity, neighborhood need, as well as the group’s history and knowledge of neighborhood issues,” according to Citizens Committe for New York City, the organization that co-presents Love Your Block with NYC Service.
This is Love Your Block’s 9th season operating; over the years, more than 270 grants have been awarded and more than 10,000 volunteers have worked on Love Your Block projects.
“The change that a group of volunteers can achieve on their blocks with just a small cash grant and the help of city services is incredible,” Citizens Committee CEO Peter H. Kostmayer says, in discussing the program.
Local organizations that participated in the program include BK Rot, Bushwick City Farm, El Garden, Eldert Street Community Garden, Mayday Space, and We Make Noise.
Information sessions about the application process will be held on Monday, October 17 and Monday, October 24 in Lower Manhattan; for additional details about those or to RSVP, contact Shawn at (212)822-9563 or by email at swhitehorn at citizensnyc dot org.
Have at it, Bushwick!
Featured Image: the raised beds built by local Love Your Block Grantrees Bushwick City Farms. Photo Courtesy of Citizens Committee for New York City.