Love Your Block Partnership: July 12, 2011

July 12, 2011
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loveyourblock_0The Community Foundation is currently partnering with the City of Atlanta and Hands On Atlanta in a city-led impact service initiative, “Love Your Block”, where residents are encouraged to participate in beautification projects and programs specific to their community. Examples of how citizens can “love their block” include participating in an existing “clean and green” project, connecting and volunteering with a local nonprofit or organizing their own block revitalization project through a Love Your Block grant.

The Community Foundation is assisting the City of Atlanta by hosting workshops and community forums aimed at helping residents understand the many ways in which they can make a difference. Recently we hosted two forums in the Thomasville and Adamsville communities. The Community Foundation will also assist in the grantmaking process and help see the initiative through successfully.

With the support of Home Depot and UPS Foundations, Atlanta residents are eligible to apply for mini grants up to $1,000 to improve their communities. Clickhere to download the grant application to learn more about the requirements of the grant or to apply.  Applications will be reviewed July 15, October 15, and then again on February 15, 2012.

This year the Neighborhood Fund at The Community Foundation is celebrating its 20th anniversary of positively impacting neighborhoods at the local level. Love Your Block is one of the many initiatives the Neighborhood Fund has been involved with over the years to support strong communities.

Love Your Block is one of two city-led impact service initiatives influenced by the leadership of Mayor Kasim Reed. According to Mayor Reed, “Atlanta’s secret formula for successful civic engagement resides in the passion and pride of its residents.” We at The Community Foundation agree, and believe in the power of residents to build community will and create lasting, positive change in their communities.

The second service initiative, Centers for Hope, will provide after school programming to invest both personally and academically into the lives of Atlanta’s youth. The Community Foundation has also played a role in this initiative serving as the pipeline for philanthropic dollars to support the Centers. These two initiatives have been brought together on an online portal, I Am Atlanta, where citizens can find volunteer opportunities with the two programs, as well as outside the initiatives through partnerships with United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta and Hands On Atlanta.

Mayor Reed and the City of Atlanta have created a strategic plan, Forward Together, around these three initiatives: Centers of Hope, Love Your Block and I Am Atlanta. Click here to view the detailed plan.



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