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Love Your Block Mini-Grant Recipients Begin Projects

June 5, 2019 | Department of Neighborhood Engagement
By: Amber Strazzo

Recipients of Love Your Block mini-grants will soon begin beautification and cleanup projects on Howard Avenue and in the ChurchTowne neighborhood. Projects were selected for grants between 500 and 2,000 dollars earlier this spring.

One project has already been completed. The Cultured Professional Network, lead by resident Marquis Lupton, performed a cleanup outside and on the façade of the Crispus Attucks Community Center on Saturday, May 18. This was the first step of the group’s initiative to rehab the space and provide programming for community education.

“[It’s] such an iconic building and with all the other great stuff going on around Lancaster we figured hey, you know, why don’t we pitch in and have something that we can put our DNA on, we can put our finger prints on, and we can call it our own now,” Lupton said about the project.

Over 80 resident volunteers will be engaged through these projects.

Upcoming projects include:

Rivers Edge Fellowship will install trash cans and a dog waste station and organize a community pickup with neighbors. They will scrape and repaint windows and doorframes on the 500 block of Locust St. They will also host a block party at the end of their project days to bring the community together

Neighbors on the 500 block of North St. will scrape and repaint porches, railings, and doors. They will also purchase trash toters for residents on the block.

Neighbors on Atlantic Ave. will scrape and repaint railings and doors, adding planters to the sidewalk to prevent parking on the wrong side of the street. They will also canvass and promote the City’s Lead Hazard Control Program to neighbors on Atlantic Ave.

The Mix at Arbor Place will work with neighbors to host art workshops to design a mural of Nelson Polite to celebrate Polite’s work in Lancaster. The mural will be installed on the corner of North St. and Atlantic Ave. with LED lighting to prevent criminal activity.

The San Juan Bautista Plaza will install a trash can, as well as lighting and planters around the fencing on Lime. The community center will host public engagement workshops to design public art for the plaza.

Neighbors on the first block of Howard Ave. will install trash cans and partner with Church World Service to organize recurring cleanups on the block. They will also install planters to beautify the space.

Neighbors on the 100 block of Howard Ave. will replace a blighted fence, as well as install a trash can to fight litter. They will also purchase trash toters for neighbors that can easily fit through baker’s alleys between houses.

“Ultimately we’re helping neighbors help their neighborhoods. And that’s the way to do it. It’s designed by neighbors, requires collective action,” said project partner Jack Howell of the Spanish American Civic Association’s Elm Street Program.

The mini-grants are funded through the Love Your Block grant awarded to the City of Lancaster by Cities of Service and supplemented by funds from SACA’s Elm Street Program.