Mayor William Peduto announced on November 22 that applications are available for the City of Pittsburgh’s 2017 Love Your [Resilient] Block grant award program. The block revitalization program gives organizations up to $1,500 in funds for a neighborhood resilience-building project that mobilizes community volunteers. In addition, the group with the project identified to have the most positive impact will be awarded an additional $3,000 to further their efforts.

Projects will be implemented from March 1 to August 31, 2017. Applications are available online at: http://www.pittsburghpa.gov/servepgh/loveyourblock/grantapp.

Applicants for the 2017 program must be a qualified nonprofit organization (or have the support of a nonprofit fiscal agent) and the impacted area must be within city limits. Applications must be received no later than January 6, 2017. Late applications will not be accepted. Applicants will be notified of their status on January 27, 2017. A mandatory grantee orientation will take place in February 2017.
There will be four information sessions during which applicants can ask questions about their proposals:

-Monday, Nov. 28, 4 p.m.; City County Building, Room 646, 414 Grant Street
-Wednesday, Nov. 30, 6 p.m.; CLP – Homewood, 7101 Hamilton Avenue
-Monday, Dec. 5, 6 p.m.; CLP – Knoxville, 400 Brownsville Road
-Wednesday, Dec. 7, 6:30 p.m.; CLP – Woods Run, 1201 Woods Run Avenue

To date, the program (formerly known as Love Your Block) has impacted over 400 blocks by collecting over 35,000 pounds of litter, engaging over 5,000 volunteers and leveraging nearly $500,000 in donations since its inception in 2011.

In 2015, the City of Pittsburgh joined 100 Resilient Cities – pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. This brought a new focus on resilience to the city that aims to build the capacity of communities to adapt and overcome challenges they may face from a changing environment and transforming city.