Parks and People is collaborating with Power In Dirt to award 20 lot restoration projects on 20 different blocks with a $500 gift card to Home Depot. “Love Your Block” grants will be awarded to projects that will revitalize abandoned lots in Baltimore City and turn them from polluted, vacant lots into beautiful rain, ornamental, edible, and art gardens.
This grant is an excellent opportunity for community and non-profit organizations to beautify struggling neighborhoods and increase community involvement in a small-scale project to promote neighborhoods. Abandoned lots provide a valuable space for recreational activities for children and families that are scarce in some neighborhoods.
Applications will be accepted “between April 16, 2012 and July 31, 2012. Gift cards will be distributed through May, June, and July 2012 until all gift cards have been awarded.” The guidelines are as follows (from parksandpeople.org):
- Projects must be implemented by September 30, 2012.
- Grant recipients must submit a final grant report form within 30 days of completion of the project that details project outcomes.
- Any community group or nonprofit organization may apply.
- Projects must occur in city-owned abandoned and vacant lots in Baltimore.
- For the purpose of the Love Your Block campaign, a block is defined as a minimum of 10 residents in proximity to one another within the City of Baltimore.
- Each group must have a detailed and realistic action plan for engaging residents to carry out a physical transformation of their block.
- Organizations that are not incorporated as a nonprofit organization are required to have a fiscal agent.
For more information, call 410-488-5663 ext.114 or email Valerie Rupp. Click here for a request form to get started!
