A new bimonthly newsletter for Love Your Block City Leads and VISTA members to stay informed about progress and exciting happenings in all of the Love Your Block cities and Cities of Service.
Announcements & Resources
Engaged Cities Award 2018 Case Studies
Co-Creating Urban Commons: This case study examines how Mayor Virginio Merola, city staff, and residents in Bologna, Italy collaborated to change city regulations and allow residents to revitalize public spaces.
Mesas de Cultura Ciudadana: Learn how Santiago de Cali, Colombia helped the city's most socio-economically challenged neighborhoods build trust between neighbors, increase civic engagement, and reduce violence.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Cities launch new LYB websites! Hamilton || Hartford || Milwaukee
VISTA Mid-Year Evaluations are due Mar. 15to your program manager. This is for the VISTAs who started Sep. 2018.
----------------------------- Year 2 VISTA nominations are due Aug. 9 for Sep. 3 enrollment. *November deadline TBD ----------------------------- Join us on Feb. 27 at 12 PM ET / 11 AM CT for a webinar on repurposing vacant lots. Register here!
City Highlights
Richmond, VA
Richmond launched their LYB program in December 2018. Deadline for mini-grant application submissions has come and gone! In this first round of mini-grants, the city received nine submissions. Richmond plans to host a kick-off event in April for selected mini-grant recipients!
Hamilton, OH Cities of Service kicked-off 2018 site visits with a January visit to the Hamilton team. Executive Director Myung Lee and Program Manager Nikola Pavelic met with key LYB stakeholders, had the opportunity to explore in more detail the city's outreach strategies, brainstormed new ones, and toured the East End and Armondale neighborhoods. Mini-grant applications will be received through a nomination process in which neighbors nominate neighbors.
The City of Hamilton Welcome Center
South Bend, IN
Within 48 hours of launching LYB and other home improvement programs, South Bend received more than 140 inquiries. They are inviting proposals from community groups for specific home repair needs on up to 20 homes. The LYB Team is also exploring partnerships with Lowe's and M&V Pro Services, a local contractor, to provide discounted materials and employees to serve as skilled volunteers.
Hamilton - Lancaster - Newark - South Bend Community Cleanups Buffalo - Gary - Hartford - Lancaster - Newark - Richmond Tool Lending Library Buffalo - Gary - Hamilton - Hartford - Newark
"Look at the data of people with code violations and knock on those doors to inform them of availability of tools." Milzy Carrasco, Lancaster, PA
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Re: Avoiding Tool Theft
"Spray paint tools pink to help dissuade theft and to easily be able to identify tools." Talia Ramella, VISTA Leader
Buffalo: Oz with VISTA members, Nina and Emily, braving freezing temperatures in Saskatoon, Canada for the International Winter Cities Shake Up conference. Buffalo was an 8 80 Cities Winter City Vanguard Award recipient.
