Lancaster, PA
Program Manager Rose Rodriguez and LYB VISTA Leader Talia Ramella took a quick train ride to Lancaster to visit the LYB team and Mayor Sorace this month. We participated in a walking tour of Howard Avenue and the Churchtowne Neighborhood, where we had a chance to speak with residents, project leads, and visit mini-grant project sites. We kicked off Day 2 of our visit with a radio interview on Café con Leche, where COS and the Lancaster team provided updates to their audience on LYB efforts. Check out the LancasterOnline article on our visit.
Above: The Lancaster LYB team and Cities of Service staff with Marquis Lupton from Crispus Attucks Community Center. Volunteers helped paint, weed, and plant to prepare the space for new programming.
Huntington, WV
Deputy Director Mauricio Garcia and Program Manager Nikola Pavelic visited Huntington this month. We used our time together to meet with city leaders and key stakeholders, and to strategize for Year 2. While visiting a few of the mini-grant sites, we had a chance to meet with a citizen group working to re-activate an empty lot.
Above: Children’s Home Society lot reactivation mini-grant project
Richmond, VA
In partnership with Sherwin Williams, the Richmond team participated in National Paint Week earlier this month. The city created a short application for seniors in need to apply for this service. Richmond received 15 applications, and they worked with Code Enforcement to prioritize homes with chipping paint (a code violation). Homes with lead paint were ineligible to participate, but they were referred to the city’s lead abatement program. Over the course of 3 days, volunteers completed 3 single-story home exteriors and refreshed the trim and porches on 3 additional homes.
Above: Volunteers painting the home of a Richmond resident.
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LYB Stats:
91
VISTA applications received.
75
Mini-grants awarded
9
Mini-grant projects completed to-date
$188,316.19
Additional funding and in-kind resources leveraged to-date
3
Cities are doing a second round of mini-grants this fall - Buffalo, Lancaster, and Newark
Advice Column
Re: Project Days
"During day-long project days, make sure to feed volunteers so that they come back after lunch!"
- Angela Mitchell Reid, Milwaukee Community Outreach Projects Liaison
Virtual Connections
Log on to Slack to share helpful resources, ask questions, brainstorm ideas/solutions, and connect with other cities working on similar things!
VISTA
Check out the June and July VISTA Newsletters to see what they’ve been up to recently!
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Huntington, WV
Above: Nikola Pavelic, Breanna Shell, Mayor Steve Williams, Mauricio Garcia.
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Lancaster, PA
Above: Rose Rodriguez, Mayor Danene Sorace, Talia Ramella during our Lancaster visit.
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City Connections
Frontiers of Democracy (June 19 - 22)
Cities of Service hosted representatives from Baton Rouge, Kettering, Lansing, Long Beach, New York City, Phoenix, Round Rock, Scottsdale, Seattle, South Bend, and Topeka at the Frontiers of Democracy Conference in Boston. After mingling over a festive dinner on Wednesday night, the group met on Thursday for a full day of discussion, examining the role of local government officials as stewards of democracy. The conversation ranged from the current levels of resident trust in their own city governments to new concerns and strategies in the fight against urban blight. Many participants arrived in Boston as strangers, but the group left as allies in the fight to protect democracy at the local level.
Above: The Cities of Service team and our city friends in Boston for Frontiers of Democracy
2019 Bologna Conference for Citizens Engagement (July 1 - 2)
A collaboration between Cities of Service, the City of Bologna, the Fondazione Innovazione Urbana, Nesta, and URBACT, the conference will bring together city leaders from across the Americas and Europe to share experiences, learn from others, and return to their cities with new perspectives, resources, and relationships to help them build stronger cities with their citizens. We are excited to have Nathaly Agosto Filión (Newark) and Oswaldo Mestre Jr. (Buffalo) join us in Italy to represent their cities and Love Your Block.
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