Mayor Larson announces final Love Your Block mini-grant recipients

Today Duluth Mayor Emily Larson and other city members announced the final recipients of the Love Your Block mini-grants at city hall.

This is the last year of funding for the program, which is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Duluth is one of eight cities involved with the national program to strengthen communities, address blight, build social connections, and make sure neighbors have a voice.

Mayor Larson says the program has seen success in achieving those goals.

For the past two years Love Your Block has supported projects in the Central Hillside and Lincoln Park neighborhoods, investing over $18,000 into the community.

So far the program has funded 10 building and lot improvements, six community cleanups, one invasive species pull, and six community events. 10 Trees have also been planted in private yards.

The projects are resident-led that improve the areas block by block.

Megan Wylder, the Program Manager for the Duluth Community Garden Program says the Love Your Block grant helped her coordinate with the Duluth Public Library to transform the garden beds into food-growing and pollinator spaces, where anyone in the community is welcome to come and harvest produce.

Love Your Block has also helped Jodi Broadwell, the Executive Director of Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative in updating the gardens at one of their mixed-use buildings. She used the grant to help buy gardening materials to liven up six large house troughs and turn those into gardening spaces for a building that hosts 50 residents and three non-profits.

The final Love Your Block learning event will take place next Tuesday, July 18th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at The Depot’s Great Hall. The event will focus on exploring resources around neighborhood history and storytelling. The event is free to attend and there will be refreshments provided.