Love Your Block Grants Bring Revitalization to Rural and Urban Neighborhoods

A Block-by-Block Approach to Revitalization

Love Your Block is a long-running initiative managed by Cities of Service at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation. Launched in 2009, the program helps cities struggling with vacant and deteriorating properties by putting resources directly into the hands of residents who know their neighborhoods best. The central idea is that small, targeted investments, delivered with consistent coordination, can transform a block and catalyze wider change in communities impacted by decades of disinvestment.

What the Grants Provide

Selected cities receive a $100,000 grant over two years, structured to build lasting local capacity. Funding supports a Love Your Block Fellow drawn from the community, up to two AmeriCorps VISTA members, small microgrants distributed to neighborhood groups, and technical assistance from Cities of Service staff. The microgrants often fall in the range of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, making them accessible to block clubs, faith groups, and resident-led associations that may not have experience applying for larger government funding.

Rural and Urban Partners

One of Love Your Block's signature features is its geographic range. Recent cohorts have included both dense urban cities and smaller rural communities, with populations ranging from about 31,000 to more than 600,000. That mix reflects an intentional decision to move beyond the assumption that blight is only an urban issue. Rural downtowns, small Rust Belt cities, and coastal communities hit by storms all face vacancy and deterioration challenges that benefit from the same resident-led toolkit.

Types of Projects Funded

Cities participating in Love Your Block have used grants for a wide variety of revitalization projects. Common examples include large-scale environmental cleanups that remove trash and debris, exterior home repairs for low-income or elderly homeowners, transformation of vacant lots into community gardens or pocket parks, graffiti removal, public art installations, and temporary activation of dormant public spaces. The projects are chosen and led by residents, with city staff providing coordination, permitting support, and supplies.

Measurable Impact

Across its history, Cities of Service reports that Love Your Block has engaged more than 9,000 community volunteers who have revitalized more than 2,200 blocks. Volunteers have removed millions of pounds of trash, created hundreds of public art displays, cleaned tens of thousands of square feet of graffiti, and maintained hundreds of thousands of square feet of public space. Beyond those headline numbers, many participating cities have used Love Your Block as a springboard to institutionalize resident engagement, embedding service programs into city hall for the long term.

How Cities Apply

Cities of Service issues open calls for Love Your Block applications on a rolling basis, typically inviting mayors' offices or equivalent local leadership to submit proposals. Successful applications describe a clear target neighborhood, existing community partnerships, and a plan for integrating the Love Your Block Fellow and VISTA members into the city's operations. While individual homeowners do not apply directly to Cities of Service, residents in winning cities can access microgrants and volunteer-driven home exterior repairs through local neighborhood programs.

Why Love Your Block Matters for Homeowners

For homeowners in the program's target neighborhoods, Love Your Block can mean help with a deteriorating fence, a peeling facade, or an overgrown lot next door that has been a source of frustration for years. By combining small grants, volunteer labor, and city coordination, the program reduces the burden on any single household while improving property values and quality of life across the block.