"Love Your Block" is just getting started with its second year working toward a cleaner community. Annika Frazer is an Americorp VISTA member working directly with the grant-based effort. "The main goal is to... focus on community led blight reduction," says Frazer. Spaces that are no longer cared for and no longer serve the public are the main focal points for the grant.
The City of Duluth was one of eight cities that won this grant which comes from Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The first year provided funding for clean-ups across Duluth, installation of planter beds, and improvements to outdoor gathering spaces. "In our second year we've really narrowed down our focus to abandoned waste, small home repairs, trees, and community connection," says Frazer.
The future of the grant is unknown, but it is the spirit of the grant that Frazer is hopeful for. "I think on a grassroots scale this was definitely a catalyst for just connecting various individuals to other people within the city, to other organizations, connecting some organizations to each other, and just showing that there can be a lot of work and a lot of success."
More information can be found at the Love Your Block website.
You can hear Green Visions at 8:20am every Wednesday on Northland Morning.
