San Bernardino Announces “Love Your Block” Grants to Encourage Resident Led Community Improvement Projects

On Valentine’s Day, the City of San Bernardino joined fifteen other cities across the nation to launch the “Love Your Block” initiative. The program, in partnership with the Bloomberg Center of Public Innovation, offers mini grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to neighborhood, student, and civic groups to organize local art projects and community cleanups.

“San Bernardino is a city where neighbors connect and take pride in their community,” said Mayor Helen Tran. “These grants will allow residents to both showcase what makes their neighborhoods unique and take it up a notch with a community-based project.”

The Love Your Block program was established in 2009 by the Bloomberg Center of Public Innovation to fund resident-led neighborhood revitalization projects in U.S. cities. The City of San Bernardino is one of only sixteen cities in the nation and two in California that were selected last year to be a part of the program.

Selection of San Bernardino’s grant recipients will be made through a “Shark Tank” style competition called Pitch Your Block in April in which finalists pitch their project to judges from local community-based non-profits. Eleven grant recipients will be chosen in April with the winner receiving $5,000.

Local partners include AmeriCorps Vista, Music Changing Lives, Making Hope Happen, and Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services.

The City will accept project proposals through March 31, 2025.

Since 2009, Love Your Block has taken place in 50 cities across 33 states while improving nearly 4,000 public spaces – including 800 art displays, cleaning 102,000 square feet of graffiti, and removing 6.7 million pounds of trash.

For more information or to submit a proposal, visit the City’s Love Your Block website at https://www.sbcity.org/Love-Your-Block