City of Flint Awarded $100,000 Cities of Service Grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies

The City of Flint has been awarded $100,000 grant to implement the next phase of the Love Your City initiative to help neighborhoods volunteers tackle blight from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Flint Mayor Dayne Walling said "this past year we had tremendous participation with the Love Your City initiative from neighborhood groups, businesses, community organizations and our residents. With the continued support of the Cities of Service Impact Volunteering Fund grant, we will be able to expand this initiative in 2014." As it is, according to Walling, Flint ranks as having one of the highest levels of volunteerism in the country.

Flint's $100,000 grant will go towards revitalizing 40 city blocks and 200 parcels of land by removing  two million pounds of litter, creating 20 new gardens or green spaces, boarding up 15 abandoned houses, planting 30 new trees, removing 5,000 square feet of graffiti and helping to prepare 1,200 households for emergencies.

The Cities of Service model focuses on impact volunteering - volunteer strategies that target community needs, use best practices, and set clear, measurable outcomes to gauge progress. The model has been adopted in dozens of cities across the nation since its introduction in 2009.

Flint also received $25,000 in funding from the first round of grants last year. It was used to create the Love Your Block initiative in partnership with the Flint Police Department Blue Badge volunteers. The success of Love Your Block spawned the Love Your City initiative and resulted in massive, ongoing, citywide cleanups.