NeighborWorks Taking Applications for Beautiful Blocks Program

Applications will be accepted beginning Monday, February 5 for the 2024 cycle of Beautiful Blocks, a home improvement program jointly sponsored by NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania and the City of Scranton, City of Pittston, and City of Carbondale. Beautiful Blocks provides matching grants of up to $1,000 per property to groups of five or more residents in participating communities to help them make exterior improvements to their homes.

The Beautiful Blocks program seeks to make neighborhoods throughout Scranton, Pittston, and Carbondale more attractive places to live. Eligible exterior improvements include everything from landscaping and painting to larger projects like sidewalks, front porch repair, door and window replacement, and more!

This is the first year Beautiful Blocks is available to residents of the City of Pittston. Also new this year, Scranton residents who decide to replace their front sidewalk are eligible for an additional $3,000 in grant funds, on top of the $1,000 standard grant and the property owner’s $1,000 match.
Grants will be awarded through a competitive application process. Applications will be judged on the number of participating residents, project impact and coordination, and the likelihood of neighbors continuing to work together in the future. Pre-applications are being accepted until.

Monday, March 18. Awards will be announced in May, with work taking place throughout the summer.
“We’re excited to kick-off the sixth year of Beautiful Blocks by expanding the program to the City of Pittston and offering a special incentive for Scranton residents to repair their sidewalks,” said NeighborWorks’ Director of Community Development, Todd Pousley. “Better sidewalks make a community more walkable, and other improvements to the outside of homes improve the quality of life for everyone who lives on a block.”

Over the first five cycles of Beautiful Blocks in the City of Scranton, along with the first three Beautiful Blocks cycles in the City of Carbondale, more than 500 individual projects have been completed by participating residents, grouped into 69 block groups. More than $418,000 in grant funding has been distributed to as part of these projects, with participating residents contributing more than $1 million in matching funds to improving their neighborhoods.

For residents in participating cities who are interested in applying for the 2024 program cycle, public information sessions will be held in each community next week:

Monday, February 5, 5:30 p.m., Carbondale Public Library (Community Room)
Tuesday, February 6, 6:00 p.m., Pittston Memorial Library (John P. Cosgrove Center)
Wednesday, February 7, 6:00 p.m., Scranton Public Library (Henkelman Room)

Scranton, Pittston and Carbondale residents interested in participating in the Beautiful Blocks program can download pre-application instructions and access the pre-application document (beginning Monday, February 5) by visiting www.nwnepa.org/programs/cd/beautiful-blocks.html.
More information is also available by contacting Gerard Hetman, NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Development Specialist, at (570) 558-2490 or ghetman@nwnepa.org.