Love Your Block Application Portal Opens February 14

Applications will open on Saturday, February 14, for the second round of funding for the Love Your Block grant program. The program provides mini-grants ranging from $500 to $2,500 to residents and community groups to improve their neighborhoods and public spaces. Applications must be submitted by March 7. Winners will be selected and notified in April.

Residents in the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 9th Wards are invited to propose hands-on projects such as home repairs, cleanups, beautification efforts, or other community improvements that demonstrate civic engagement and neighborhood revitalization. The first Love Your Block cycle in 2025 funded 32 initiatives out of 118 applications, supporting projects that strengthened neighborhood connections and enhanced shared spaces. Learn more in the Year One Impact Report.

“I’m excited to support another year of the Love Your Block program, empowering residents to improve public spaces and strengthen neighborhood connections. I encourage everyone to share their ideas, and thank the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University for making this program possible,” said Mayor Daniel Biss. 

About the Love Your Block program

With support from the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, the Love Your Block program brings city leaders and residents together to build stronger neighborhoods, one block at a time. Love Your Block grants fund resident-led neighborhood revitalization projects, from transforming vacant lots into community gardens to repairing playground equipment and removing trash from a public right-of-way, in communities across the United States, strengthening social cohesion among residents, increasing civic participation, and building stronger relationships with community members, leading to greater trust in local Government.

Residents interested in applying or learning more should visit cityofevanston.org/loveyourblock.