The City of Durham announced on Apr. 27 the recipients of the 2026 Love Your Block mini-grants, supporting six resident-led projects aimed at improving public spaces and fostering community connections in Lakewood, West End, and Lyon Park.
These grants are intended to help residents address local challenges and enhance their neighborhoods through creative initiatives. The city partnered with the Office of Performance and Innovation to select six projects from a pool of twenty applications submitted by residents and community groups.
Among the awarded projects are efforts such as clearing brush, installing seating, building raised beds, creating gathering spaces at Lakewood Shopping Center, adding accessible garden beds and performance areas in West End’s Langley Garden, implementing rainwater catchment systems with artistic murals at Lakewood Elementary School, native planting along Jersey Avenue Pollinator Habitat, restoring green space with an Indigenous plant mural by People’s Solidarity Hub, and revitalizing a community garden with native habitats by Radical Healing.
Several project leaders plan to host volunteer workdays throughout spring and summer so that more residents can participate in these neighborhood improvements. Mayor Leonardo Williams said: “The projects selected for this year’s Love Your Block mini-grants reflect the incredible creativity and commitment of Durham’s residents. These community-driven transformations of our public spaces are exactly what makes this city great. Congratulations to every awardee, and to all who dared to bring an idea forward, thank you. We are proud to partner with the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University in making these investments in our neighborhoods possible.”
The Love Your Block program is supported by the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University. It brings together city leaders and residents across the United States to revitalize neighborhoods through small-scale grants that fund improvements like gardens or playground repairs while encouraging civic participation.
Residents interested in learning more about Durham’s program or volunteering can visit the City’s Love Your Block web page.
