Our team was recently honored to be the recipient of a 2022 Townie Award from the Pennsylvania Downtown Center! Awarded in the category of “Physical Improvements & Design: Program-Wide Façade Rehabilitation,” the award honors our Beautiful Blocks program, which provides matching funding support to groups of residents in Scranton and Carbondale to assist in making exterior improvements to their homes.
Since 2019, the Beautiful Blocks program has awarded more than $235,000 in funding to 37 groups of residents in Scranton and Carbondale. These funds have been matched with over $500,000 in matching funds from participating residents, resulting in the completion of more than 280 home improvement projects and a total investment of more than $750,000 into neighborhoods in both communities.
The Townie Award was presented during the Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s 2022 Townie Awards Gala Dinner, held earlier this week in Harrisburg as part of the organization’s annual conference. Todd Pousley, our Neighborhood Revitalization Manager, accepted the award on behalf of our organization. Joining Todd were staff members Gerard Hetman (Community Development Specialist, who manages the day-to-day operations of Beautiful Blocks) and Miranda Pace (West Scranton Neighborhood Coordinator). Also joining them was Wayne Evans, a NeighborWorks board member who originally developed the Beautiful Blocks program during his past service as Scranton Mayor.
Our team was also delighted to be joined at the conference by our colleagues from Scranton Tomorrow (Steve Ward) and United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania (Chrissy Manuel and Holly Yorkonis). Every day, we enjoy working with these partner organizations to make positive change happen in our community.
