City of Columbia announces mini-grant award winners for Year 2 of the Love Your Block program

(COLUMBIA, MO)- The City of Columbia has announced the mini-grant winners for this year's Love Your Block grant program, a resident-led initiative focused on revitalizing neighborhoods through small-scale projects that create lasting community impact.

The program received 23 applications from dedicated residents and community groups proposing creative solutions to address local challenges and work together with the City to improve neighborhoods and public spaces. The 10 selected projects reflect a strong commitment to community pride, neighborhood beautification and civic engagement, focused on central Columbia.

Winning projects include:

• Restoring Again Street Park, a project of the Friends of Again Street Park and Central Missouri Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, to remove invasive plants from the park and add native plants.
• Douglass Neighborhood Festival, organized by residents Michelle and Clay Schiefelbein. The festival will focus on cleaning and beautifying the neighborhood and honoring the legacy of Henry Kirklin, whose historic home is located there.
• Garden of Hope, a pollinator garden, will be installed at First Chance for Children at their facility at 1002 Fay St.
• Hanover Properties Neighborhood Cleanup will be a ForColumbia project on April 25. Projects will include beautification, neighborhood cleanup and the construction of a free pantry for residents.
• "Love Our Neighborhood," proposed by Avant Supported Living, aims to improve an area of Holly Avenue.
• Nora Stewart Early Learning Center will receive funds to beautify its facility on Ash Street and to add outdoor learning space.
• North Central Columbia Heibel-March Building Mural Project proposed by the North Central Columbia Neighborhood Association. This project focuses on refreshing the mural that faces Field Park.
• Replant & Restore is a project of residents along North Eighth Street to plant trees in the neighborhood.
• Services for Independent Living will develop a Volunteer Hub to help connect community members with those they serve.
• Woodhaven will beautify several homes that serve individuals with developmental disabilities in cooperation with ForColumbia on April 25.

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.

In 2025, Love Your Block funded 11 projects in central Columbia that strengthened and beautified neighborhoods.

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 learning more about the Love Your Block program in Columbia or volunteering to support local projects can visit CoMo.gov/volunteer or call Volunteer Programs at 573.874.7499.

City of Columbia Vision
Columbia is the best place for everyone to live, work, learn and play.

City of Columbia Mission
To serve the public equitably through democratic, transparent and efficient government.