Applications are now being accepted for the 2025 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!
For the 2025 program cycle, residents in all three participating cities are eligible for an enhanced grant award for sidewalk projects that provides up to $2,000 in total funding towards replacement of front sidewalks.
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 Friday, March 28. Awards will be announced in May, with work taking place throughout the summer and fall months.
"We’re very excited to launch the seventh year of Beautiful Blocks in 2025,” said NeighborWorks’ President & CEO, Shane Powers. “Our previous year’s expansion to the City of Pittston was a tremendous success. Based on the positive response we received to special funding for sidewalk repairs, we are excited to expand the increased grant amount for sidewalks to all three communities this year. Improvements to sidewalks and to the outside of homes support vibrant and safe neighborhoods in our communities.”
Over the first six cycles of Beautiful Blocks in the City of Scranton, the first four Beautiful Blocks cycles in the City of Carbondale, and the inaugural cycle of the program in the City of Pittston, more than 730 individual projects have been completed by participating residents, grouped into 104 block groups. More than $834,000 in grant funding has been distributed as part of these projects, with participating residents contributing more than $1.5 million in matching funds to improving their neighborhoods.
For residents in participating cities who are interested in applying for the 2025 program cycle, public information sessions will be held in each community this month:
Carbondale: Monday, February 10, 6:00 p.m., Carbondale Public Library (Community Room)
Pittston: Thursday, February 13, 6:00 p.m., Pittston Memorial Library (John P. Cosgrove Center)
Scranton: Thursday, February 27, 6:00 p.m., Scranton Public Library (Henkelman Room)
“The city was extremely pleased to be able to partner with NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania in 2024 to complete 35 Beautiful Blocks projects,” Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo said of his city’s first Beautiful Blocks cycle. “The results speak for themselves and this partnership is another opportunity for the city to advance the revitalization process in our neighborhoods. We look forward to a continued productive partnership with NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
“It was a pleasure to complete another great Beautiful Blocks cycle in Carbondale through our cooperative partnership with NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Carbondale Mayor Michele Bannon said of last year’s cycle. “2024 saw us complete more projects and reach more sections of our city than ever before through Beautiful Blocks. These achievements are another great component of our partnership with NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania, which also includes our Carbondale Core Neighborhood Plan. Our strength lies in our unity and collaboration, our neighborhoods are the best place to practice.”
"The Beautiful Blocks program gets better every year, bringing neighbors together toward a common goal,” Scranton Mayor Paige G. Cognetti said of the program. “Thanks to NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania for their partnership to improve homes and quality of life in Scranton."
Scranton, Pittston and Carbondale residents interested in participating in the Beautiful Blocks program can download pre-application instructions and access the pre-application document by visiting the program homepage here.
More information is also available by contacting Gerard Hetman, NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Development Specialist, at (570) 558-2490 or ghetman@nwnepa.org.
