The
Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC) announced this month it has received funding of $600,000 from
PNC Bank.
The grant--$100,000 each year for six years--is aimed at the long-term revitalization of portions of the Garfield, Friendship and Bloomfield neighborhoods, and represents almost 25 percent of BGC's annual operating budget. The agreement is part of the state's Neighborhood Partnership Program.
BGC is in year two of its PNC funding, but is just discussing the grant publicly now.
"We want to be accountable for what goes on and who we work with," says Rick Swartz with BGC. "PNC is not a passive funder. They're looking for programs and activities that complement the bank's own mission. They want to know what we're doing, and how it is going to help improve the market in the neighborhood, and make it more viable for people to own homes and businesses, and move away from using check-cashing stores and into being able to utilize bank services."
BGC goals for the next year include: education and employment programs for neighborhood youth; financial education and job training and placement services for adults; access to affordable heath care for all; and the elimination of blight and the development of homeownership and rental opportunities for low-income residents, including the sale of and/or financing for 18 single-family homes and the development of at least 50 units of scattered-site, affordable rental housing units in Garfield.
"A lot of what we're doing is building economic self-reliance in the neighborhood," says Swartz.
Future BGC projects include a major upgrade of the Penn Avenue corridor, expected to begin in 2011. The 4800 to 5100 blocks of Penn Avenue will most likely see new roadways, sidewalks, curbs, street lighting and public landscaping, as well as traffic signal synchronization and crosswalk upgrades, says Swartz.
Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Rick Swartz, executive director, Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation
Photography courtesy of Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation