Small Grants Program

Economic downturns and upsurges in crime had caused longtime residents of Pittsburgh's Homewood area to pull up stakes and had left many neighbors eager to follow.

All of that began to change when local residents obtained a small grant from Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Armed with those funds, residents were able to clean and clear a vacant lot, landscape it, and transform it into a garden that everyone could be proud of.

Thanks to this infusion of beauty, people who left Homewood are thinking about moving back, and people who were thinking of moving are staying put.

Communities like Homewood have the will to change their surroundings; what they don't always have is the funding -- WPC's Small Grants Program helps them to muster the funding for topsoil, flowers, shrubs -- whatever it takes to get garden projects up and running. And the results are speaking for themselves.

With the help of people like you, WPC can keep more communities thriving even when community treasuries run dry.


I asked a child about seven years old, "What do you think of this area now?" after it had been cleaned and landscaped. He said, "I feel relieved." He didn't have to think about it, the feeling just came.

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    		•  Mary Savage
    Homewood Resident


     

     

     

     

     


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    Regional Gardens ·  Green Neighborhood Initiative



    		 






      OUR MISSION
      Western Pennsylvania Conservancy's mission is to enrich the human relationship with the natural world by saving the places we care about. We accomplish our mission by:

  • Conserving the region's places of exceptional ecological, recreational and scenic value;

  • Healing degraded lands and waters;

  • Preserving Fallingwater as a symbol of human activity in harmony with nature;

  • Engaging others in cooperative partnerships to promote the linkages of ecological protection with social and economic values of communities;

  • Connecting people of all ages with the natural world through experience, education and responsible stewardship; and

  • Working with communities to enhance livability and reduce pressure on undeveloped areas.

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    Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
    Saving The Places We Care About®

    209 Fourth Avenue
    Pittsburgh, PA 15222
    412-288-2777
    Fax: 412-281-1792
    E-Mail: wpc@paconserve.org