NEIGHBORHOOD AND
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
The Foundation collaborates with community partners to transform Erie’s neighborhoods and reduce blight. Increasing access to quality affordable housing and providing pathways to home ownership creates meaningful change.
Inspiring Community Change
Grow Erie is a public-private collaboration that merges innovative research, technology, and agriculture science with marketplace expertise to produce local goods, create meaningful jobs, and revitalize a vacant piece of property. Once completed, Grow Erie will include two distinct facilities, including a commercial facility and a 2,500 square foot all-season community greenhouse that will be operated entirely by the community.
Former City of Erie Mayor Joyce Savocchio
Union City Takes Pride
in its Community
When leaders in Union City were considering how to deal with an aging population, income decline, depressed housing values, and high poverty rates, The Erie Community Foundation encouraged Union City leaders to focus upon root causes and work to make transformational and sustainable changes. Union City Pride was born from a collaborative effort between The Union City Community Foundation and Union City Borough. Union City Pride’s focus is to revitalize the downtown landscape and engage young residents.
With the help of a Shaping Tomorrow grant, the organization strategically pivoted to attract investments and residents as a “bedroom community” to the Erie metropolitan area, given that many residents commute to work in the city of Erie. Union City Pride leveraged additional funding sources to support multiple projects over a six-year period, including a historic preservation of the downtown and a 150th anniversary mural.
The projects helped transform Union City into an economically vibrant community where residents are proud to live.
Impact Corry
The Corry Neighborhood Initiative (CNI) and Impact Corry are working to help remediate blight in Corry. Impact Corry uses tools that focus on restoration and rehabilitation of homes that need a little more curb appeal.
A grant from The Corry Community Foundation allowed Impact Corry to help homeowners with exterior home improvements through a 1:1 grant match of up to $5,000. By purchasing items like new windows, concrete, porches, and siding, 42 homes in the Schoolhouse Block and Park Place neighborhoods were restored.
Impact Corry also saw success in helping to revitalize Corry’s downtown area of Center and Main Streets with the Mission Main Street program, a program designed by the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority that targets business corridors and downtown areas with a similar 1:1 match for commercial building façades. By using every available resource, Impact Corry is making our city a safer, brighter, and more desirable place to raise a family.
