At 2109 Adams St. in Gary, a small community park is coming back to life not just with flowers and fences, but with purpose. A stage, once overlooked, will soon host spoken word events. A newly paved path leads into the city’s first handicap-accessible community garden, surrounded by a safety fence built with children and adults with autism in mind.

A few miles away, near Roosevelt Pavilion, another resident-led project is adding bleachers, picnic tables, and solar-powered phone chargers beside a basketball court that the city is already restoring. These upgrades aren’t massive, but they’re the type of improvements that are part of a growing movement to rebuild Gary from the ground up.

Through Love Your Block, a city-led microgrant initiative launched this year, local residents received up to $6,500 each to reimagine vacant lots, beautify neighborhoods, and improve public spaces — not as outsiders, but as the people who live and breathe these streets. Project Manager Tiara Williams said the goal is to “activate” places like 2109 Adams St. by not just funding improvements, but by giving residents ownership of their neighborhoods. “This is a great way,” she said, “to show people that it’s their park, their space — and they can shape what happens here.”

Throughout the process, Williams worked closely with the awardees, including Dexter Harris, the senior pastor at Flourish Church in Gary and executive director of its community hub. One of Harris’ projects is at the corner of 21st Avenue and Adams Street, where dual murals serve as the backdrop in a new gated park, and new benches rest under a tree that provides endless shade. He also oversaw new installations at North and South Gleason Park, among others. Harris credited a spirit of collaboration among himself, other faith-based organizations, and members of the community as the key to such a quick turnaround.

“The reality is we can’t lift this by ourselves,” he told Capital B Gary. “A  lot of this is possible because there are so many hands. They camped out, many of them at Flourish Church for three nights, and got up every single day and came out and really hammered out these projects.” 

Mayor Eddie Melton was on hand to christen the new playground area at South Gleason during a block party. Community members met with collaborators for a look at the park’s upgrades while enjoying food fresh off the grill at the corner of 35th Avenue and Jefferson Street. 

”We’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to receive funding and create a competitive process for organizations like Pastor [Dexter Harris] group to pitch ideas on what we can do to improve blocks, to improve parks, neighborhoods, and create safe spaces and clean places for folks to enjoy the city of Gary.”

Gary is one of 16 cities, including Baltimore, Dallas, and Louisville, Kentucky, to receive a Love Your Block grant, established and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The grant’s major focus is on resident-led neighborhood revitalization projects, which can include anything from transforming vacant lots into gardens to simply removing trash and debris.  

Research backs the approach. Marc Zimmerman, a public health scholar at the University of Michigan who has studied similar initiatives in Camden, New Jersey, Youngstown, Ohio, and Flint, Michigan, said projects led by residents often lead to reduced violent crime and a stronger sense of community. “These efforts aren’t about gentrification,” he told Capital B Gary. “They’re about people taking back their neighborhoods and building the conditions to thrive.”

“We’ve done greening studies where we look at a street, a street that has some greening, and a street that doesn’t. Nearby, but far enough away.  We find better mental health, better feelings of their neighborhood and better feelings of their neighbors.”

“It starts in the neighborhood, in a precinct, then a district, then a city,” said 5th District precinct committeeperson Carl Weatherspoon, whose grant helped provide dumpsters for a cleanup effort. “That’s how we become greater together. Man, that’s how Gary grows greater.”

For his project, Weatherspoon ​​placed five 20-yard dumpsters at key sites across the 5th District, including 24th and Johnson, Lincoln, Buchanan, Pierce, and Fillmore. Set out between June 27 and July 9, the dumpsters typically filled up within just three to four days. Given the high demand, he’s now considering upgrading to 40-yard dumpsters for future cleanups.

Before any grant money was awarded, Love Your Block University laid the groundwork. The city-run program offered in-person sessions, virtual workshops, and dedicated office hours to make sure every resident, regardless of their schedule or internet access, a fair shot at participating. Organizers collected applications, but they also walked alongside residents throughout the process. They reviewed each proposal closely, reached out to those who hadn’t attended sessions, and offered one-on-one support to help people refine their ideas.

That hands-on approach paid off. Helen Torres’ “Beyond the Spectrum” project, which focused on inclusive, sensory-friendly community spaces, was born out of the university. So, too, was the Black Oak Little League’s improved project planning skills, which they gained through training sessions. 

“What’s impressed me the most was starting from ground zero and we’re here,” Williams said of the program. 

“We’ve come from winter through spring now summer, and I’m really excited about how they went from an idea to something we can actually touch. And I love how the city is supporting it.”