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JPMorgan Chase Announces $1.2 Million In Grants To Boost Detroit

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - JPMorgan Chase says more than $1.2 million in funding will help boost the revitalization of Detroit neighborhoods.

The company says Thursday the money is for six community development programs that involve housing development, blight removal, new business creation, parent education and neighborhood beautification.

The programs involve Southwest Housing, Vanguard Community Development Corp., Grandmont Rosedale Community Stabilization Program, Eastside Community Network, Michigan Community Resources and Community Development Advocates of Detroit.

"These targeted efforts provide Detroiters with the local resources they need to invest in the future of their own neighborhoods and create more widely shared prosperity," Janis Bowdler, Head of Community Development Initiatives, said in a statement.

The grants, which are part of JPMorgan Chase's previous $100 million commitment to Detroit's economic recovery, include:

• Southwest Solutions ($800,000)

Southwest Solutions is engaged in a comprehensive effort to improve lives and neighborhoods in Detroit through a broad range of programs in human services, economic development and resident engagement. Among its programs, Southwest Solutions provides assistance to Detroiters seeking to better their economic future through homeownership and financial coaching. They also stabilize and strengthen neighborhoods through numerous initiatives, including boarding-up abandoned properties targeted for re-use, maintaining and activating vacant lots, and organizing neighborhood beautification activities with residents.

• Vanguard Community Development Corporation (CDC) ($150,000)

Vanguard CDC collaborates with the city of Detroit Housing and Real Estate Development Department to acquire and rehabilitate vacant housing through their North End HomeBuild program. This program works to preserve the North End's beautiful historic housing stock, create and maintain additional affordable housing, stabilize the community, leverage previous investment, eliminate blight, produce more affordable homes, rescue historic properties, increase economic equity, prevent displacement, and create a welcoming, safe, and attractive community environment.

• Grandmont Rosedale Community Stabilization Program ($77,500)

This program aims to stabilize housing values, reduce vacancy and blight, encourage affordable home ownership, and attract new businesses to their neighborhood in Detroit. The program acquires, renovates and sells vacant and foreclosed homes to new homeowners and markets the community to new residents to bolster housing demand. With an emphasis on foreclosure prevention and blight elimination, they work to retain current residents and reduce overall vacancy. Specifically, they have coordinated an active task force of local residents to mobilize thousands of volunteer hours each year to clean and maintain vacant properties. By supporting small business development, they also work to revitalize the Grand River corridor.

• Eastside Community Network ($75,000)

Eastside Community Network aims to improve the Mack Avenue Corridor, between Conner and Cadieux, to stabilize existing businesses, improve aesthetics, remove blight, maintain open space, improve green uses, attract new businesses, activate vacant spaces in low market areas, and increase utilization. Partnering with local government, residents, business, and technical stakeholders, they focus on street scape design, green development, branding, commercial marketing and business recruitment.

• Michigan Community Resources (MCR) ($75,000)

MCR provides targeted neighborhood capacity building services to CBOs in Cody Rouge, North End, and the Lower Eastside that perform economic development activities, expanding upon the work completed by the JPMorgan Chase Service Corps team in 2014. MCR develops neighborhood commercial marketing materials, provides technical assistance for site specific marketing, creates customized investment strategies that can be used to target development-ready parcels and key neighborhood assets, and provides legal assistance.

• Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD) ($50,000)

CDAD is a membership organization of community development and neighborhood improvement groups and assists its members through community planning, engagement and other support. They also work to increase awareness of public policy issues that support inclusive development, such as community benefits, affordable housing and land acquisition.

© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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