Our Neighbors Wrap Up Another Year of Jazz in July!
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| | PCHTF Board member Joe Gonzalez and intern Lauren Johnson at the CIBYN Campaign booth at La Placita. |
Thank you to everyone who attended one, t wo, ten, or all of Metro Arts Alliance's Jazz in July concert series! Our Can I Be Your Neighbor Campaign was proud to sponsor this event for the second year, offering our campaign neighbors the opportunity to visit 17 neighborhoods throughout the Des Moines metro area. At each concert, we held a free raffle drawing to give attendees the chance to win prizes from local businesses and passed out information about each neighborhood. These neighborhood handouts recount the history of each neighborhood and explore the area's need for affordable housing. You can take a look at each of these handouts on the Can I Be Your Neighbor website.
You can also see photos from some events on the PCHTF Facebook page; click for pictures from La Placita, 6th Avenue, Johnston, Beaverdale, and West Glen. Or if you want to relive some of the great jazz performances of this year's Jazz in July, check out our YouTube playlist (note: audio will play) of our weekly appearances on KCWI 23's Great Day! You'll hear from PCHTF and Metro Arts staff about the program, and see a live performance from local musicians. Check it out! |
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Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity continues investment in MLK Jr. Park neighborhood
From refugee camps to their own home in Des Moines
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This spring more than 550 volunteers worked alongside Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity (GDM Habitat) and homebuyer families to turn a strip of land on East 17th Street into five new homes. The walls to the houses were raised at the beginning of May, and by the end of October, five hardworking families will be able to purchase a safe, affordable home of their own.
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Introducing: Healthy Homes East Bank! BUILD grant results in new collaborative effort |
If a home is not healthy, its residents are far less likely to be healthy. In fact, housing has been called a vaccine. Over the last year, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund and local partners explored this idea and produced an intervention called Healthy Homes East Bank, to minimize clinic and hospital visits related to pediatric asthma in three low-income Des Moines neighborhoods.
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PCHTF and Urbandale Hosting Housing Policy Workshop Join the discussion to help the city plan for its future |
You're invited to join the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, the City of Urbandale, and a team of experts from the EPA's Office of Sustainable Communities for a community meeting about equitable development in Urbandale. The meeting will be held August 27 from 6 to 8 PM at the Giovanetti Shelter in Walker-Johnston Park, 9000 Douglas Ave. The meeting will bring together community leaders and a Washington D.C.-based technical assistance team to discuss what policy changes might be needed for Urbandale to provide attractive and affordable housing options for generations to come.
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A Familiar Face Wins Big at Jazz in July Meet Sage Halfhill, our CIBYN grand prize winner |
Look familiar? The winner of the drawing for this year's Jazz in July Can I Be Your Neighbor grand prize was 12-year old Sage Halfhill of Windsor Heights. She is someone you may have seen if you attended this year's Jazz in July series. She worked at 14 of the 17 events helping children create structures with reclaimed wood at the sponsor table for Silent Rivers, a design-build company her father owns. She also worked the crowd handing out company cards that included this message: "Des Moines is more beautiful because you're in it. Thank you for supporting the arts in central Iowa."
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Lauren Johnson Has the Floor Jazz in July intern reflects on her summer |
When I get back to college and friends ask me about my summer internship with Polk County Housing Trust Fund, I'll tell them I got to enjoy some the area's best jazz musicians in some of our wonderful neighborhoods. For the past two months, I helped coordinate the Trust Fund's Jazz in July passport program. Being a jazz performance major, I knew all about the music, but this summer certainly opened my mind to the importance of affordable housing.
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Can I Be Your Neighbor Design Challenge featured in iaarchitect magazine
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Our partners at ASK Studio were recognized in this summer's edition of iaarchitect, the official trade publication of the Iowa Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Click here to read the article and relive this April's competition, and join us in thanking our friends at ASK for their continued support of this event! |
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Community Foundation grants $100,000 to Anawim Housing's Legacy Project
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The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines has awarded a $100,000 Leadership Grant to Anawim Housing in support of the organization's Legacy Project. This grant will support the construction of new affordable units in Des Moines' 6th Avenue Corridor. Leadership Grants are funded by the generosity of community members interested in making our community better today and tomorrow through gifts to the Better Together Fund. Read more about this grant by clicking here.
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River Place Food Pantry to hold open house
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Iowa Finance Authority featured in Affordable Housing News
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Our friends at the Iowa Finance Authority were profiled in the summer issue of Affordable Housing News, a nationwide publication about affordable housing development. Read more to learn about how IFA's work supports job growth statewide. Click here to read the article! |
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Read Past Issues of this eNewsletter
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To read past issues of our monthly eNewsletter, click here.
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