Buckeye Larchmere Initiative

The Saint Luke’s Foundation of Cleveland has approved a $1 million planning and implementation grant to carry out specific actions resulting from a one-year community engagement process. Buckeye Area Development Corporation and Shaker Square Area Development Corporation are the lead agencies. Neighborhood Progress serves as the fiscal agent and project manager. The implementation process will:

• Improve communications and collaboration between the Cleveland Police and residents to mobilize the community to devise and carry out crime prevention strategies that will lead to a stronger sense of safety and a more secure neighborhood environment.

• Create a three-fold strategy involving homeownership, rehabilitation, and maintenance of existing and new homes that will aid market recovery and wealth building for families in the Buckeye—Larchmere focused area.

• Increase diversity, encourage new business start-ups, and support overall business development.

• Connect the area’s economic and business growth to employment opportunities for residents.

• Boost the area’s economy and strengthen the bottom line for local businesses.

• Reshape external and internal perceptions and identity in Buckeye—Larchmere.

• Strengthen the capacity of existing block club network and community-based organizations

• Leverage the development of the Harvey Rice School and the Rice Branch Library in a campus environment adjacent to the Saint Luke’s Hospital campus. These two pivotal projects represent the most significant development to be proposed for the area in decades.

• The Model Block Strategy will strengthen community members’ ability to pressure negligent owners to improve their properties and augment existing resources.

Community input through workshops, focus groups, and surveys resulted in four overarching outcome categories for focused funding and implementation:

1. Stimulating Market Recovery/Wealth Building: Housing Rehabilitation, Maintenance and Ownership;

2. Strengthening the Focused Area Economy/Marketing Amenities: Commercial and Economic Development/Physical Enhancements;

3. Investing in Social Capital: Continued Community Building through Networking and Cooperative Engagement; and

4. Uplifting the Quality of Life: Improving Safety and Security through Training and Proactive Strategies