“It’s not our finish, it’s our start. And it’s going to get us where we need to be,” said Christi Emel, Financial Center Manager at Fulton Bank, and resident of Sunbury, one of the 10 Pennsylvania towns that are 2024 participants in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh’s (FHLBank) Blueprint Communities® initiative.
On April 29, 2024, FHLBank hosted a ceremony in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to celebrate 10 communities joining this newest cohort of the program. The selected communities include Allentown, Berwick, Carbondale, Easton (South Side), Harrisburg (Allison Hill), Panther Valley School District (Coaldale Lansford, Nesquehoning, and Summit Hill), Philadelphia (Juniata Neighborhood), Reading (9th Street Corridor), Sunbury (Downtown) and White Haven. This is FHLBank’s ninth Blueprint Communities cohort, joining 64 prior community participants.
“Everyone in Sunbury is wanting change,” Emel continues. “Everyone is wanting to see a thriving downtown. Everyone is wanting to see the city, nonprofits and organizations work together, but no one has a plan or pathway to do that. Blueprint Communities is going to give us that plan.”
The Blueprint Communities initiative is unique to FHLBank and focuses on revitalizing communities and neighborhoods by building strong local leadership, collaboration and development capacity, developing sound plans, and encouraging investments by public and private funders.
Each community will connect with partners and resources to help them succeed. Some of the goals that communities have identified include creating affordable housing, developing new businesses to support community needs, enhancing infrastructure and growing tourism opportunities.
“Blueprint Communities could be the change that a neighborhood or community needs to see,” says Christine Verdier, a member of FHLBank’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council. “It’s those initiatives that will be developed by having a plan, taking the resources that are given and putting that plan into action. We are pleased that there are communities that took on the challenge to make their communities better.”
“Blueprint Communities” is a registered service mark of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.
