The Ninth Street highway overpass crossing Main Street in downtown Louisville separates the east and west sides of the city, creating both a physical and mental barrier for pedestrians. The Louisville Knot proposes to mend this gap in the urban fabric with a giant piece of street furniture inserted under the overpass that provides micro infrastructures for parties, play, and commerce, encouraging visitors to cross the divide. A series of bent and bundled steel tubes weave together to create seating, tables, lighting, bike racks, signage, and an extra large swing, reframing the sidewalk and an adjacent parking area under I-64 as an inviting space to pass through and gather for special events. Philadephia-based Interface Studio Architects will present on the upcoming installation, Thursday at 5:30pm Mayor's Gallery - 4th floor Metro Hall. Following the presentation, Mayor Fischer will open up the conversation and assist with questions from the audience. 

Light Up Louisville will be Nov. 24, the Friday after Thanksgiving, in and around Metro Hall and Jefferson Square Park, with live entertainment, vendor booths, expanded children’s activities, along with the Lots of Lights Parade, and free pictures with Santa. Holiday Square, including a pop-up ice rink, will be on the plaza at Fourth and Jefferson streets, from Nov. 23 to Jan. 1.

Location: Fourth and Jefferson Streets

• 4:00 p.m. Children's activities inside Santa's Workshop - Metro Hall, 1st floor. Vendors booths open - Sixth and Jefferson Streets. Live entertainment - Main stage 
• 6:30 p.m. Lots of Lights Parade - Starts at Seventh and Jefferson Streets and heads east on Jefferson Street. The parade will then turn down Fourth Street and disperse at Muhammad Ali. The Lots of Lights Parade is an evening parade of lights, bands, carolers, car clubs, floats, children's groups and civic organizations. 
• 8:00 p.m. Light Up Moment - Santa joins Mayor Fischer on the main stage at Metro Hall to light up the city Christmas tree located at Jefferson Square Park. Grab the best view of the lights, fireworks and action right in front of the stage on the west lawn of Metro Hall.
• 8:30 p.m. Free pictures with Santa - Metro Hall, 1st Floor
• 11:00 p.m. Holiday in the City ice skating rink closes - Fourth and Jefferson Streets 

Registration is now open for Tomorrow’s Talent, a workforce and education summit that brings together national and local experts to focus on ways for young people to realize their full potential in education and the workforce -- creating the maximum impact to the regional economy.  

The event is from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, at the Muhammad Ali Center. Registration is free at www. kentuckianaworks.org/summit.

The keynote speaker will be Richard V. Reeves of the Brookings Institution, where he is Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families. His research focuses on social mobility, inequality, and family change. Prior to joining Brookings in 2013, he was director of strategy to the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister.

Additional breakout sessions, lightning talks and TED-style presentations will feature an eclectic lineup of presenters and topics.

Light refreshments begin at 8 a.m., and lunch will be provided.

LG&E and KU is excited to announce our grant programs are now entirely digital!

Plant for the Planet Grant applications will be accepted through our new online grant portal from Nov. 1 through Dec. 1. All applications and corresponding documentation must be submitted electronically through the portal. Paper applications will no longer be accepted.

Submit Application

Our Plant for the Planet program is modeled after the United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign. The purpose of UNEP's tree-planting effort is to bring individuals, communities and businesses together to collectively plant over one billion trees worldwide each year. Similarly, LG&E and KU's program is designed to encourage nonprofit organizations and local government agencies with a record of successful tree planting to continue their efforts. The company has designated up to $75,000 each year toward this initiative.

LG&E and KU offer one-year grants of $500 to $5000 for urban, suburban or rural projects in forests and parks, along parkways or roadways that meet program objectives. Applicants must demonstrate that mature trees resulting from their efforts will not interfere with utility lines.

1) Register Them for 2018 SummerWorks

 Encourage youth and young adults (age 16 to 21 years as of June 1, 2018) to register for the 2018 SummerWorks program here: https://www.summerworks.org/sign-up/

 2) Hire a Young Person- Are you a nonprofit or public employer that wants to employ youth over the summer?  Based on available funding we will provide wages and on-the-job coaching for youth during this seven week program.  Please contact Natalie to receive more information or to update your job descriptions from last summer.

 3) Apply for one or both of the funding opportunities below.  More details to both are provided in the linked PDFs and subsequent links on that page.  Please contact Natalie for more information and REGISTER HERE for the Technical Assistance on Nov. 27th.

 Work-Learn Subsidy

Deadline: Dec 22, 2017

Grant Technical Assistance will be Monday, Nov. 27 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. at YMCA Safe Place Services - 2400 Crittenden Drive

Apply to Coordinate a Work-Learn Team to fund a Job Coach position for training 10+ youth in the SummerWorks 2018 program.  We are selecting up to five partners to coordinate teams of youth as they design and implement a project benefiting the community; Job Coach position salary and youth wages are provided in this subsidy.

Career Preparation Grant

Deadline: Dec 22, 2017

Grant Technical Assistance will be Monday, Nov. 27 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. at YMCA Safe Place Services - 2400 Crittenden Drive

We are offering mini-grants ($2,000) to up to five community partners interested in expanding or creating work readiness services for youth.

4) Host a Soft Skills Workshop at your site

SummerWorks is partnering with different industry groups this year to bring work readiness workshops and job search services into the community. If you are interested in hosting a workshop or scheduling a speaker please email Natalie for more information.

Natalie Reteneller  natalie.reteneller@summerworks.org

Reggie Smith reggie.smith@summerworks.org

Louisville Metro Government together with the Commission on Public Art is seeking submissions from emerging and professional poets for Love in the Street.  

Louisville residents can submit original poems for a chance to earn a $100 stipend and have their poem stamped into a city sidewalk on 4th Street.  

Love in the Street is a project by local poet and artist Lance Newman to curate a selection of poems by local poets and stamp them in a newly laid concrete sidewalk on 4th Street, between Chestnut and Broadway. The sidewalk stamps will be implemented through a public infrastructure project in 2018. 

Love in the Street poems will be place-based and adhere to a theme of "Love and Admiration." Poets are asked to consider the existence of love in their city. How did they first fall in love with the city of Louisville? Their answers will be poetic summarizations of the admiration they have for the city and the places that mean the most to them. Whether deeply abstract or satirically literal, Love in the Street supports the writing prowess of Louisville residents while simultaneously providing a collective public artwork built into the streetscape.

Love in the Street reminds our citizens and visitors alike that love is a universal concept and a love for the place where you live is inherent in our lives. The experience will remind us that artists living in our city can influence and affect compassion. Love in The Street inspires the writer within us all and fosters admiration for the poet and city alike. 

Love in the Street poems will be selected by Newman, working in collaboration with the Commission on Public Art and Louisville Metro Government. Up to 20 poems will be selected for the project.

 Submission guidelines:

• You must be a resident of Louisville/Jefferson County. All residents of any age are eligible. Poems may be submitted by individual poets or a collaborative.  
• Each applicant is required to submit one poem. Up to three submissions is optional. Text and subject matter must be appropriate for the general public. Poems may be written in any language but an English translation is needed for review. Poems must be original work by the applicant.
• Poems cannot exceed 8 lines, 39 characters per line, including spaces.
• All entries are reviewed by the lead artist through a blind selection process.
• Up to 20 selected poets will receive a $100 stipend and installation of their poems in the sidewalk. Poets’ names will be credited on the city website, not in the sidewalk. Some selected poems may receive editing suggestions.
• The deadline for submissions is November 17.

For more information Click Here

Enviromental Health Justice Confrence
By West Jefferson County Community Task Force 
Tuesday, November 28
 
FREE EVENT
Find out how everyday environmental exposures affect your health in unique ways:
Dr. Conklin UofL - Blood platelets and particulates
Local Health Department - Health Statistics
Dr. Polivka UofL- Asthma and indoor air quality
Dr. Tuckson, MD - Colon cancer and environmental exposures
Registration: 7:45am - 8:30am
Continental Breakfast served 7:45am-8:45am

Register Here

JCPS Diversity, Equity, and Poverty will be facilitating a Poverty Simulation for their educators on Monday, Nov. 27th from 4:30-6:30PM at Gheens Academy (adjacent Male High School). Volunteers who would be willing to role-play stations (Supermarket, Mortgage, Banker, etc.) during the simulation are very much in need.

If you are available and would like to volunteer please contact Dr. Monica Lakhwani via email (monica.lakhwani@jefferson.kyschools.us). Volunteers will need to be at Gheens at 3:30 in order to go over their packets/roles. 

LIHEAP Early Registration

Louisville Metro Office of Resilience and Community Services' LIHEAP Program is a federally funded program that provides financial assistance to help low-income residents pay utility bills. The Subsidy component of LIHEAP will begin November 6, 2017.

Pre-registration opportunities for the Subsidy Program will be offered during October for those residents who are on a fixed income, and who are elderly (age 60 or over) or disabled receiving social security, SSI, pension or Black Lung benefits.

Click here for a downloadable flyer that you can share with eligible residents.

Department for Community Based Services

The mission of the Department for Community Based Services is to build an effective and efficient system of care with Kentucky's citizens and communities to:

• Reduce poverty, adult and child maltreatment, and their effects 
• Advance person and family self-sufficiency, recovery, and resiliency 
• Assure all children have safe and nurturing homes and communities 
• Recruit and retain a workforce and partners that operate with integrity and transparency.

Apply online at https://careers.ky.gov.  Salary and job requirements can also be viewed on the website. You must set-up an account, complete the online application, and apply for each position of interest.  Jobs are posted for seven days and can be removed at any time.  The website is updated daily.

Programs ramp up efforts to move properties from vacancy into productive use 

The Louisville Metro Vacant & Public Property Administration (VPPA) today announced three new programs  designed to more rapidly move vacant properties back into productive use. All eligible properties are owned by the Landbank Authority, a cooperative effort by the city of Louisville, Commonwealth of Kentucky and Jefferson County Public Schools (main taxing authorities) that acquires, manages and sells distressed and unimproved  properties to responsible property owners who can increase property values and stimulate the tax base.