“My Hometown Salt Lake City is an initiative that combines the strengths of individuals, faith-based organizations, and community partners to help individuals and families in this community improve their residential living conditions, maintain access to available services and community information, connect productively with other neighbors, and serve together.” - myHometown SLC
myHometown Salt Lake City Westside
Volunteers, working with myHometown Westside, clean up alley debris. Photo by Paul Durham.
myHometown Salt Lake City Westside is a community organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that provides non-denominational service to improve the lives of individuals, families and the community in the Poplar Grove and Glendale neighborhoods. They have 40 dedicated volunteers and over 1,500 occasional volunteers.
myHometown delivers its services through five programs: (1) a Day of Service every month with 100 volunteers working on 5-10 projects to improve homes, yards and public spaces; (2) a Community Resource Center at 934 W. Fremont Ave that teaches ESL, piano, financial skills, computer literacy, sewing, art, etc.; (3) tutoring at Mountain View, Edison, Parkview and Franklin Elementary Schools; (4) a monthly Youth in Action program serving youth between 12-18 years of age, focusing on sports, service, leadership and social activities; and (5) helping distribute food to those who are food insecure by providing volunteers bi-weekly to support the Utah Food Bank Cannon Mobile Pantry distribution.
“At the beginning of our second year in January 2024, we set a goal to double our 2023 statistics — we accomplished that and more. Our total service hours increased from 7,333 hours in 2023 to 26,470 hours in 2024, and we served over 7,500 people,” said myHometown Westside Co-Executive Director Paul Durham, who serves with his wife, Maren.
Favorite service activities for myHometown in 2024 included helping the Salvation Army provide an Easter egg hunt for over 100 Westside children; tutoring in all four elementary schools; supporting back-to-school carnivals and other elementary school activities; weekly piano lessons for 55 students along with spring and fall piano recitals; a youth service project creating over 100 blankets for young patients at Primary Children’s Medical Center; cleaning up the Jordan River Trail and nearby homes, yards and alleys; and helping youth assemble 1,000 personal hygiene kits that were eventually donated to Catholic Community Services. myHometown also conducted over 60 projects with its Days of Service and 22 NOW projects (immediate need projects, e.g., plumbing, furnace or water heater replacement).
“myHometown has scheduled Days of Service on the following Saturdays at 8:30 am: June 14, August 9, September 6, October 11 and November 22. If you know of a project to improve a home, yard or public area, or if you would like to provide 3 hours of meaningful service from 8:30-11:30 am on one or more of the dates mentioned above, please contact Paul Durham at pdurham999@gmail.com. Alternatively, you can just show up at the project meeting place, 934 W. Fremont Ave (east parking lot) at 8:30 am on any of the above dates.
For more information on myHometown or to take classes at the Westside Resource Center, visit myhometownslc.org/westside/.
myHometown Salt Lake City Northwest
Written by Diane Whittaker
Volunteers from the community and myHometown Northwest work together to clean up a yard in the Rose Park neighborhood. Photo by Diane Whittaker.
Is your neighbor struggling to keep up with yard work due to health or life circumstances? Are you interested in working with neighbors to improve the lives of others? Check out myHometown and get involved at myhometownslc.org.
myHometown Northwest (serving Rose Park, Fairpark, Westpointe and Jordan Meadows neighborhoods) is a team of area residents and others from around the valley. Our goal is to combine the strengths of individuals, faith-based organizations, and community partners to help individuals and families improve their residential living conditions, maintain access to available services and community information, connect productively with other neighbors, and serve together.
For the past year, myHometown has sponsored monthly Days of Service (or DOS). In 2023 the northwest group completed 91 community projects, with 882 volunteers giving 3,646 hours of service. Projects involved yard clean ups, as well as trash and overgrowth removal from alley ways, and along 600 and 700 North, the Folsom trail, and the Jordan River trail. myHometown appreciates the volunteers that showed up and worked toward a better community.
Nominate a Project
If you would like to nominate a resident in the northwest area who is physically unable to take care of their property, or if you see an alley way, trail, or roadside that some care, you can fill out the form at this link: myhometownslc.org/nominate-project-northwest/.
Your request will be routed to the correct team for the area in which the project is located.
Get Involved
If you would like to get involved, visit tinyurl.com/bddhyy3d and enter your cell phone number to get updates about upcoming projects. We never sell your contact information, and your number is stored in a restricted access file. myHometown Northwest will send you a text for upcoming projects with a link to Sign Up Genius.
Mark your calendar for upcoming Days of Service scheduled for 2025 in the northwest area: May 17th, June 21st, August 9th, September 13th, and October 11th.
myHometown Salt Lake City Central Community
myHometown Central Community volunteers spread mulch in the People’s Freeway Park in 2024. Photo by Sue Hall.
myHometown Central Community (serving the Ballpark and Liberty Wells neighborhoods) is a team comprised of area residents and volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints working to beautify the community. They do this by repairing homes, community gathering locations and places of worship, and by providing resources, free classes in English, sewing, piano, computers, etc. as well as providing a meeting space at the Columbus Adult Education Center located at 1860 South 300 East.
The central group is currently taking nominations to assist neighbors, clean public spaces and/or suggest needed programs in the above-referenced neighborhoods. Those with suggestions can submit their proposals at myhometownslc.org/central-community/.
Those in the Central Community neighborhoods can also sign up to work on service projects, volunteer at the Community Resource Center, or become neighborhood representatives by visiting the website. Residents can also sign up for upcoming classes.
On Saturday, May 17, myHometown Central will host a huge project at Liberty Park spreading mulch. They will need 100-150 people to complete it.
“Working together as volunteers has had a huge impact on our community. As myHometown becomes more well-known, we find that more volunteers are willing to help us in our quest to improve not only individual homes but alleyways and parks that everyone can enjoy,” said myHometown Co-Executive Director Rick Hall, who serves with his wife, Sue. “We have painted homes, improved yards, raked leaves at 14 homes, and secured several grants that had a huge impact on home improvement for individual residents.”
Hall continued, “Our Community Resource Center has seen an increase in students and community partners that provide services for everyone. The connections we are building bring us all together as we work to better the area we work and live in. During 2024, 1,669 volunteers from the Central Community and myHometown completed 76 projects and put in 4,151 hours of service.”