LEWISTON — The TD Charitable Foundation, the giving arm of TD Bank, has awarded Community Concepts a $20,000 grant to expand its efforts to learn what Lewiston residents want to see in an ideal future Tree Streets area.

Community Concepts is hoping to engage people who otherwise would not get involved in such a planning process, including people from many socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. The planning involves creating a shared vision of a beautiful, safe and vibrant area, which supports people of lower income and the city as a whole to thrive socially and economically.

The Tree Streets area is a 12- by 12-block of downtown streets where nearly half the residents live below the poverty level. The city and Community Concepts received a $1.3 million federal planning grant to create a new vision for the neighborhood, including the construction of affordable housing units.

Community Concepts is working closely with the city and the Healthy Neighborhoods community network to create the transformation plan. This plan will be the basis for an application for up to $30 million in federal funds to implement the plan designed to improve the Tree Streets neighborhood and the people who reside there now and into the future.