PROVIDENCE -- Four community organizations or coalitions are joining forces this weekend to celebrate National Neighborhood Day with cleanups, barbecues, block parties and other events.

Communities across the United States are celebrating National Neighborhood Day, to help build stronger, more caring and effective communities, according to Sally Turner of Making Connections Providence.

Tomorrow, the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation will work with the Police Department to host a neighborhood cleanup in the West End. The two-hour event begins at 9:30 a.m. at 250 Wadsworth St. and will include the cleanup of Wadsworth, Waldo, Benedict and Salem streets and Salvati Way. A free barbecue for neighbors and volunteers will follow.

To sign up as a volunteer or get more information, call Thea Fielding at 453-3220.

On Sunday, S.W.A.P. (Stop Wasting Abandoned Property) will be leading youths in a fire hydrant-painting event in the area of Pine Street.

The event starts at noon at S.W.A.P.'s community meeting room, 459 Pine St. Organizers will stage a contest with prizes going to those with the best designs.

For more information, call Megan Eddy at 272-0526.

Also, on Sunday, several groups will host block parties.

The Elmwood Collaborative and residents of the Ontario Street neighborhood will host a block party from noon to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of Feinstein High School, on the corner of Ontario Street and Elmwood Avenue.

The party will include cultural music, entertainment, free refreshments and raffle prizes. There will also be an inflatable jumping castle and face-painting for children.

For more information about the block party, which organizers hope to make an annual event, call Silvia Acevedo at (401) 273-2330.

From 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday, the Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services will throw a block party on Parkis Avenue. This celebration will include free food and drinks, entertainment by the Providence Circus School, Big Nazo puppets, Trinity Rhode Productions and The John Hope Settlement House Step by Step Team and a free mask-making and painting workshop for children.

For more information, contact Ronnie Young, the agency's director of Community Building at (401) 455-0810, ext. 209.

The West Broadway Neighborhood Association will host a block party at the Dexter Training Grounds, next to the Cranston Street Armory, from 2 to 5 p.m. The event will feature performances by the Rhode Island Black Storytellers, JUMP Dance Theatre and the Providence Circus School's LUB-DUB Circus Troupe. There will also be food, an arts and crafts table, a child identification booth and a used book sale.

For more information, or to help set up or clean up after the event, call Ina Anderson at (401) 831-9344.

Making Connections is a resident-led organization that works to strengthen families and communities in the Elmwood, South Providence and West End neighborhoods, which have struggled economically and led the state in child poverty rates.

The nonprofit organization has worked, since 1999, to help residents create partnerships with community leaders, government, businesses and religious groups to revitalize their neighborhoods.

kdavis@projo.com / (401) 277-7353