A bank offered Larimer a little money and a lot of expertise earlier this month.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh recently chose the East End neighborhood, among 22 communities and neighborhoods statewide, based on proposals made by resident advocates, to be trained in the skills of developing community. The ultimate goal is to attract investment that will help sustain progress. The bank put up $225,000 to pay for the seminars.

Being chosen as a Blueprint Community isn't a visit from the Prize Patrol, but for communities that feel like abandoned stepchildren, it's reason to celebrate.

John Bendel, the bank's Blueprint Community director, said communities were chosen because they did not have "a holistic plan, but had great need and a semblance of leadership." One result of the training should be a comprehensive plan, he added.

The communities also will be eligible for technical assistance from several local universities.

The bank solicited "expressions of interest" this year from every community and neighborhood group it could find, he said.

"Only 60 accepted," Mr. Bendel said. "We sent them applications and only 30 responded."

Each respondent had to form a team that includes a banker, at least one resident and someone with development experience, and had to free up five days for training.

"It seemed like a no-brainer to respond," said Jim Richter, wexecutive director of the Hazelwood Initiative which, he said, is "on the cusp" of being a fully fledged community-development corporation. It has been putting together plans for housing construction with amenities that a more populated Hazelwood didn't know, such as garages and yards.

Hazelwood is the only other Pittsburgh neighborhood among the 22.

Blighted conditions and instability in Hazelwood and Larimer have warded off significant investment for decades. The bank's infusion is a way of saying: Here's the material to make your own key to open a door.

Ora Lee Carroll, executive director of the East Liberty Concerned Citizens Corp. -- so named but with a focus on Larimer -- has given Larimer a start. Her group is teaming with the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority to build 22 houses on Winslow Street. She said being a Blueprint Community was a chance to wrest control over Larimer's downward spiral.

"I've been at this for 22 years, and this is one of the most blessed opportunities to come to this neighborhood," she said. "We can't mess this up. We have to do something with this because of our babies."

To a crowd of about 70 people gathered on a Monday night in the basement of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, Ms. Carroll said, "Money's not going to come in on a truck. We've got to show we are working together. No politician is going to listen to us if we don't have a comprehensive plan."

If the training is effective and all trainees follow through, the advocates will attract volunteers and build coalitions, resolve conflicts and unite, brainstorm creatively, write vision statements and plan for opportunities that intrigue investors. They will run their nonprofit groups like businesses, assess their housing markets and understand how the pieces of the development puzzle fit together.

Richard Snipe, a development coordinator for the Urban Redevelopment Authority and a member of the Larimer Blueprint team, told the assembly:

"We don't have all the funds you need. We have some funds. What it takes is for people to want to be part of this community. You have to have the courage to say to a kid, 'You can't do that stuff here. You can't do it anywhere.' We have to change the mind-set. What do ou want? And how hard do you want to work to get it?"

Larimer's strongest visual elements are vacant lots, many of them city-owned, litter and rows of densely built houses pocked by abandonment. It is a neighborhood where offers often are retracted, such as the Roberto Clemente Foundation's brief flirtation several years ago with a large lot on Larimer Avenue for a complex of sports fields for youngsters.

One of Larimer's blessings is its proximity to the booming real estate market of East Liberty, where the nonprofit community development group has learned the lessons in savvy and is implementing them.

Land use and how money is spent on land have become the new civil rights struggles, said Yusef Ali, chairman of the economic development committee of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, an African-American men's club.

"We are sitting on this land and we should be able to benefit from being on it," he said at the meeting. "When redevelopment comes in, our people are removed, and we can't afford the housing. We can't let that continue to happen."

To rousing applause, he said, "We can do this if we stick together, work together and trust each other. Don't sell out for peanuts, and keep the big picture without letting petty arguments get in the way."

The other Blueprint communities in Western Pennsylvania are Aliquippa, Brownsville, Canonsburg, Carnegie, Connellsville, Etna, Irwin, McKeesport, New Kensington, Uniontown, Waynesburg and Wilkinsburg.