We are excited to announce our Fall 2019 grantees! The Portland Parks Foundation (PPF) has awarded three small grants to the local organizations below – each with a focus on promoting equitable access for all Portlanders to parks and parks programming. Our grants program is founded on a generous bequest from Nancy Hebb Freeman, an artist, hiker and lover of Portland parks.
Friends of Columbia Park: $2,471
Strengthening Organizational Capacity
Hiring a development consultant, database subscription, printed and branded materials, and volunteer appreciation event expenses
Columbia Park is 35-acres of mature Douglas-firs and lindens, sports fields, a historic cottage, an indoor pool, and an important shared community space. The Friends of Columbia Park is a group of supporters for the park who have maintained a presence in the area since the early 1990s. Recently they have hosted community forums, art and music events, organized daily clean-up efforts to pick up litter with a local school, their “Park and Poolooza” event, a celebration of the park and pool, and a monthly Bingo night for the park community .
This grant from the Portland Parks Foundation will help them diversify their fundraising efforts, recruit, organize, appreciate, and retain volunteers to continue their important efforts. With improved organizational support and volunteer power, Friends of Columbia Park plans to continue the work they’ve been doing while expanding to partner with Portland Parks and Rec to plant a native nature patch, grow park cleanup efforts to include other neighbors and organizations, advocate to fill funding gaps and keep the Columbia Park Pool operating, foster a new relationship with a local corporation, as well as host more concerts and community gatherings in the historic cottage.
Friends of Gateway Discovery Park: $2,225
Outreach to Create New Friends Group
Basic tabling supplies, translation of materials into Spanish and Russian, co-sponsor three large events in area parks
Gateway Discovery Park & Urban Plaza is a new 3.2-acre neighborhood park located near the Hazelwood, Mill Park, and Woodland Park neighborhoods in East Portland. The park was completed in August of 2019 and features a programmed urban plaza, green space, an inclusive nature playground, a small skate park and a picnic area.
Friends groups are an important link to the city’s agency tasked with managing our parks, Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R). Friends of Gateway Discovery Park plans to help PP&R guide future programming so that it meets the community’s needs and to promote community activities in the park. They will also prioritize outreach to children with disabilities and their families, people of color, immigrants, and lower-income renters in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Our grant to The Friends of Gateway Discovery Park will help them form a strong identity to gather around, supplies to tell the community about the group’s existence, including materials translated into Spanish and Russian; host “Tree Walks” with PP&R, something a survey the group conducted showed the community was highly interested in; participate in three events, sponsoring when necessary, that will draw large numbers of participants from the groups prioritized for outreach; and finally engage community members who show interest in being more involved with the formation of the Friends of Gateway Discovery Park so the group’s efforts continue on into the future.
Grow Portland: $2,000
Parent Engagement Sessions at Rigler Elementary Pilot Project
Educator time, refreshments, translation of materials, administration costs
Grow Portland is the leading local nonprofit dedicated to school garden education. To date, they have served over 10,000 students, half of them students of color, primarily from low-income schools. They work with Portland Parks & Recreation and local school communities to improve school garden sites and to integrate hands-on, culturally responsive environmental science education into the school day. They also introduce fresh vegetables to school cafeterias to promote healthy eating.
The grant from the Portland Parks Foundation will allow Grow Portland to pilot a new project: bilingual garden education and parent engagement at Portland Parks & Recreation’s Rigler Community Garden at Rigler Elementary, where the organization has been at work for four years. They’ve chosen Rigler Community Garden and Elementary School because all students at the school participate in garden education and half of those students come from families where Spanish is their first language, but none of the current regular garden educators speak Spanish.
Our grant will allow Grow Portland to better engage with the students at Rigler, but it will also allow them to engage the children’s parents. This will help families understand why garden education matters and help them understand how the garden is a resource for both the school and the neighborhood community. If this pilot project is successful, Grow Portland plans to expand it to other schools in the future.
About the Small Grants Program
Projects for funding consideration may include organizational development, programming, events, transportation, challenge grants or other imaginative ideas.
PPF is especially interested in projects that further develop an organization’s capacity to fulfill its mission. Grant applicants may seek to stabilize or strengthen their operations through a specific activity, including, but not limited to:
Building and diversifying revenue sources
Planning or updating communications, marketing and outreach
Improving and diversifying volunteer recruitment, training and retention
Strengthening governance, leadership or volunteer expertise
Developing and implementing a fundraising plan
Competitive projects will clearly align with PPF’s mission to ensure a thriving and accessible parks system for a healthy Portland. Preference will be given to projects that promote equitable access for all Portlanders to parks and parks programming, primarily benefitting low-income populations, communities of color, and other historically underserved groups.
Find more information here.