Portland Parks Foundation is Excited to Announce our Fall 2021 Grant Recipients
PPF’s small grants program supports local organizations that steward public parks, park programs, community gardens and natural areas. This Fall our community-based review committee selected five organizations to receive a $2000 grant to support general operating or a specific program. PPF is proud to partner with five new organizations committed to increasing opportunities for Black, Indigenous and people of color, immigrant and refugees, individuals with a disability, and low-income and marginalized youth and their families in public parks, nature and community centers.
Boise Eliot Native Grove
The Boise Eliot Native Grove is a volunteer run organization with a mission of restoring the habitat, cultivating education and growing community. The Boise Eliot Native Grove is a pollinator support grove and public nature space built by and for the community on Portland Bureau of Transportation land, formerly an unimproved right-of-way full of invasive species and used as a trash dump.
Community involvement is essential to the ongoing maintenance and support of the native grove. Students and teachers from Boise-Eliot and Humboldt School, who, along with students and faculty from The Ivy School and Self Enhancement, Inc., have contributed extensive design ideas and habitat restoration support to the grove.
This past summer the “heat dome” and the long, dry weather caused detrimental effects on the plant community, killing off a number of shrubs and knocking back some native ground covers.
This grant will go towards the 2022 Earth Day event plus plant specimen replacement, new signs and Library box and books, and general maintenance on the Grove.
Green Lents
Green Lents, cultivates a thriving, resilient and environmentally just community through engagement, education and collective action. In recent years, they have focused on increasing equitable access and leadership over environmental resources and benefits to those most impacted by gentrification, development, climate change and increased urban high-heat zones, wildfire smoke pollution and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 has hit many communities and nonprofits hard over the last two years. Due to funding shortages, Green Lents was forced to cut back on staff expenditures. With programs funded by grants and donations, maintaining the same operational budget during Covid in 2021 proved difficult.
Over the next few month, they will work with board members, volunteers and partners to conduct surveys, determine community needs, and project outlines and budgeting. This grant will support the organization in addressing a funding gap to ensure current programming will not be interrupted during the planning process and provide stability and continuity for a robust 2022.
Portland Fruit Tree Project
Portland Fruit Tree Project increases equitable access to healthful foods and strengthens communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown produce. The organization coordinates harvesting and sharing surplus fruit amongst communities and community organizations, sustains several mobile orchard and vegetable garden plots in partnership with community organizations, and educates the community on issues of equitable tree canopy, food justice, and the complexities of the food system.
As the Portland Fruit Tree project expands, they seek to build a workforce development program around fruit tree care, increase equity centered harvesting opportunities, called Healing Harvests, to address harm experienced primarily by the Black and Latino/a/x communities around harvesting food, and further community based research around barriers to accessing fruit as well as a research project focused on increasing people sharing harvests that are less reliant on organizational intervention.
The grant will support the organization as they seek to expand these services and programs.
Sail2Change (S2C) empowers historically underserved and underrepresented youth through access to sailing, environmental education, mentorship and tutoring as a catalyst for equitable academic opportunity and maritime industry employment. Through sailing and outdoor education, S2C promotes equitable access to Portland’s waterways and natural areas.
Their activities encourage youth to spend more time outdoors and take advantage of Portland’s natural beauty. Many of the youth have never been to the local parks and waterways S2C frequents. As part of the sailing lessons they provide, youth explore the Willamette River and are able to experience their hometown in a new way. While sailing, youth will visit Sellwood Riverfront Park, Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge and will head downtown to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
Funding from this grant will provide programming to a larger number of youth and help to spread the word about their free programming.
The Scott School Basketball Program uses basketball as a way to enable children from the community to have a positive after school environment to develop physical, social skills and self-esteem. Scott School is located in the Cully neighborhood and has a large population of low income and students of color. The program is volunteer run, however there are costs associated with league fees, uniforms and equipment. After a season away, due to Covid, 80 students across 3rd, 4th and 5th grade will be able to participate in the Scott School Basketball Program.
The goal of the program, coached by long time physical education teacher and basketball coach, Ken Lee, is not to win games but to ensure all students are included in the game and develop team cooperation and individual growth.
The small grant will help defer some of the registration fees for children on free lunch programs at Scott School. Offsetting the costs of the program, uniforms and equipment will provide opportunities for more students to get involved in after school basketball.