Sunday, April 24, 2022 | Special Advertising Section 1 R 48 SPONSORED CONTENT Strong partnerships help local groups support better parks Restaurant 2 Garden’s small group of volunteers is working to turn local waste into new, nourishing food. Food waste from restaurants Itsumono and the Panama Hotel is taken for composting at the Danny Woo Community Garden, the largest greenspace in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. There, 100 plots over 1.5 acres are tended to by Asian American and Pacific Islander elders, who use the compost to grow food for themselves and their families. Seattle Parks Foundation currently partners with more than 90 volunteer-driven community groups, including Restaurant 2 Garden. Projects range from tiny pocket parks and “off the map” community spaces to large capital campaigns in high-traffic areas. Some larger groups like Volunteer Park Trust are under Seattle Park Foundation’s wing, with dozens of volunteers and thousands of supporters. This kind of partnership, between a nonprofit organization, city parks, and community members is proving to be a powerful tool for creating and supporting public spaces that meet local needs. Organizations like Seattle Parks Foundation can offer experienced backend support to groups that they act as fiscal sponsor for, so partners can focus on day-to-day work. This type of partnership offers 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and a suite of accounting, insurance, fundraising, digital communications, and advocacy services to people who are making park and public space projects happen across the city. Each partner organization is paired with a Seattle Parks Foundation project liaison who helps the community group establish fundraising and advocacy plans, supports grant management, and helps the community navigate the public process. Community projects and process Tapping into the expertise and community connections at the local level offers many advantages over a more top-down approach to creating and supporting local parks. “A community-driven process has multiple benefits,” says SPF board member Debra Guenther. “Not only is the community in tune with their needs, but they can offer more relevant solutions. There’s more social cohesion, and people working together know their neighbors.” Ten years ago, Seattle Parks Foundation had 12 Restaurant 2 Garden works to eliminate local food waste with a composting pilot project that takes food waste from Itsumono and the Panama Hotel and compares three different methods of composting at the Danny Woo Community Garden. (Seattle Parks Foundation) Seattle Parks Foundation partners with community to champion thriving and equitable public spaces. We lead the region in supporting grassroots community partnerships through our fiscal sponsorship model and are positioned to connect neighborhoodbased e!orts to city and regional civic e!orts. Learn more at www. seattleparksfoundation. org. sponsored projects, but now has over 90 community projects underway. The organization focuses on addressing preexisting inequities, along with those increasingly revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic, including access to parks and public spaces increasingly relied upon during the pandemic. For example, the King County Play Equity Coalition is a network of over 115 cross-sector organizations working to ensure access to the physical, social and emotional benefits of play, sports, and other physical activity, with an emphasis on youth from historically underserved groups. Currently, only 19% of youth in King County are physically active an hour a day, as the CDC recommends. There are many barriers to activity, such as the rising costs of the pay-to-play model, transportation, program design and policies. These barriers create inequities of access disproportionately impacting youth of color, immigrant youth, youth of low-income families and youth with disabilities. Another SPF Partner, The Leafline Trails Coalition, is a partnership among trail managers and agencies, regional and local nonprofits, community groups, local businesses, decision-makers and jurisdictions. These partners are joining forces to create an interconnected network of trails across the Central Puget Sound region to improve health, community, quality of life, mobility and access for all. Sometimes the partnership involves work with a goal of environmental support, ensuring access to outdoor activities for years to come. Long-time partners like Friends of the BurkeGilman Trail at Sand Point have been working to remove invasive plants and replace them with native species. Partnerships also celebrate local arts and culture. The Garfield Super Block project in the Central District plans a Promise Promenade, a trail loop that will be adorned with eight commissioned art pieces from local artists and will connect the Horace Mann building, which houses Nova High School, with the Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center. It will anchor and celebrate the historic communities of the Central District: Duwamish, Jewish, African American, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Italian. The Seattle Parks Foundation fiscal sponsorship model helps community efforts to focus on building and sustaining parks that meet local needs.When these needs are met, people feel welcomed and invested in parks and public spaces, leading to healthy, sustainable and equitable communities. And as more parks users engage with their neighbors, it leads to increased civic engagement and revitalized communities. PROVIDED BY SEATTLE PARKS FOUNDATION Read story online King County Play Equity Coalition is a network of over 115 cross-sector organizations working to ensure access to the physical, social and emotional benefits of play, sports, and other physical activity. (Eli Brownell / King County Parks)
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