On Friday, June 16, Park Pride joined partners at the City of Atlanta, including Council Member Marci Collier Overstreet, the Department of Parks & Recreation and Commissioner Justin Cutler, the Cascade Springs Nature Conservancy, Nature Gurlz, and the Southwest Atlanta community to celebrate the completion of several major park improvements at the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve!
Park Pride proudly supported these improvements through a $100,000 award made through our Grantmaking Program in 2021, which funded an ADA-accessible pedestrian entrance, additional gathering spaces for community members, and increased safety in the park through more lighting. This grant complements previous improvements supported by Park Pride, including a boardwalk that received $10,000 in 2019.
Improvements at Cascade Springs also include a beautiful and interactive art piece made possible by the ReNew Atlanta Public Art Program. Through the installation, the world-renowned artist, Southwest Atlanta native, and current-day Cascade Heights neighborhood resident, Radcliff Bailey, sought to create the atmosphere of a chapel where the community could gather.
Cascade Springs Nature Conservancy, with the leadership of David Lloyd Davis, has prioritized partnerships and community engagement as they have implemented these and other projects.
With the Conservancy’s focus on increasing access to nature so that all community members (and all Atlantans) can enjoy the health benefits offered by this preserve, we can’t wait to see what future projects they have in store!
Park Pride’s Grantmaking Program is one of the most important ways we advance our mission to engage communities to activate the power of parks, and to support communities at the local level to make their park dreams a reality. It is generously supported by the City of Atlanta, Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, The Waterfall Foundation, The Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation, The Home Depot Foundation, and others who have given through the Parks for All campaign.
In January, we announced our slate of 2023 grant awards, totaling 2.5M to 25 neighborhood community parks, with 67% of the dollars supporting projects in low-income neighborhoods. Next year, we anticipate awarding even more funding to more Friends of the Park groups!