Purpose
The People, Parks, and Power initiative comes at a critical moment. Imbalances in political and economic power and a legacy of racial discrimination in the conservation movement have excluded groups led by people of color from full participation in park and green space work or have tokenized their involvement. The P3 initiative is grounded in the premise that urban parks are essential community infrastructure that should serve every neighborhood in a fair, just, and safe manner, without displacing longtime residents or community-serving businesses. P3 will support community-based organizations and base-building groups working in urban, low-income communities of color across the United States to increase park equity through local policy and systems change. The geographic focus of the P3 initiative is urban areas—with a particular interest in small and midsized cities (under 500,000 population).
African Americans, Latinos, and people living in low-income urban areas across the United States have disproportionately been denied the health, social, and environmental benefits of vital public spaces—inequities born from historical and current day policies, systems, and norms. We strongly encourage community-based organizations to apply, especially those led by people of color working to build community power at the citywide, countywide, or districtwide level. Until the policies, institutional practices, power dynamics, and problematic narratives that produced these inequities in the first place are transformed, park inequities will persist or worsen. Therefore, the “north star” of the P3 initiative is upstream policy and systems change, not planning, building, or operating individual, on-the-ground projects. We are interested in funding a spectrum of eligible organizations across the United States that either are in later or early stages of policy advocacy and systems change efforts to advance park equity.
Key Dates
September 15, 2021
Call for proposals released
September 29, 2021 (1–2:30 p.m. ET)
Optional applicant webinar slides found here.
Webinar recording available here.
Una versión en español de la grabación del seminario web del solicitante de P3 está disponible aquí.
Las diapositivas están aquí.
October 18 - November 1, 2021
Prospective applicants to the P3 national funding initiative will have access to technical assistance to address clarifying questions about the Call for Proposals and Letter of Intent requirements. Please click here for more details.
November 4, 2021 (3 p.m. ET)
Letter of intent (LOI) deadline
January 4, 2022
Invitations extended to selected organizations to submit a full proposal
February 8, 2022 (3 p.m. ET)
Full proposal deadline
March 16, 2022
Notification of grant awards
May 15, 2022
Grants begin