New initiative will provide $7 million in funding for community-based organizations to work on park equity and racial justice.
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We’re excited to announce the launch of People, Parks, and Power (P3), a national initiative to invest in green space, health equity, and racial justice. People, Parks, and Power seeks to accelerate a national movement for park equity led by communities that have shouldered generations of park inequities and associated health inequities. This initiative is a joint effort of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, led and managed by Prevention Institute. We encourage you to share this Call for Proposals with your networks. |
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“Change comes from organizing and power-building; in that regard P3 breaks new ground. It’s the first national funding initiative that supports community-based organizations to build power for local policy change to eliminate the deplorable park and green space inequities found in urban African American and Latino communities across the U.S. This new investment recognizes just how crucial low-income communities of color are to moving the needle toward equity on issues central to environmental, health, and racial justice. P3 holds the promise of expanding the bench of local leaders and innovators working for park and green space equity and jumpstarting a new movement.” —Manuel Pastor, PhD, director of the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute and a grantee of RWJF’s Lead Local Initiative.
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P3 focuses on supporting community-based organizations to build power to take on the policies, institutional practices, and power dynamics that produced park inequities in the first place. P3 seeks to fund local-level, community-driven initiatives to work on issues such as public finance measures for parks and green infrastructure; assessments of park needs and inequities; joint use policies to open school grounds for recreational use; land use policies that facilitate equitable access to parks and green space; community engagement units within government agencies; and anti-displacement protections, among others.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will award grants of up to $500,000 over a 24-month grant period. Awards will be made to up to 14 sites, and the Foundation reserves the right to make more awards should additional funding be made available. Letters of intent are due November 4 by 3PM Eastern. We will invite selected applicants to submit a full proposal in early January 2022, with funding awards to be announced in March 2022. The grant period will start May 15, 2022.
We strongly encourage applications from community-based organizations that are led by people of color and focus on building community power to influence local policy. This includes groups that are already working on local, equity-focused park policy, as well as groups that may be new to this issue but have a history of advancing equity-focused policy on related issues (e.g., built environment, civil rights, climate change, community development, environmental justice, racial justice, water equity, etc.). P3 will fund grantees in urban areas, with a particular interest in small and midsized cities (under 500,000 population).
To learn more about eligibility and selection criteria, and how your organization can apply, please download the Call for Proposals here. Please reach out to P3info [at] rwjf.org (P3info[at]rwjf[dot]org) with any questions. Key dates include:
- September 29, 2021 (1–2:30PM Eastern)
Optional applicant webinar (register here)
- November 4, 2021 (3PM Eastern)
Deadline to submit letter of intent
- January 4, 2022
Selected organizations will be invited to submit a full proposal
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Learn more about People, Parks, and Power
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Park equity—fair and just access to parks and green spaces that are safe, adequately staffed, and well programmed—promotes and protects health by providing people of all ages and abilities opportunities for physical activity, time in nature, social connection, and respite. Parks and green spaces also have climate benefits: they cleanse air, remove pollution, cool temperatures, and filter stormwater. Learn more about our approach to park equity in Prevention Institute’s new paper, Changing the Landscape: People, Parks, and Power, and a companion webinar.
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Prevention Institute is a national nonprofit with offices in Oakland, Los Angeles, Houston, and Washington, D.C. Its mission is to build health equity and racial justice into key policies and actions at the federal, state, local, and organizational level to ensure that the places where all people live, work, play, and learn foster health, safety, and wellbeing.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is the largest philanthropy in the United States dedicated solely to improving health. RWJF is working to build a Culture of Health where everyone in America has a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest life possible.
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) is a national philanthropy supporting people and the planet for a more creative, equitable and sustainable future. Headquartered in New York, DDCF makes grants across six funding areas and oversees two museums and a center for environmental stewardship.
Funding for this project is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundations. |
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