Renew America Success Stories

Pittsburgh Park and Playground Fund

Description

The Pittsburgh Park and Playground Fund (PPPF) was established in 1936 by a group of prominent citizens to provide healthful outdoor recreation in Pittsburgh. The Fund currently works to improve the quality of life of less-advantaged Pittsburgh residents by involving them more closely with nature, outdoor activities and urban amenity through the creation of community gardens, floral plantings, parklets and playgrounds. The Fund also funds park planning studies and the purchase of greenway areas.

PPPF funds its projects by identifying a potential project that already has strong support from dedicated members of the community. PPPF then helps implement the initial project by providing materials, services and/or funds. The receiving party is then responsible for carrying out and maintaining the project. By identifying projects that already have community support and by ensuring that volunteers maintain a sense of ownership, PPPF has enjoyed an extraordinarily high project success rate.

The benefits of the PPPF program are numerous. People who participate in the local community gardens are rewarded by seeing formerly junk-filled and littered vacant lots bloom, and they benefit from the consumption of healthy food, outdoor exercise, contact with nature and interaction with neighbors.

Flowerbeds and parklets help protect groundwater and reduce runoff. Greenways established on Pittsburgh's steep hillsides help preserve forests, stop runoff, alleviate air pollution and heat buildup, and preclude public expenditures on steep roadways, walls and other infrastructures that would be necessary without the greenways.

Program Highlights

Program Details

• The Fund capitalizes on enthusiasm for neighborhood projects by making small grants and delivering materials quickly.
• The Fund believes that by requiring "sweat equity" from volunteers, a higher degree of commitment and success will be achieved. In order to foster such an environment, the Fund, for example, requires that all community gardeners install their own fences rather than hiring a contractor to do the work.
• In building urban "parklets," the Fund originally identified and converted abandoned, litter-strewn lots. In cases where a committed group of volunteers was not identified simultaneously, the lots quickly became garbage-strewn again. The Fund now supports only projects in which individuals have been identified who will make a commitment to a particular plot of land.
• In order to ensure that floral displays are adequately cared for -- weeding, watering and trash pick up must occur twice a week -- volunteers are paid an honorarium of $250 - $1,000 per season in three installments.

• More than half the funding for the program comes from government funds.
• PPPF staff work with city officials to participate in the planning process and to ensure an ongoing, positive relationship with city officials.

Vital Statistics

Program Management/Partnerships: The Pittsburgh Playground Fund is governed by the Conservancy Board of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. The Fund has formed partnerships with numerous organizations, businesses and agencies including the Allegheny County Department of Parks, Recreation & Conservation; the City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning; the Pittsburgh Housing Authority; the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh; the Allegheny Conference on Community Development; the American Steel Spring Company; the Glad Corporation; the H.J. Heinz Corporation; the Sarah Scaife Foundation; ACTION-Housing; the A.M.E. Brown Chapel Church; the Beltzhoover Neighborhood Association; the Creative Recycling Center; the Homewood-Brushton Clean-Up Coalition; the Junior League of Pittsburgh; the Neighborhood Centers Association; the Polish Hill Civic Association; the South Side Arts and Crafts Association and the Warrendale Youth Center.

Budget: The Fund has an endowment of approximately $1.4 million with $250,000 in annual expenses. Close to $2 million has been spent on more than 370 projects during the Fund's history.

Community Served: The diverse 370,000 residents of Pittsburgh, particularly the disadvantaged.

Measures of Success:

The Fund has helped establish 178 community gardens, 62 floral plantings, 71 "parklets" and 65 playgrounds.

By comparing other programs presented at the annual meetings of American Community Gardening Association, PPPF estimates that they are able to complete projects with one fifth the staff and money required by other urban nonprofit agencies.

Success stories designed by Mark Nowak

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