MILWAUKEE — Have you ever thought a mural would brighten up your neighborhood park? Or maybe you'd like to plan a community get together. Now's you chance.
The Milwaukee Parks Foundation Sprouts Fund will provide $500 to $10,000 grants for residents across the county to make their park dreams a reality.
You can find the application on the Milwaukee Parks Foundation website. But make sure you hurry up and submit your idea, the deadline is Friday, April 14.
Although this money won't fund something like a splash pad or a whole new basketball court, it does have the potential to add a little beauty or bring a neighborhood together.
"This isn't going to change the total landscape of your park, but it can create a community asset within it," said Milwaukee Parks Foundation Director of Strategic Partnerships Adam Carr.
Some ideas of projects he mentioned are a pollinator garden, a roller skating party at King Park, and bringing food trucks to a park for a free meal for neighbors.
"The ideas that we're going to be most excited about are from the neighbors who use the parks on a daily basis," Carr said.
He said anyone can apply for the funding, whether it's an individual, a community group, or a larger organization as long as the idea is coming from the community the park is located in.
"What we've found is even in some of the parks that need the most love, there's a tremendous amount of love for those parks in the community," Carr said. "The idea here is we know that if we support the community that loves their parks, we're also supporting parks in a really important way."
While they are taking applications for all parks within the county, special attention is placed on parks that rank high on the Milwaukee County Park Equity Index which means they are in communities that have experienced historic disinvestment.
"We are taking that into account as we look at the applications. Parks that rank higher on the index, which means they're in communities that have seen histories of redlining and systemic racism... those are the parks that we're prioritizing," Carr explained.
The Milwaukee Parks Foundation will announce winners in May.
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