Partnership for Providence Parks March News 2014

Providence Earth Day Spring Cleaning 2014

The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, The Department of Parks and Recreation, and The Partnership for Providence Parks, along with Providence Neighborhood Planting Partnership, Serve Rhode Island, Whole Foods, USFWS Urban Refuge Partnership, Johnson and Wales University, Ecosystem Restorations, WBRU, RIPTA, and other community partners are thrilled to introduce this year's Earth Day Spring Cleaning events and activities, mostly happening on April 26, 2014:

Avenue Concept
Blackstone Woods
Broad Street
Brown Street Park
Bucklin Park
Cabral Park
CityWALK/Jewelry District
Corliss Park
Davey Lopes Recreation Center and Park
Dexter Training Ground
Elmwood Ave Tree Planting
Fargnoli Park
Father Lennon Park Playground
Gano Street Ball Fields
Gano Street Park
General Street Playground
Gladys Potter Park
Harriet & Sayles/Mary Fogarty School
India Point Park
Joslin Park and Orchard
Manton Bend Garden
Murphy Trainor Park
Neutaconkanut Hill
Neutaconkanut Recreation Area
Patterson Park
Peace and Plenty Park
Roger Williams Park
Save The Bay Center
The Wild Place
Viscolosi Park
Waterplace Gardens
Waterplace Park
West Elmwood Housing Development: Superior, Diamond and Hill Streets
Westminster Street 6/10 underpass
Woonasquatucket River Greenway/Riverside Park
Zuccolo Recreation Center and Knight Street Park
And more!

All volunteers who register through Serve Rhode Island will receive t-shirts, brunch and freebie buttons for: RIPTA rides, Zoo, Botanical Center and Museum of Natural History admissions, and more.

Thank you to all the Park Friends, conservancies, sports teams, artists, recreation centers, and neighborhood organizations for hosting these events!

Brown University Class Works with Friends

Welcome to Olutoye Adegboro and Genna Sinel, Brown University students who will be working with several of our Friends Groups as part of a class on community engagement: Peace and Plenty Park, Bucklin Park, Corliss Park and Viscolosi Park. Thank you Genna and Toye!

Summer Lunch in your Park

Summer is coming soon and you may be thinking about how to provide meals to your youth while school is out. The good news is that the City of Providence’s Department of Parks and Recreation serves free meals throughout the summer, Monday through Friday. There are no income requirements, and any child under age 18 may participate.

Are you are interested in learning more about receiving free meals for your children? If yes, please contact Azade Perin at aperin@providenceri.com or 401-421-7740 x490 to talk about becoming a summer meals site.

If you know any organization that might be interested in this resource, please forward the information to them and ask them to contact Azade. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to making sure all of our children have a fun and healthy summer!

Some Dates For March

Wednesday, March 5, 6-7:30, Quarterly Friends and Community Partners Meeting, PC Annex 231 Douglas Ave; On the agenda, Peter Asen, Director of the Healthy Communities Office to speak about: Smoking in our Parks, Summer Fitness in our Parks, Playful Providence Kick-Off and summer, Earth Day, and the usual fun and networking. Bring your park group!
Thursday, March 6, 11-12:30, Winter Workshop: Community Gardens in our Parks. Please note, This location has changed and is now at South Side Community Land Trust, 109 Somerset Street, Providence, 02909 HERE
Tuesday, March 11, 6:30-8:00 PM, Winter Workshop: Roger Williams Park Museum of Natural History, 1000 Elmwood Ave, Providence, RI 02907, HERE
March 14, 2014 at 4pm, The deadline to submit proposals for Neighborhood Performing Arts grants (larger parks larger projects) March 28 Deadline for smaller sights and sounds. Please email wendy@providenceparks.org if you have questions about which grant you should apply for.
Saturday, March 22, 9 am-12 noon, Winter Workshop: Urban Refuges, Trustom Pond, 1040 Matunuck Schoolhouse Road South Kingstown, RI 02879 Register for classes HERE.
Friday, March 28 at 4pm, Deadline to submit NPAI Smaller Sights and Sounds grants.
Wednesday, April 2, 5:00-7:00 PM, Winter Workshop: The Basics of Group Sustainability: Grant Writing & Fund Development, and Board Development, RIF 1 Union Street #6 Providence, RI 02903 274-4564 Register for classes HERE.
Tuesday April, 8 6-8pm Winter Workshop: Promoting Play in your Park, Providence Children’s Museum, 100 South Street Providence RI 02903 HERE
Friday, April 11, Earth Day contracts due

PopUP Providence

The Providence Redevelopment Agency and the City of Providence Department of Planning & Development invite proposals for the 2nd year of the City’s “Tactical Urbanism” initiative, PopUp Providence.

Click here for more information and application materials. All PopUp applications are due by 4 pm on March 28, 2014.

Neighborhood Performing Arts Grants

The City of Providence is now accepting proposals for Celebrate Providence! 2014 Neighborhood Performing Arts Initiative (NPAI). The Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, the Department of Parks + Recreation and Partnership for Providence Parks are getting ready for another fun summer of theater, dance, music and live performances in Providence’s communities. Click here for details and application.

Grant applications are also available for the NPAI Smaller Sights and Sounds Series (for smaller or newer parks/groups) to try out some smallerscale performing arts events. Click here for details and application. Please email Wendy if you have any questions about either opportunity.

Providence Parks Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership Designation Ceremony

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Providence Parks & Recreation Department and Partnership for Providence Parks invite you to the Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership Designation Ceremony.

When: May 5th, 2014, 10:30 am
Where: Riverside Park, Aleppo Street, Providence, Rhode Island (adjacent to Riverside Fish Ladder and Fred Lippitt Woonasquatucket River Greenway (Bike Path).
Who: Mayor Angel Taveras, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Janet Coit, RIDEM Director, as well as State Senators and U.S. and State Congressmen, and many other conservation partners.

This designation event will include fun interactive displays and activities from Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuges, USFWS Coastal and Fisheries Programs, the Providence Parks and Recreation Department and the Partnership for Providence Parks. The Nature Conservancy, RI Department of Environmental Management, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council River Rangers, Rhody Native Plants, and Audubon Society of Rhode Island will also have displays and activities. Local school children will be participating in native plant restoration, field investigations and nature games! Please RSVP to April

Save the Dates

The Playful Providence Kick-Off will be Saturday, June 21 from 11am-3pm at India Point Park. Details coming soon.
The Landtrust Alliance Rally will be in Providence from September 17-20.
The Color Run 2014 will be on Sunday, October 5 at Station Park.

Park Mapping

The Partnership and several community partners and city agencies are working on a geographic mapping system for our parks...a sort of one site stop for info on our parks, events, and the groups that care for them. If you are interested in being part of a virtual conversation about what kinds of information we need to include, please email info@providenceparks.org. We would love your input!

March Urban Refuge Update
April Alix, Conservation and Education Coordinator

I recently attended the Rhode Island Environmental Education Association Annual Meeting and met many representatives from schools, businesses and organizations interested in environmental education throughout Rhode Island. Director Peter McLaren gave a presentation on how environmental education can help schools meet the Next Generation Science Standards, recently adapted by Rhode Island. I have also been helping to plan some exciting environmental education activities at a few of our local parks for Earth Day Spring Cleaning! Whether it’s playing a game regarding the decomposition of trash and building trash towers at Blackstone Park or deciding what “second life” our trash could have with the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, we’ll be having fun AND be serving a great cause for the environment! I’ve been in attendance at both board and education committee meetings for some of our local Providence parks and am amazed by all the great programs being planned this upcoming summer. Lastly, our project here in Providence, Rhode Island, was featured in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Wildlife Refuge System: Conserving the Future’s Quarterly Progress Report! This report goes out to over 500 partners nationwide.

Send us your news
Let us know by the first of the month if you have any news you would like to share in our quasi-monthly newsletter.

Past Newsletters
Winter 2013

January News 2014
February News

Partnership Office is Open
The Partnership office is open at 11 West Drive. If you need meeting space, a place to archive your group's materials, a copier, or would like to borrow some pop-up play materials, contact Wendy at wendy@providenceparks.org.

Google Groups
Our tech Guru, Geoff Meek has set up a Google group so that we can chat directly with each other. Our discussion groups are here.
You will need:
- An account with Google (Gmail, etc.)
- To request membership to the Partnership for Providence Parks group.
Once your membership is accepted (takes about 1/2 day), simply respond to one of the existing topics, or click the "New Topic" button at the top of the screen.
Using groups is just like using email, with the benefit that all members can view and respond to your messages. The group is also searchable, so you can find out what has been discussed in the past.
If you haven't signed up yet, or are having trouble with it, let Wendy know.

Facebook
Keep sending us your events and pics so we can post them. Oh..please LIKE and FRIEND us. There are some great pics up now of park events and stories in the news. http://www.facebook.com/PartnershipForProvidenceParks

Grants Available
New England Grass Roots Environmental Fund
If you have or haven't applied for a grant through the New England Grass Roots Fund (NEGEF) www.grassrootfund.org you may want to check them out. They are a great first grant to apply for. I am happy to walk anyone through this process. Seed grants are available for new groups and Grow grants for more established groups who may have already received funding from NEGEF. Go for it!

The Partnership
The Partnership for Providence Parks is a new initiative of the Providence Department of Parks and Recreation. The Partnership is a city-wide public/private non-profit 501(C)3 geared toward helping residents and community partners help our parks be active, vibrant, healthy, playful and unique places.
To learn more about the Partnership, please visit www.Providenceparks.org.