Equitable Community-Designed Outdoor Spaces

This funding opportunity supports planning grants to inform the design and construction of outdoor spaces, such as playgrounds and parks across Colorado that allow children, youth and families to become co-designers of their own reimagined spaces for physical activity while fostering a sense of community, agency and belonging.

Race is a central consideration for the development of healthy communities. Effective strategies that engage all youth, especially youth of color, must recognize race and place barriers that impact opportunities to create lifelong physical activity practices. Limited recreation space coupled with safety concerns restricts the physical activity opportunities of communities of color. Families in rural communities also lack outdoor amenities and safe places to play. Often, the areas with the least access to public play spaces are the most stressed. Rarely are spaces provided for intergenerational physical activity and cohesion in rural communities.

This funding opportunity prioritizes outdoor spaces that center the needs of communities living on low-income, communities of color and rural communities in Colorado in the pursuit of health equity.

This funding opportunity differs from previous opportunities as it emphasizes a more dynamic planning process for how communities are engaged in designing outdoor spaces. Applicants must undertake a planning process that includes deep community engagement bringing community members together to actively co-design spaces that reflect the community’s needs, history and culture, and encourages positive physical activity and psychological safety. Projects may utilize the Community Engagement Spectrum, Equity-Centered Community DesignTM*, or another relevant model to support the planning and design process. We invite you to work with a program officer to determine the right process for your community project.

Planning funds in the range of $25,000 - $50,000 can be used to support community engagement and co-design activities. Planning grants may include personnel costs, meeting space needs, stipends for community members, administrative costs, meeting materials, translation and interpretation costs, among other needs. Landscape architects selected by the Foundation will provide technical assistance to support communities through the design process, as needed. Costs for this technical assistance will be covered by the Foundation separately from the planning grant.

At the conclusion of planning grants and by invitation-only, projects will be considered for capital grant support for construction of shovel-ready projects. This funding is not guaranteed. We expect that the strength and depth of the community engagement process will yield a competitive project to be considered for implementation funding by the Foundation and other funders.

Proposed projects must reflect the Foundation’s cornerstones. These outline who we serve, how our work is informed and our intent to create health equity.

Have questions? We are here to talk through your ideas and encourage you to connect with us before applying for funding. If you are not already connected with a program officer, please reach out to us by email or phone at 303-953-3600.

Grant Deadline: February 15, 2025. Learn more here.