Pocket Parks/Community Gardens
The Foundation has an interest in pocket parks (small parks in neighborhoods designed and managed by persons living in the neighborhoods) with playgrounds and green space for use by area residents, particularly the elderly and young families. Our interest led us to invite Bexar Land Trust dba Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas to our offices for a discussion of this concept. By coincidence, BLT was considering a garden park program and had done some research into this concept. The Foundation elected to facilitate the garden park idea and funded three community meetings and seminars to identify neighborhood interest in small garden parks. By the end of 2015 there were 43 active community gardens with at least one in each city council district with a total investment by the Foundation of close to $830,000.
The parks initiative was extended in 2007 to include a grant to the San Antonio Parks Foundation to fund playscapes at six neighborhood parks in east, south and central locations within San Antonio. These playscapes are ADA compliant projects with climbing apparatus, swings, slides and other amenities children love to play on. This $600,000 program provided more “close to home” places where parents can take their young children to broaden their experiences and contribute to healthy brain development.