People for Parks recently promoted Carrie Sutkin to Programs Director. Her main responsibilities continue to be the Community School Parks Program for which she received two grants and a third is pending. Community School Parks: there are a total of our LAUSD elementary school campuses whose playgrounds will become parks in 2011 thanks for People for Parks, Board President Monica Garcia, LA City Councilman Tom LaBonge and the Joint Use Division Director, at LAUSD Ana Lasso. Thanks also go to Blue Green Landscape Architecture and Hydrologic Engineering firm, Principals: Lynne Dwyer and Martin Kammerer, for their sustainable design, which formed the basis for the LAUSD prototype Community School Park.

Green Teams: Federal Representative Xavier Becerra assisted People for Parks with an earmark grant for $165,000 for a training program for at risk youth, to become trained park and recreation supervisors at the new Community School Parks.

Another recognition of the importance of Community School Parks, came in the approval by the State for a $250,000 planning grant to People for parks, for the Pico Union area. The study will look not only at elementary school playgrounds as prospective community school parks, but it will also look at ways the city and planning department and County health department can assist in making joint use a reality at more inner-city existing schools, and by improving those urban landscapes by appropriating adjacently owned public -lands as open green spaces for trails and passive uses.

A third Grant for $1,7500,000 in State Bond funds, to augment the proposed Trinity Community School Park, so that it serves as a regional and neighborhood park, is pending final recommendation.

Tags :