In amazing news this week, our client, the Sacramento Parks Foundation, was awarded $6,280,000 in Prop 68 funds for EmPOWERment Park! This amazing park in Sacramento County will include a parking lot with 11 ADA spaces, a round-a-bout, a drop-off zone, welcome signage and a tactile park map, a community garden, a storage shed, an ADA restroom, a barbecue and picnic area, water play, a 2-5 year old play lot, a 5-12 year old play lot, a 5-12 year old custom inclusive play structure, a sensory wall, a bankshot court, court games, an open lawn area, safety fencing, perimeter fencing, a privacy wall, shade sails, landscaping, and lighting.

The land for EmPOWERment Park was generously donated from SMUD! The community-owned electric company donated 1.3 acres of land to the project through their Shine program, a community development program designed to improve and revitalize neighborhoods in the Sacramento region.

O’Dell provided Prop 68 Grant assistance to the Sacramento Parks Foundation. The O’Dell team developed a master plan for EmPOWERment Park, an outreach program (Placemaking Through Play) to maximize grant points, and the actual grant package submitted to the State of California. The park was designed with socially inclusive principles to be a place where people of all abilities and ages can gather to play and recreate.

The community outreach program for this project included interactive Place Making Through Play events to understand and incorporate the needs of the community. Feedback was center stage as we developed a customized plan to best utilize and enhance recreational opportunities. Public outreach included conversations with community members at festivals, events, and schools, a self-guided tour of play addressing all of the needs of people and play, team building activities, and a test-it-out meeting where the public could walk through and experience a demo of the future park.

We feel so lucky to have been able to support the Sacramento Parks Foundation through the grant application process and are excited to hit the ground running on the design! Grant awards were announced this week and we are already moving on this project. We are so happy for our client and the Sacramento community. The Prop 68 grant process is very complex and competitive and the Sacramento Parks Foundation was committed to preparing the best submittal possible to secure funding and build this amazing park for their community!

To learn more about the Sacramento Parks Foundation, visit their website.