Since finishing Design Grants with us, Viola Street Residents Association and North Light Community Center—two nonprofits who received Design Grants from the Collaborative—have been working hard to build partnerships and raise funding. Both groups organized events to advance their projects on Saturday, September 24th.
Viola Alley Connector
Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative partners Viola Street Residents Association and the Centennial Parkside Community Development Corporation introduced the neighborhood and other Philadelphians to the Viola Alley Connector. The pop-up festival brought together partners from across the city in this creative placemaking venture. Read more about the project and its partners here.
The Connector used Viola Street’s alleyway and community garden to connect the neighborhood to Centennial Park, right where the Parkside Edge Neighborhood Park and extensive improvements to the play spaces around Kelly Pool are in the works. The ultimate goal is to make the alley into an active community asset for exploring nature, learning to ride a bike, sharing stories, or play games.
North Light Rain Garden and Poem Path
Manayunk’s North Light Community Center engaged volunteers through Villanova University’s St. Thomas Day of Service to build elements of the Collaborative’s conceptual landscape plan for North Light’s outdoor space. A volunteer work crew dug, painted, and planted to complete the rain garden and start the “poetry path”, a winding path created from a Shel Silverstein poem.
North Light received a $37,500 from the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund and a $10,000 grant from The McLean Contributionship for the project. Villanova University provided both volunteers and plant materials for the project.
