Trust for Public Land in Pennsylvania - 2023

Pennsylvania

THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN 2023 AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD

Celebrating 50 Years of Impact, Thanks to You!

Since the beginning, Trust for Public Land’s vision has been rooted in a singular belief: that access to the outdoors is essential to people’s well-being. What started as a bold idea in a small San Francisco office 50 years ago has blossomed into a nationwide movement to ensure everyone, no matter where they live, can experience nature’s countless gifts. At this special milestone, we celebrate the incredible network of TPL advocates who make our work possible and catalyze our future efforts.

With your support, we have built more than twenty parks and Community Schoolyards™ in Philadelphia and Camden, and five more are currently in progress. These are places that bring neighbors of all generations together and foster a love for the outdoors, while uplifting local economies and delivering critical, nature-based solutions in the face of climate change.

And we are just getting started! It is an exciting time to be a part of the TPL community as we look to new

opportunities to connect to nature, our histories, and each other. In addition to our ongoing work in Philadelphia and Camden, our first Community Schoolyards projects in Scranton and Pittsburgh are now underway. We are preserving important Black history and culture sites in Delaware, and we have hired our first regionally dedicated Pennsylvania Land Protection Manager to help safeguard our region’s beloved landscapes.

With your enduring support, we will continue to build parks and protect land, making Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware healthier and more equitable places

© ELYSE LEYENBERGER

Black History and Culture

There are almost 95,000 sites across the United States that have earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, yet just 3 percent of these sites focus on the experiences of Black Americans. For years, TPL has worked to change that by helping preserve and create public access to outdoor spaces that tell the story of Black life in America.

Since TPL’s inception, we have protected numerous Black history and culture sites throughout the country, including over a dozen properties around Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth home near downtown Atlanta, Georgia. And our efforts continue to expand. We are currently working to establish a new visitor center in Nicodemus, Kansas, the oldest—and only remaining—Black settlement west of the Mississippi River. Additionally, we are restoring and preserving the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi, honoring the

extraordinary legacy of prominent civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and allowing local residents and visitors to experience and learn from his impact and story firsthand.

In our region, TPL is exploring a partnership with Mother African Union Church and New Castle County on the preservation of Mount Olive Burial Grounds . For much of its history, Mount Olive was the only cemetery in Delaware where Black people were allowed to be buried. Established in 1862, it is the final resting place of many prominent educators, doctors, reverends, musicians, and war veterans. Working with members of the Mother African Union Church congregation, the local Wilmington community, and descendants of those buried at Mount Olive, we are creating a sustainable stewardship plan to protect these significant grounds from development and decay, and ensure that future generations can experience and engage with the site’s history.

Visitors outside the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park in Atlanta, GA © CHRISTOPHER T. MARTIN

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Community Schoolyards: Coming Soon to a Town Near You

Delaware and Cooper Rivers, will become a showpiece for our work in Camden for years to come. In addition to these exciting schoolyard renovations, this year TPL received a $1.1 million grant from the State of New Jersey, which will result in new trees being planted across three Camden parks and two public housing complexes Planting starts this fall and will be complete in 2026.

Scranton. Working with our partners at Valley in Motion, a local nonprofit dedicated to building a vibrant, connected Lackawanna Valley, TPL is transforming the concrete lot at John F. Kennedy Elementary School into an amazing play space. The student-led design process is complete, and we look forward to opening the schoolyard in 2024. Our work at Kennedy is the first of three planned projects in Scranton. We will start hands-on design activities at Whittier Elementary this fall.

Community Schoolyards improve quality of life for students in every context. Having access to nature-rich spaces provides abundant opportunities for recreation, education, social connection, and communion with nature. Once barren asphalt lots, these new community parks promote student health, improve grades, and contribute to climate resiliency by reducing urban heat and capturing stormwater through enhanced tree canopies and floodresistant landscaping. Camden, Scranton, and Pittsburgh deserve all the benefits these transformed schoolyards will bring to their communities.

Camden. Guided by the recommendations of our Camden Parks and Open Space Plan, TPL has transformed schoolyards at Rafael Cordero Molina and Cooper’s Poynt Family Schools, adding amenities like basketball courts, play equipment, and rain gardens. These schoolyards not only help students and the nearby community play safely, they manage stormwater in some of Camden’s most flood-prone areas. A third schoolyard at Mastery High School of Camden, located at the confluence of the

Pittsburgh. For our first Community Schoolyards project in Pittsburgh, we are working with Greenfield Elementary School to turn their asphalt parking lot into a natural green space full of shade trees and dynamic play equipment. In addition to providing an inviting, healthy place for students, the schoolyard will be open for recreation to the over 2,500 people who live within a 10-minute walk of this historic school. More than 90 percent of Pittsburgh residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. However, not all parks are created equal. Residents in neighborhoods of color have access to 49 percent fewer park spaces per person than those in white neighborhoods. Our schoolyard renovations are leveling the playing field in Pittsburgh, ensuring everyone—no matter where they live—has equitable access to great parks.

JOIN US

Help us create nature-rich schoolyards that improve student health and educational outcomes by supporting TPL’s Community Schoolyards Fund!

© ANDY RICHTER

10 Years of Impact

In TPL’s 50th anniversary year, we also celebrate 10 years of deeply impactful work in Philadelphia. It was in 2013 that our team first met students and community members at Edwin M. Stanton School to discuss the transformation of their asphalt schoolyard into a welcoming neighborhood gathering place. Since then, we have created 12 vibrant green spaces at schools in Philadelphia , with three new Community Schoolyards set to open in the coming year. This work would not be possible without the passion, advocacy, and fundraising efforts of partners like Chase Lenfest and North10 Philadelphia.

Powerful Partnerships

North10 Philadelphia is a community-focused foundation that grew from the commitment and vision of TPL partner Chase Lenfest and the H. Chase Lenfest Foundation. In 2007, the Foundation reclaimed unused land and transformed it into the Lenfest Center—a 52,000 square foot neighborhood community center. Since then, North10’s impact has expanded across the entire Hunting Park-East Tioga neighborhood of North Philadelphia, where they facilitate resident-driven revitalization initiatives that foster economic growth, increase housing options,

enhance learning opportunities, and promote health.

When it came time to bring much-needed green space to the dilapidated schoolyard at nearby Mary McLeod Bethune School , North10 was the perfect partner to help bring that vision to life. We sat down with Chase Lenfest to learn more about why he and North10 are partnering with TPL at Bethune.

You’ve devoted more than 15 years of your time and support to the Hunting Park-East Tioga community that surrounds the Lenfest Center. What changes have you seen over that time? Hundreds of kids come to the Lenfest Center for programming, where they receive a plethora of afterschool options: sports, education, computer learning, dance classes, chess, and so much more. They are in a safe environment that enriches their life. We see firsthand how much we are helping these kids to be happier and more productive. We are instilling a sense of confidence in their futures.

North10 has expanded from the Lenfest Center and has adopted Bethune School’s entire district, which includes more than 7,000 residents. This allows us to focus our efforts on improving everything from housing and employment opportunities to making quality food more accessible and affordable.

What still needs to be done? We are building 41 affordable homes across from Bethune School in an area that used to be a notorious haven for illegal activity. We are working with TPL to build a beautiful, publicly accessible schoolyard at Bethune that will replace a run-down, unsafe playground. We have made a big difference and will do so many times over in the coming years.

What excites you the most about bringing a Community Schoolyard to Bethune School? Seeing the kids being kids—running and playing on the new, safe playground— that will bring tears to my eyes. The community surrounding the school will also benefit greatly, and they deserve it.

© JENNA STAMM

Chase Lenfest © NORTH10

MEET THE TPL PENNSYLVANIA TEAM

Owen Franklin, Vice President, Pennsylvania State Director

Elizabeth Class-Maldonado, Pennsylvania Program Director

Justin Dennis, Camden Program Director

Kari Sannino, Philadelphia Program Manager

Abi Mlo, Stewardship and Engagement Coordinator

Charlie Baranowski, Institutional Giving Manager

Jon Goff, Pennsylvania Director of Philanthropy

Ellen Lott , Pennsylvania Land Protection Manager

for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in Pennsylvania and beyond.

We could not do this without you.

Pennsylvania offers a bounty of nature—vibrant streams and vast forests, wildflowers and wildlife, songbirds, and scenic vistas. TPL is committed to preserving these special places that offer connection to the wonders of the world around us. Currently, we are working to protect a unique property in the Pocono Mountains that links a tucked-away town with a popular rail trail in scenic Lehigh Gorge. As a TPL supporter, your generosity ensures we can conserve this special place so that future generations of Pennsylvanians can experience its splendor firsthand.”

Ellen Lott, Pennsylvania Land Protection Manager

TOP: © JENNA STAMM; © JON GOFF; © JENNA STAMM; LARGE: © JENNA STAMM; THIS PAGE: © TPL STAFF/ELYSE LEYENBERGER