Connecting Everyone to the Outdoors in Tennessee!
With the many challenges facing our nation, communities in Tennessee and beyond are eager for solutions. YOU are part of the solution. We are not just dreaming of a healthier, more equitable, more park-accessible future—we are building it.
Over the past year in Tennessee, together we have raised over $7 million in funding, and we were selected for a $19.5 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Change Grant to advance trails linking isolated communities with economic opportunity and natural and cultural treasures in our region. We secured 330 acres to add to the Cherokee National Forest, tripled the size of Lockeland Springs Park, and protected five miles of paddling access along South Chickamauga Creek. We broke ground for our first Tennessee community schoolyard at East Side parks and trail planning.
In our effort to create welcoming places, we engaged over 100 residents through our partnership with University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) researchers to learn how neighbors from differing racial and ethnic backgrounds can strengthen relationships, fostering greater trust and a sense of belonging through shared work improving neighborhood parks.
As volunteer leaders for TPL’s work in Tennessee and the region, we see our philanthropic commitments leveraged 10x through this organization’s public funding expertise. That said, our past successes are important, but our future impact depends on you. We sincerely appreciate your steadfast commitment to connect everyone to the outdoors, as your support is critical.
Elizabeth Hammitt, Volunteer Leadership Committee member
Kirk Walker, Volunteer Leadership Committee member Franklin Farrow, TPL National Board member
WELCOMING TPL’S NEW CEO
We are thrilled to welcome our new President and CEO Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser. She brings a wealth of experience in public policy, philanthropy, the outdoor industry, and community engagement, making her an ideal leader for TPL’s next chapter. Under Carrie’s leadership TPL will amplify our efforts to expand outdoor access through equity, health, climate, and community commitments.
East Side Elementary Schoolyard.
PHOTO BY J. ADAMS
Celebrating TPL’s 30th Anniversary in Tennessee
Our 30th Anniversary event marked a significant milestone in our journey. As we celebrate three impactful decades since opening our Tennessee office in 1994, we reflect on our strong network of TPL supporters who make this work possible and fuel our efforts moving forward.
TPL’s friends, donors, and volunteers came together in April to celebrate the anniversary. The event was a true testament to the magnitude of our work and the strength of our local partnerships. We honored four of our longstanding community partners: TPL’s first Tennessee program manager, Bobby Davenport, and our most generous funder, the Lyndhurst Foundation, were both awarded the Trailblazer Award and Maria Noel and the McKee Family and McKee Foods’ Outdoor Happiness Movement both received the Community Catalyst Award. We rekindled relationships with old friends, made new connections, and had a great time celebrating alongside you.
DONOR SPOTLIGHT
The Lyndhurst Foundation was the first donor to support TPL in Tennessee. They made the foundational gift that allowed TPL to lay down roots in the state in 1994. Since then, the foundation has donated nearly $7 million to advance local greenways, blueways, and parks efforts. These grants have supported everything from staffing, marketing, and mapping to the preservation of portions of Aetna Mountain and Stringers Ridge and the construction of University Greenway, South Chickamauga Creek Greenway, and the White Oak Connector.
We are so grateful for the Lyndhurst Foundation’s continued support and partnership!
Bruz Clark, President of the Lyndhurst Foundation
PHOTOS BY DAN
Community Schoolyards for Park Equity
Whether rural or urban, our Community Schoolyards® program provides a uniquely strategic solution to our nation’s park equity gap. There are more than 90,000 public schools across America, and nearly all include a schoolyard. And yet, across the country, too few schoolyards are open to the public for use during nonschool hours. And an even smaller number—less than five percent—are designed with the kinds of green space and play features that the school and greater community need and deserve.
In Tennessee, TPL is partnering with Hamilton County Schools and the City of Chattanooga’s Department of Parks & Outdoors to launch a Community Schoolyard pilot program. In the 2023–24 school year, we invited the entire East Side Elementary School community— students, teachers, parents, and staff—as well as neighbors
COMMUNITY SCHOOLYARDS
Donate today to grow our community schoolyard efforts in Tennessee to strengthen communities, improve health and education outcomes, and build nature-based climate solutions.
and local partners to make their voices heard. Our process is fun and educational; students gain valuable experience in team building, problem-solving, and critical thinking as they design their schoolyard. And in August 2024, we hosted a groundbreaking event with students and school staff to officially kick-off construction.
Our schoolyard projects promote a healthy lifestyle, reduce educational disparities, and improve educational outcomes while making vulnerable communities more resilient to the impacts of urban heat. According to teachers and school administration, attendance, behavior, and test scores all improve after schoolyard renovations, and we look forward to extending these benefits to students across the state. These park-like spaces are open to the community after school hours and can help address public health, student learning, and urban heat.
With your support, this pilot program will also transform the empty fields at Clifton Hills Elementary and Hardy Elementary in the coming year. Located in priority areas for improved park access, these two schools are primed to become thriving park spaces. School leadership at both schools are motivated to get the community involved in the future of their schoolyards, and we are excited to help them see this vision come to life.
East Side Elementary Schoolyard groundbreaking celebration in August 2024.
PHOTO BY J. ADAMS
Leveraging Public Funds to Strengthen Communities
TPL has a long history and successful track record of helping communities navigate the dizzying array of federal and state grant programs, giving historically marginalized and underfunded communities a better chance at their fair share of support.
In 2024, TPL helped successfully advocate for $6.4 million in federal appropriations for the Alton Park Connector. TPL was also selected for $19.5 million through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Community Change Grants program for the Clifton Hills Alton Park Thread Trail . This 2.6-mile trail network will link South Chattanooga to job and economic opportunity with safe walking and biking option. This effort, first identified as a community priority in 2002, will help reconnect three disadvantaged communities that have been isolated by railroads, highways, and other barriers.
Outside of Chattanooga, the Appalachian Regional Commission awarded a $434,131 grant to Walker County with TPL’s support and local funding to connect pedestrians and cyclists visiting the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and downtown Chickamauga, known as the Battlefield Connector Trail TPL’s partnership with Walker County, Chickamauga, and the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission will achieve a long-held goal to connect the remarkable natural assets throughout north Georgia and the Tennessee Valley.
TPL is able to offer writing and technical assistance for public grant applications at no cost to the city thanks to
TPL pursues projects important to communities large and small. We see exciting opportunities to expand our work in Southern Appalachian communities across the region.
flexible gifts from our donors. In addition, private philanthropic support powers TPL’s ability to apply for, meet the requirements of, and leverage public funding.
Nearly lost to history, the Field—an abandoned municipal cemetery above the White Oak Connector in the City of Red Bank—is the final resting place of at least 2,500 people, including U.S. Colored Troops veterans and Alfred Blount, the first Black man lynched from the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga. Leveraging early support from TPL’s national Black History and Culture program, TPL engaged local experts to illustrate the importance of protecting this place. TPL received a unanimous resolution of support from the Red Bank City Commission to lead this effort to give the buried a proper resting place and correct the wrongs made here in history.
Thanks to you, TPL can leverage philanthropy to accomplish these aims, without the strict timelines and specific rules that come with public funds. We will apply for public funds later to complete this project.
PHOTO BY DOUG STRICKLAND
South Chickamauga Creek Greenway.
Building Welcoming Places
Parks are where people can develop community relationships across social divides and cultivate connections with these places and with each other. With strong relationships and a shared identity as a foundation, parks can spark profound and far-reaching changes in a community’s social fabric.
TPL’s Welcoming Places program, in partnership with researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), is conducting a first-of-its-kind study investigating how parks can bridge divides among diverse communities and ensure everyone feel valued and included.
For this research, we are inviting four cohorts of community members from diverse backgrounds to build a park bench in an “outdoor laboratory” (aka their local park). As these unlikely groups work together to build benches, facilitators guide participants through conversations that encourage them to learn about their neighbor and discuss their relationship with parks and the outdoors. These workshops—aimed at understanding and fostering a sense of belonging in parks—explore how social interactions can affect perceptions of safety, trust, anxiety, and prejudice.
TPL and UMass have already gained several important insights. Initially, 35 percent of focus group participants said “feeling unwelcome” was one of the primary reasons they do not visit their neighborhood parks. But there were marked differences in who feels this way, with 50 percent of participants of color reporting feeling unwelcome compared to 17 percent of white participants. Encouragingly, survey results after the workshops showed a significant increase in the number of participants who felt welcomed in the parks.
The research has also highlighted the importance of interacting with neighbors when fostering empathy, understanding, and a sense of community. In addition, the research shows that inclusive programming helps to break down barriers, build relationships, and create shared experiences that contribute to a sense of belonging for all participants.
Diversity in parks is vital, but if users are not bridging cultural divides, we are missing out on an opportunity. We are using this knowledge in our current projects, creating ways for neighbors to have consistent, face-toface interactions that foster greater belonging and enhance civic engagement among park visitors to promote inclusivity and community cohesion.
TPL’s Park Picture Day with Bridge Refugee Services at Stringer’s Ridge. PHOTOS BY BROOKE BRAGGER PHOTOGRAPHY
South Chickamauga Canoe Launch
Chattanooga is home to world-class parks with breathtaking scenery. But its current system of public parks falls short of equitably delivering the benefits of great park and outdoor systems. That is why, in 2023, the city adopted its first Parks and Outdoors Plan (POP) in over 25 years. The plan will guide park investment and creation to ensure all residents have close-to-home access to high-quality parks, green spaces, and recreational facilities.
The POP proposes 34 new parks across the city to ensure every household in Chattanooga has a park within a 10-minute walk of home. TPL is proud to have helped the city acquire its first new park for this vision.
The 12-mile South Chickamauga Creek Blueway offers adventurers a Class 1 paddling experience, perfect for first time paddles. But with limited launch points and a five-foot-high sewer pipe downstream obstructing the creek near Brainerd Road, the full journey from Camp
Jordan can be long and challenging. Thanks to state and local funding and TPL’s expertise, a new canoe launch is coming soon.
Situated roughly halfway along the creek (between miles six and seven), the new canoe launch will allow paddlers to embark on a scenic five-mile journey downstream, avoiding the sewer pipe obstruction. This site offers a practical mid-point for paddlers who do not want to commit to a full day on the creek, providing an easily navigable afternoon of fun.
Construction on the property is set to begin within the year and is expected to be completed in summer 2025. Funding was provided by a State of Tennessee Heritage Conservation Trust Fund grant, the City of Chattanooga, and donations from the Tennessee Valley Canoe Club, a grassroots paddling advocacy partner.
South Chickamauga Creek Greenway.
PHOTO BY BROOKE BRAGGER PHOTOGRAPHY
THANK YOU for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in Tennessee and beyond.
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE
Franklin Farrow,* Morning Pointe Senior Living
Julia Bursch , UTC Research Institute
Cory Gearrin , Hamilton County Government
Ginny Kelly, Bad Beard Events
Allen McCallie, Miller and Martin
Rob Taylor, CityScape Development Services
Caroline Walker, Chase Bank
Kirk Walker, Educational Consultant
Nicole Watson , HK Law
Flossie Weill , retired
Elliott Davenport , retired
Rachel Pohl , Unity Technologies
Elizabeth Hammitt , EPB
Ethan Collier, Collier Construction
Scott Wilson , Independent School Management
* Also serves on National Board
Noel Durant AVP, Tennessee State Director noel.durant@tpl.org 423.402.5909
Nicole Blackshear Southeast Region Director of Philanthropy nicole.blackshear@tpl.org
1810 E. Main Street #200 Chattanooga, TN 37404 Join us
10 years Stringer’s Ridge celebration