PHILADELPHIA PA (December 19, 2025) – Feet First Philly and Clean Air Council, in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, have announced the recipients of the sixth round of Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant awards. These 16 projects seek to improve walkability in neighborhoods across Philadelphia.
Over 70 applications were received for the Public Space Enhancement Program and came from community organizations, businesses, and individuals from all over the city. A selection committee made up of past recipients, pedestrian advocates, professionals in public space improvements, and city officials, planners, and designers from multiple departments selected the 16 highest-scoring projects.
All of the funded organizations and their projects are located in communities that have experienced lack of historical investment, or even active disinvestment in their public spaces. Mini-Grant recipients were selected because of their innovative and inspiring community-led proposals that address the challenges of increasing pedestrian access, reducing violence, and improving safety in their respective neighborhoods.
The Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant program has expanded since its inception in 2020. “These projects help to bring communities together to create safer and healthier spaces,” said Titania Markland, Clean Air Council Sustainable Transportation Program Manager. “Through the Mini-Grants, we can give Philadelphians the ability to build their communities in ways that benefit their neighbors.”
“We are excited to invest in 16 community-led projects that support resident-identified solutions to activate our public spaces and help our communities thrive. These projects are rooted in neighborhoods across the city and show the diverse ways we can build and sustain greener, cleaner, and safer spaces for community,” said Dr. Kinnari Chandriani, Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Director at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
The projects selected for funding are:
- Drain Buddies! – This project seeks to match residents of Germantown neighborhoods with their “adopted” storm drains and sidewalks. Volunteers monitor storm drains and remove litter, debris, pollution, and safety hazards. These efforts connect residents to their local environment’s resilience by promoting stewardship of their own communities.
- Steps Toward Resilience: Safe and Walkable Paths for Mill Creek – A New Dawn Incorporated with Tiffany Fletcher Recreation Center and Aspen Farms will improve sidewalks and walkability in the Mill Creek-Parkside neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Improvement initiatives include neighborhood cleanups, crosswalk improvements, community engagement, and more.
- Poetry Garden Parklet – We3 Gardens will transform a corner lot in Haddington into a community green space and pocket park. Raised garden beds will be built by community members and pollinator gardens will be planted. The Parklet will also feature poems printed on benches and containers.
- Friends of Harrowgate Park – This project will install a “StoryWalk” in Harrowgate Park. Pages from children’s books are placed along a walking path, encouraging families to engage in reading together and to explore green spaces. Community volunteers will help select stories, design signage after the pages, and install them along the park path.
- Living Towers: Little Library Planter Boxes – The Korean Community Development Services Center in Olney will be building and installing community library boxes and planters. Anyone can take or leave books in the towers, and the planter libraries will offer further visibility to pedestrians along this corridor.
- Nicetown-Tioga Community Greening Project – This project will revitalize and improve a community garden and implement various workshops led by community members. Programming will include storytelling circles, art workshops, block cleanups, and live performances. The improvements made to this green space will serve as a community hub in the Nicetown-Tioga area.
- Hunting Park United Sidewalk Cleanup – The Park Friends group for Hunting Park will lead community revitalization efforts including street cleanups, tree planting, and maintenance for green spaces.
- Fernhill Park Food Forest Education – Fernhill Park is home to a restored woodland, an established Peace Patch Garden, and a thriving Food Forest. This project seeks to engage the community in the continued support and improvement of the park and all that is home there.
- Mantua Adopt a Planter, Mt. Vernon CDC – Expanding on the 34th Street and Mantua Ave. planter projects in West Philadelphia, this initiative connects community members, business owners, and residents with the already installed planter boxes, continuing their maintenance and engaging the community. This project continues to beautify the corridor and add extra protection for pedestrians.
- Neighborhood Land Power Project – This project will develop a community green space in a vacant lot in the Haddington neighborhood. Seating, planter boxes, lighting, fencing, and pathways will all be installed to cultivate this space and prevent illegal dumping.
- Traffic Calming around Immigrant Markets in FDR Park – The Friends of FDR park will install 60 flexible post barriers along bike lanes in FDR Park that are currently only protected with traffic cones individually placed by park employees each day. This would offer stronger protections for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as vendors at park events, specifically the Southeast Asian Market during busy seasons.
- Ploggin’ the Streets, Philly Track Jawn – Ploggin’ the Street events are community-led neighborhood cleanups, and this program seeks to engage the running communities in north, west, northeast, and southwest Philadelphia areas. Events will include planned runs that pick up litter and clean streets along routes.
- Northern Children’s Service – This project will create an accessible ramp entry to the food pantry located in the Merrick building. The ADA-compliant ramp will increase access to this pantry that offers assistance to underserved communities in north and west Philadelphia.
- NOMO Beautification & Community Resource Signage – This project will install trellises with flowers and plant other greenery, continuing to beautify public spaces in north Philadelphia, and prevent littering on this pedestrian corridor.
- Original American Foundation – This farm expansion will improve a community garden by building a greenhouse, gazebo and picnic areas, planting fruit trees, and installing art. These improvements will facilitate workshops teaching gardening skills and other workshops to promote self-sustainability to residents in southwest Philadelphia.
- The Hunting Park Initiative – Working with Klean Kensington and other community groups, this project will engage community members in the designing, building, and installing of benches along handball courts in Hunting Park.
Quotes from funding recipients:
Shayleen Kennedy, Founder of NOMO stated, “This support allows NOMO to bring much-needed greenery and displays to neighborhoods that deserve beauty, safety, and visibility. These improvements may seem simple, but they create a real sense of calm, pride, and connection for our young people and the Philadelphians who walk past our doors. We’re grateful for the support, the smooth process, and the investment in grassroots, community-based work.”
“Mt. Vernon Manor is proud to bring local businesses, community organizations and caring residents together to continue supporting land stewardship for the Mantua Pollinator Corridor’s Bulbs Not Bullets effort and boost a new hyperlocal marketing platform in our Adopt-A-Planter initiative.” Said Paury Flowers, Deputy Director of the Mount Vernon CDC.
Mike Shipp, Founder and President of Philly Track Jawn said, “This grant gives us a chance to build on what is already working and bring that impact to more neighborhoods in Philadelphia. We want to show communities that their streets matter and that people should feel good moving through the places they call home. Everyone deserves to enjoy the community they live in. But it is hard to feel that joy when you are stepping over trash or dodging cars because the sidewalk is blocked. [After a community clean in West Philly] The energy shifted. That pride came right back.”
“The Healing Garden (est. 2007) and The Unity Garden (est. 2013) are the only public green spaces in our neighborhood—integral sites of walkability, wheelability, rest, respite, and renewal. They help keep residents of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds safe.” Stated GVGK Tang, Operations Manager for the Nicetown-Tioga Improvement Team. “This grant supports the long-term sustainability of these spaces through free, family-friendly programming and the continued growth of our resident-led Garden Corps.”
Sonja Bingham, President of Harrowgate Park said “we’ll use this support to increase foot traffic by beautifying the garden path near our Little Library, stocking it with children’s books, and helping to host a 250th anniversary celebration this summer, as we were one of the sites selected by the City of Philadelphia. We’re grateful for this partnership as we continue making Harrowgate Park a vibrant, welcoming space for all.”
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For more information on this years’ awardees and their projects, visit FeetFirstPhilly.org
The application season for the 6th round of the Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant Program is over!
Thank you to all who applied. Applicants can expect to hear back in early December.
Feet First Philly is a program of the Clean Air Council, and the Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant Program is funded in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
This program has a funding focus on supporting communities that historically have had less investment (or active disinvestment) in the built environment and city services. Feet First Philly seeks projects that improve walkability by making neighborhoods safer and easier to walk and roll in. The program has supported many different types of projects over the past few years, based on the belief that residents know their community best and are the best advocates to identify and carry out public space improvements.
Keep an eye out for award announcements for the 6th round of this program!
Read about past mini-grant recipients:
First year of mini-grant projects
Second year of mini-grant projects part 1
Second year of mini-grant project part 2
Third year of mini-grant projects part 1
Third year mini-grant projects part 2
Fourth-year mini-grant projects
Fifth year mini-grant projects
P.S. This blog post can also be found on Feet First Philly’s website
In January 2021, a selection committee made up of Council staff along with professionals and community members from across Philadelphia selected the top seven projects to award mini-grants ranging from $500 to $2000. The grants were awarded earlier this year and the projects have been recently completed.
Some of the highlights include:
Chew and Chelten CDC completed a mural painting on a long time newsstand that had shut down. The work was performed by a local artist (Sarafina Harris), who did an excellent job depicting local residents, and community members had input into the design.
The Cobbs Creek Ambassadors used funding to purchase supplies and start up kits to complete regular clean-ups along the Cobbs Creek Trail. Collectively, the ambassadors collected over 1.9 tons of garbage throughout the year, and have been leaders in neighborhood stewardship of the Trail.
The Enterprise Center CDC will be creating mini-libraries outside the Blackwell Library to facilitate a more friendly pedestrian environment that will promote more engagement with the library and other resources they provide.
Centennial East Parkside CDC hosted a Black Men’s Conference during the weekend of Juneteenth, where they used the opportunity to survey neighbors about their walkability experience within the community. They collected data that will be helpful in addressing walkability and other issues in the neighborhood.
Kensington Neighborhood Association is completing a major reconstruction of a severely damaged sidewalk along their neighborhood garden. This project will improve accessibility to the garden as well as general pedestrian travel within the area.
The Council is excited to announce that Feet First Philly is partnering with the Department of Public Health again in 2021 to provide funding for mini-grants to create and improve public spaces, particularly in underserved communities. Mini-grants between $500 and $2000 will be awarded to address the financial and technical barriers that organizations face when creating or improving safe public spaces. Grant money can be used to support public space projects, including construction materials, educational materials, event costs, insurance, stipends, staff time, or other needs.
Check out the page here to learn more about the mini-grant program, download the RFP, and view a recent webinar from Council staff on the program. Applications are due November 8th, and interested applicants are encouraged to contact feetfirstphilly@cleanair.org or Titania Markland, Transportation Outreach Coordinator, at tmarkland@cleanair.org to discuss their projects.
July, 5, 2021 – Communities identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Environmental Justice communities are more likely to experience issues that negatively impact pedestrian safety and result in higher rates of pedestrian fatalities from traffic crashes. According to PennDot, fatal or serious injuries from crashes are three times more likely to occur in low income communities and 30% more likely to occur in communities of color. These communities face real challenges to pedestrian safety including poor sidewalk conditions, lack of access to green space, and under funding for maintenance and safety enhancements.
Sidewalks are the foundation for walkability, and sidewalk condition is a major factor in deciding how people travel. Philadelphia has hundreds of miles of sidewalks in poor condition, with no concrete plan to fix them. The Council and its volunteer pedestrian advocacy group Feet First Philly work to improve the pedestrian environment in every neighborhood, protect the rights of pedestrians, and encourage walking as a mode of transportation, exercise, and recreation through public education, outreach, advocacy, and technical assistance to communities.
In 2020, Feet First Philly launched a sidewalk campaign to fund sidewalks like streets. Currently, homeowners are responsible for costly sidewalk repairs, which forms a barrier and liability for many residents who cannot afford to fix damaged sidewalks. Feet First Philly’s sidewalks campaign asks the city to set aside $500,000 to hire a full time sidewalks coordinator, conduct a sidewalk master plan, and create sidewalk repair funding strategy, as recommended by a 2018 Sidewalk Policy Transportation Community Development Initiative (TCDI) to the Office of Transportation & Infrastructure Systems.
Feet First Philly and the Council advocated for the sidewalk campaign through an op-ed in the Inquirer calling for the city to take action, by meeting with Councilmembers in preparation for budget season, and sending an action alert urging Mayor Kenney and City Council to fund sidewalks in the next budget. This spring, the Council and Feet First Philly joined 24 organizations advocating for Livable Communities budget requests, including dedicated funding for Vision Zero, transit, and sidewalks.
In addition to this budget campaign, the Feet First Philly Pedestrian Advocacy Guide connects people to city agencies and helps them navigate services to address safety concerns. Feet First Philly also developed two walk audit tools to engage residents, neighborhood leaders, students, and stakeholders to identify risks to pedestrians and connect residents to resources that can address these concerns.
Highway design that prioritizes vehicle speed over pedestrian safety is a legacy issue that disproportionately affects communities of color in Philadelphia. Pedestrians accounted for just 7% of people involved in crashes from 2014 to 2018, but made up 40% of people killed in crashes during this period. Highly trafficked roads like Cobbs Creek Parkway make up the High Injury Network, the 12% of all Philadelphia roads that claim 50% of all traffic deaths and severe injuries.
For the past two years, the Council has connected residents, stakeholders, elected officials, and city agencies to work together to address the largest hurdle to accessing Cobbs Creek Park and Trail, which is the dangerous Cobbs Creek Parkway. The Parkway is a physical and mental hurdle for residents trying to access the park and connected trails and dangerous speeds, reckless driving, and lack of safe crossings are barriers that make the park and trail difficult and dangerous to visit. Tragically, the lives of three people were taken along the Parkway in the past year.
The Council partnered with Cobbs Creek residents to address their concerns and demand change. This resulted in the installation of speed hump and delineator posts. The Council continues to advocate for safety upgrades, and the City recently applied for funding to install new state of the art pedestrian crossings along Cobbs Creek Parkway. These would fill crossing gaps that stretch more than a mile and a half long and increase accessibility to this important trail and greenspace in one of the most dense areas of the city.
For more information contact Will Fraser, Transportation Project Manager, wfraser@cleanair.org
