{"id":713,"date":"2016-09-21T14:01:17","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T19:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sparkpark.org\/?p=713"},"modified":"2016-09-23T23:26:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T04:26:10","slug":"spark-receives-5-million-grant-from-houston-endowment-kinder-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparkpark.org\/wordpress\/spark-receives-5-million-grant-from-houston-endowment-kinder-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"SPARK Receives $5 Million Grant from Houston Endowment & Kinder Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPARK is honored to be the recipient of a record $5 million donation from Houston Endowment<\/a> and Kinder Foundation<\/a>, to be used to increase park equity in the Houston-Harris County area. Each foundation will contribute $2.5 million dollars over the next three years to construct 30 SPARK parks in \u201cpark desert\u201d areas of the county.<\/p>\n

The City of Houston has also pledged an additional $450,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding toward the project.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five new parks and five re-SPARKS of existing parks will be included in the initiative. Schools will be selected from park desert sites identified through a park evaluation conducted by The Trust for Public Land<\/a>. A park desert is defined to be more than one-half mile or a ten-minute walk from an existing park.<\/p>\n

The first nine sites include:<\/p>\n