Sprouts | Milwaukee Parks Foundation

A park connected to its community is safer, healthier, more vibrant. And a community connected to its park is safer, healthier, more vibrant.

Sprouts Strategy

With our Sprouts strategy, we invest in grassroots leaders and groups that anchor our parks. Community voices must play an active role in shaping the agenda for their park and our system as a whole. We support the ideas and energy of community park leaders as a form of support for Milwaukee County Parks.

Early examples of this strategy in action include:

Collaboration on community-led mural projects in Rose Park with Friends of Rose Park and Wells Fargo, as well as in Berrien Park with Milwaukee Alliance Against Racism & Political Repression, Lucille Berrien’s family and True Skool.
Partnership with local leaders like Camille Mays and organizations like Nearby Nature MKE, finding new ways to collaborate through continued exchange.
Production of a youth writing competition themed around parks named Lyrics for Our Sanctuaries, yielding both tributes to our green spaces and insight from young creatives.

A black man carrying a bucket near a creek

Amani Youth Council hosting their 2024 Moody Park Chess Competition

A Black woman sitting in the open field of a part using sound bowls

Organizer and healer Camille Mays plays her sound bowls at County Grounds Park.

A young Black teen standing in front of a colorful mural

Rapper, poet and high school student Jonah Denae wrote ‘Beyond These Grounds,’ a poem that was selected as winner of Lyrics for Our Sanctuary.

A group of people smiling while presenting a mural

Friends of Rose Park collaborated with Rozalia and Reynaldo Hernandez to create a community mural which will be installed on the Clinton-Rose Center in spring 2023.

2023/2024 Sprouts Fund Winners

During 2023, we launched an RFP process resulting in 61 applications with over $500,000 in requests. Guided by experienced leaders on our Program Committee, Milwaukee Parks Foundation distributed $100,000 over two years to six grassroots park activation projects connecting to focus areas of Health and Healing, Community Care, and Collective Joy. Grant awards ranged from $5,000 to $8,000 each year and were implemented during 2023 and 2024.

The Sprouts Fund Grant Recipients are:

Activating Sherman Park

Sherman Park Community Association, Friends of Sherman Park, Program The Parks, United Sports Club and Beckum-Stapleton Little League delivered a slate of intergenerational community activities throughout the summer, including tennis, kickball, environmental education, farmers market.

Latino Conservation Week in MKE

Zaynab Baalbaki and collaborators led the first series in Milwaukee celebrating Latino Conservation Week. Events like Biking & Birria, Tacos & Trails, Playing & Paleta, Pájaros y Pan, and Flan y Fotos took place throughout Milwaukee County Parks on Milwaukee’s South Side.

MADD 414 presents Drums Up Guns Down

Milwaukee African Drum and Dance 414 hosted a youth camp focusing on West African drum, dance, and culture throughout Milwaukee County Parks on Milwaukee’s North Side. This project included Drums Up Guns Down drum circles, open to the public.

The Safe Zone

Driven by a powerful purpose to create safe and constructive opportunities for young Milwaukeeans, Trinika Walker and collaborators piloted the Safe Zone camp, which included sports (especially basketball), arts, crafts, and music.

Amani Youth Council and Friends of Moody Park

Led by neighborhood youth, Amani Youth Council and Friends of Moody Park planned various youth activation events at their home park. This included a 3v3 basketball tournament celebrating the life of a council member who passed, events focused on mental wellness and a series of young entrepreneur showcases.

Safe Social Space Community Healing Project

The Village Group continued its presence in Atkinson Triangle Park, built on longstanding relationships and partnerships in the surrounding community. This included a mobile food pantry, community cookouts, youth programming, crisis intervention, and more.

A group of six people. Three are standing, three are sitting on steps around an African drum.

Sprouts Fund grant recipients include, clockwise starting from upper left: Keyon Malone-Jackson (The Village Group), Mabel Lamb (Sherman Park Community Association), Elizabeth Brown (Friends of Moody Park), Trinika Walker (Safe Zone), Ojumire Charleston (Milwaukee Area Drum and Dance) and Zaynab Baalbaki (ZB Consulting)

2022 Sprouts Fund

In 2022, we launched our Sprouts Fund to invest further in this emerging strategy. Guided by experienced leaders on our Program Committee (see below), Milwaukee Parks Foundation invited grassroots groups connected to high-ranked parks on Milwaukee County’s Equity Index to participate in this pilot including Atkinson, Clarke Square, Johnsons, Moody and Walker Square.

We offered grants of $5,000 to support ideas with momentum or requiring resources to get off the ground. Our core question: “Does this project belong to the park’s community?” Without exception, each conversation was brimming with potential. We heard about the desire to gather and play, as well as ambitious and exciting visions for what’s possible. We also discussed the complexities faced by a park, its community and their many stakeholders.

In fall 2022, we gave gifts to Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative, Friends of Moody Park, Northwest Side CDC and The Table. Each collaboration has led to valuable learning for the Milwaukee Parks Foundation and we are grateful to each group for their partnership.

A group of young children posing for the camera with one dressed as Spiderman in the middle

Friends of Moody Park and the Amani Youth Council held their Mask-querade Dance Party in 2022, which included food, games, music, and of course, costumes.

Moody Park

When we approached Friends of Moody Park, chaired by Elizabeth Brown, the Amani Youth Council had just brainstormed a series of community holiday events centered in their park’s pavilion. Throughout the 2022 holiday season, we were able to support their community gatherings for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, each planned and hosted by young leaders from the Amani neighborhood.

A group of people walking in a garden at sunset

Through Foodways & Fieldhands, students from Brown Street Academy will be learning in neighboring Alice’s Garden and Johnsons Park.

Johnsons Park

Alice’s Garden is located on parkland connected to Johnsons Park. We are supporting Venice Williams and The Table’s collaboration with neighboring Brown Street Academy for the Foodways & Fieldhands. This program “invites students and families, of all ethnic backgrounds, to explore the agricultural and culinary traditions of the Africans who were brought to the Americas, and of African American people.”

tree-lined path with park center and playground in the background

A path leading to the pavilion and playground on a beautiful sunny day in Clarke Square Park during summer 2022.

Clarke Square & Atkinson Triangle

Community grows at the speed of trust and in both of these parks, weather and other circumstances did not not cooperate with our original timelines. So we did not rush. We are currently working with our collaborators to remount plans in spring 2023. In both parks, this will include events organized around community resources and needs, with the potential of a new friends group for Clarke Square Park.