You're invited: Introduction to Trauma Informed Engagement and the Anacostia River
The Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative is hosting a free capacity building workshop featuring an introduction to trauma-informed community engagement led by experts from the National Council for Behavioral Health. Participating in this free training will help your organization improve the quality and impact of your services, increase participation in programs, enhance engagement, and avoid staff burnout and turnover. Participants will build their capacity to engage with communities that have the most to gain from the many valuable benefits that parks, programming and being outdoors can provide. Lunch provided. Learn more and register here.
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An Update on the Anacostia River Sediment Project: the Plan to Clean Up the River Bottom
The Anacostia River Sediment Project (ARSP) is the plan to clean up the bottom of the Anacostia River. The sediment (soil at the bottom of the river) has potentially harmful pollutants in it from past abuse, and the ARSP will lay out a plan to make the river bottom safe for humans and other creatures.
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Summer fun at our Late Skate events in Anacostia Park—and more to come!
Hundreds of people have attended the two “Late Skate” events in Anacostia Park this June and July, free community celebrations that are part of a shared effort between the National Park Service and the Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative to engage residents of Ward 7 and Ward 8 in meaningful events and programming.
Each event has featured local DJs and radio personalities, free roller skate rentals, field games, facepainting, free family portraits and more. The next Late Skate event is scheduled for August 24, and the theme will be “Dancing to the Future,” featuring hand dancing, DJ Spirit, live music by the band “Bela Donna,” and park visions for the future. In September, October and November, these events will continue and will feature more activities hosted by our member organizations and other partners!
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You can have access to $1,800 for your child's college education through new program launched by 11th Street Bridge Park and Capital Area Asset Builders
Starting today, Ward 8 families with a student in a Ward 8-based elementary or middle public, private or charter school can enroll in EduSaveDC and receive as much as $1,800 in the next 12 months to help save for a child's college education. This program is run by Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) in collaboration with the 11th Street Bridge Park, a project of the Ward 8 non-profit Building Bridges Across the River.
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Bridge Park's Irfana Jetha Noorani to be featured on Next City webinar
Irfana Jetha Noorani is the Deputy Director of the 11th Street Bridge Park project with Building Bridges Across the River, a member of the Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative. She will be featured in an upcoming national webinar on August 7 at 1:00 PM titled, “How a Park Can Prevent Cultural Gentrification.”
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Comment Now: How can Shepherd Parkway better serve the neighborhood?
The NPS is hosting a public open house about the future of Shepherd Parkway on July 10, 2019, but in the meantime you can submit comments about the project here.
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Comment Period Extended: Bridge to the National Arboretum from Kenilworth
Residents of Kenilworth, Eastland Gardens, Parkside, Mayfair and surrounding neighborhoods could be able to walk from their homes to the National Arboretum with a new proposed pedestrian bridge that would cross the Anacostia River at Kenilworth Park.
Some river users have voiced their concerns about the bridge, primarily that the footings would block boat traffic. You can read more about the issues in this article. One proposed compromise would be to design the bridge as a “clear span” bridge, with no footings in the river, which would be more expensive but not block any boat traffic. The planners have extended the comment period for the project.
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Spending at least two hours a week in nature may be a crucial threshold for promoting health and wellbeing, according to a new large-scale study.
New research shows that people who spend at least 120 minutes in nature each week are significantly more likely to report good health and higher psychological wellbeing than those who don’t visit nature at all during an average week.
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Meeting Recap: Meaningful Engagement in Anacostia Park
On June 11, the Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative hosted an online meeting about its new initiative to build a cohort of organizations focused on meaningfully engaging Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents in Anacostia Park programming.
The Collaborative is dedicated to maximizing the value of Anacostia Park and other parts of the Anacostia River corridor for Ward 7 and 8 residents, and one of the most significant ways to make the corridor relevant to people’s lives is through events and activities. That’s why we are launching our Events, Programming and Outreach affinity group!
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Dennis Chestnut wins River Hero award at River Rally 2019 in Cleveland
River Network is an organization that hosts an annual conference, River Rally, and connects nonprofit organizations and government agencies working on river issues across the country. This year at River Rally in Cleveland, OH, River Network honored a local champion of the Anacostia River, Dennis Chestnut.
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Improving access to parks with public art and temporary streetscape improvements - Recap of the community walk to Kingman Island
On a recent Saturday morning, I joined a handful of residents from DC’s River Terrace and Kingman Park neighborhoods on a community walk to Kingman Island. We were brainstorming ways to improve the connection from these neighborhoods to Kingman Island, one of two beautiful island parks lying between these two neighborhoods on opposite shores of the Anacostia River.
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Meeting Alert - Proposed Bridge from Kenilworth Park to the National Arboretum - May 21 and 22, 6:30pm
The Department of Transportation and the National Park Service have been working on plans for a bridge that will connect the Kenilworth Park area across the Anacostia River to the National Arboretum.
This pedestrian and bicycle bridge would help connect the neighborhoods of Mayfair, Kenilworth, Parkside, Eastland Gardens and River Terrace get access to the National Arboretum much more easily. DDOT hopes to complete the bridge by 2021.
Do you have thoughts about the bridge design or location? Do you have other concerns? Attend a DDOT public meeting and share your voice on May 21 or May 22.
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May 23 - Join APACC for a conversation with DOEE about supporting community efforts to improve our streams and rivers
Do you want to learn more about getting a rain garden or rain barrel installed on your property? Are you interested in grants that support projects to improve water quality? Do you want to learn more about the Chesapeake Bay watershed and what DC is doing to improve it?
The Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative is co-hosting a meeting this Thursday, May 23, from 6:00-8:00PM with Washington Parks and People (an APACC member) on these topics. The Department of Energy and Environment will be there to learn from you how their programs can best serve your community while cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay through its “Watershed Improvement Plan.”
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Learn more about the Policy Innovation Lab on April 29 at THEARC
The McCourt Policy Innovation Lab is a graduate student initiative of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, and the group is a member organization of APACC. The PIL is hosting a year-end presentation on Monday, April 29th from 4-5: 30 pm at the ARC Community Meeting Room (1901 Mississippi Ave SE Suite #101) on. The event is an opportunity for the Policy Lab to share their work and learn from the community as they continue their efforts to support racially equitable, socially just, and community-centric policies in D.C.'s Wards 7 & 8.
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Small grants available for work in nine neighborhoods of Ward 8
Neighbor-to-Neighbor is a small grants program that was launched in 2019 to provide funding for community-based groups and organizations that are located in and/or serve in the following Ward 8 communities: Anacostia, Buena Vista, Fort Stanton, Garfield Heights, Hillsdale, Knox Hill, Stanton Oaks, The Vistas, and Woodland. The program’s design, implementation, and decision-making is driven by DC residents who either live or work in communities in Ward 8. Learn more here, and apply here by May 31, 2019.
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Just 20 minutes of contact with nature will lower stress
A new study released this month says that taking “at least 20 minutes out of your day to stroll or sit in a place that makes you feel in contact with nature will significantly lower your stress hormone levels.”
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