Community Shares 30 Years 30 Stories

For 30 years, Community Shares has been a strong supporter of nonprofits focusing on Social Justice, Animal Welfare and the Environment. Over the coming months, we will be sharing 30 stories from our 30 years of community change.

Creating Positive Spaces with the Center for Resilient Cities

The schoolyard at Brown Street Academy used to be a slab of cracked asphalt.

Then in 2010, the Center for Resilient Cities - in partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools, the Rotary Club of Milwaukee, the Lindsay Heights neighborhood and generous private donors - began its schoolyard greening project. Today the schoolyard is full of life, featuring almost three dozen trees, a grass perimeter on the north side and a Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom that promotes learning in a nature-focused play area. More than half the playground has been converted into living surfaces, while still providing space for basketball, hopscotch, foursquare and kickball.

"We now have a good space for the kids to occupy," Ava Morris, principal of Brown Street Academy, said. "When the kids come back into the building, the positivity of the playground spills over."

Check out the before and after photos below.

 

Before
After

The Schoolyard Greening Project is part of the Greater Johnsons Park Initiative, a project of the Center for Resilient Cities. Through this initiative, physical improvements were made to Alice's Garden, a two-acre community garden, in 2009 and 2010. The organizations also plans to make improvements to the Milwaukee County-owned, 13-acre Johnsons Park, making it a positive space for people of all ages to gather, enjoy nature and engage in healthy physical activity.

For more information on Alice's Garden, watch this short video.

The Center for Resilient Cities builds robust and thriving urban communities that are healthy, just, economically viable and environmentally sound.

Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee is passionately committed to raising money for our more than 50 nonprofit members through employee giving in area workplaces. By donating to Community Shares, you help us help them make Milwaukee a better place to live.

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