Success Story

$45,000

open space authority funds contributed to project

2018

project awarded

The Authority helped fund Valley Verde’s San Jose Family Gardening Project, which creates and maintains community and home gardens in collaboration with 140 low-income families. The project addresses the need for access to green spaces for underserved families, healthy and affordable fresh food, and environmental education. Valley Verde provides families with raised-bed gardens at home along with all the supplies needed to grow fresh vegetables and a year of monthly workshops which cover topics such as urban agriculture, habitat for native wildlife, and water conservation. After one year, participants are eligible to become mentors for other families in the program, growing the circle of environmentally sustainable gardening skills and fostering sense of community in urban areas.

Award Date:

May 9, 2018

Program:

Urban Grant Program

Location:

466 W San Carlos St, San Jose, CA 95125

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Other Success
Stories

Ridge Trail Connection: Class I Trail Design along Bailey Ave

Authority funds will help the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council solve a complex trail crossing in North Coyote Valley between the Santa Cruz Mountains and western foothills of the Diablo Range. The project will result in a traffic study, survey, and preliminary design. Addressing a critical link between park and open space lands, this project aligns with multiple regional partners and local agency priorities of recreation and land conservation.

Cultural Competency Project

Saved By Nature’s Cultural Competency Project engages over one thousand people of all backgrounds and abilities through three types of environmental education programs: 16 natural & culturally relevant guided nature hikes for underserved multigenerational communities and first time park users; 14 weeks of hand-on science day camp activities for 3rd - 5th graders in collaboration with seven clubhouses from the Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley; and two immersive 2-day, 1-night backpacking experiences for up to 30 at-promise-youth teens and their staff in partnership with Youth Alliance. The program mentors and elevates other organizations by sharing best practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Participants discover and explore breathtaking open spaces near home together, gain skills and confidence that will embolden them to return many times over, steward our natural areas, as well as engage in restorative practices that foster joy and healing in the open space areas of our region.

El Toro

In August 2009, the Board of Directors authorized the allocation of $184,000 for the purchase of a property on El Toro, the iconic hill that rises on the western edge of the city.