Unity Park
Friends Of the Richmond Greenway ‘FORG’ was formed 2006 to gather Organizations and Community Groups with an interest in maintaining the Greenway as a safe public space. In 2011, after years of collective work by grassroots organizations, the Greenway was officially adopted as a public park by the City of Richmond.
In March of 2012 the work of these organizations earned state level attention and the city of Richmond was awarded a $5 million State of California Parks Department grant to create a “Unity Park” on sections of the Richmond Greenway where organizational and neighborhood volunteer efforts had already begun. The intention of the Unity park Project is to bring more resources to these areas and uplifting years of community efforts to truly activate the space.
Led by Pogo Park, over 20 organizations came together under the umbrella of FORG to host the Festival of Ideas to gather neighborhood feedback and work with MIG to develop the grant. Valuable input from hundreds community members were collected from 2 design tents and a number of stakeholder interviews over 8 consecutive days.
Currently we’re undergoing an inclusive community led design process coordinated by FORG organizations and members of the community in close collaboration with the City of Richmond, Vallier Design Associates and Restoration Design Group to design the Unity Park.
Watch 3 videos we’ve created about the UNITY PARK Community Design Process:
- Launch of Unity Park at 2015 Martin Luther King Day on the Richmond Greenway
2. 2nd UNITY PARK Community Design Review Event
3. Coming Soon! Final Unity Park Community Design Review Event