We are so excited to announce our 2023 Small Grant awardees - congratulations to these 13 projects! We look forward to the improvements you are making to your communities. Please read below to see the diversity of neighborhoods and projects that our funds have gone toward.

Chinatown Graffiti Removal and Mural

• Project Description: With a rise in crimes following the pandemic, a beloved church had been targeted in an arson recently, in addition to many instances of graffiti and vandalism. The project aims to clean up the church and create a new mural in place of the graffiti. In an effort to help the livelihoods and the outward appearance of Oakland Chinatown, the new artwork will be a benefit to its residents and the Asian American Pacific Islander community as a whole. The project will take away the harmful visual cues of violence, and instead bring a source of positivity. 
• Neighborhood: Chinatown

Courtland Spur Public Garden Expansion

• Project Description: Over the years this strip has fallen into disrepair and neglect with terraces rotting, irrigation system shut off, and invasive species overwhelming most of the garden area. The Garden Expansion will address disrepair and overgrowth, and will result in placement of new wood terracing, restoration of irrigation systems, reduction of invasive plant/overgrowth, and planting of environment- and community-friendly trees, plants and foliage.
• Neighborhood: Jefferson

Dimond Park Bathroom Mural Project

• Project Description: Retaining an artist to paint colorful murals on otherwise daunting, uninviting public bathrooms. Some children are afraid to use these restrooms and having more welcoming public restrooms will benefit all those who use the park.
• Neighborhood: Glenview

Glenn W. Daniel King Estate Open Space

• Project Description: Install and maintain bulletin boards with attached signs stating the name of the open space. The bulletin boards are needed for posting volunteer activity announcements, natural history information about the open space, and timely alerts about current wildfire danger. In addition, bulletin boards are a community space for other announcements, such as lost pets and found keys. Today there are visitors that do not know the name of the Open Space.
• Neighborhood: Oak Knoll

Harvest for the Hood at Verdese Carter Park

• Project Description: Beautification project consisting of hand decorated elevated garden beds and clay pots. These address the community's need for uplifting their physical space in order to uplift their socioeconomic status. This project accomplishes the need for a face-lift for this deep East Oakland neighborhood. The project offers open-space activities, the opportunity to engage with neighbors who want to grow flowers, herbs and produce, demonstrates free and low-cost ways to grow your own food, and adds an aesthetic quality to an urban area marred by concrete, buildings and homes covered in graffiti, blighted properties, encampments of unsheltered persons, and is inundated by illegal dumping
• Neighborhood: Cox

LAMP Welcome Garden

• Project Description: The High Street Coalition has transformed a neglected off-ramp that was previously covered in blight into a colorful drought-resistant garden. We hope our garden brings joy and serves as a 'Welcome' to our neighborhood to all who see it! But that's the problem- it's currently nearly entirely hidden from view by the 6-foot tall weeds surrounding it! With this grant, we hope to have a longer-term solution by extending the area of mulch as much as possible to suppress weeds.
• Neighborhood: Laurel, Allendale, and Maxwell Park ("LAMP")

Mandela Parkway Improvement & Plant Replacement

• Project Description: Replace missing, dying, or inappropriate illegally planted plantings with low-maintenance, drought-tolerant, native pollinators and to repair and/or maintain the irrigation.
• Neighborhood: West Oakland

Melrose Community Garden

• Project Description: Project goals include purchasing equipment, plants, and more fruit trees, creating new signage, including a mini library to have gardening and cooking books for all ages, and "engraving" a vine on the sidewalk as art coming from our garden door to each corner. We hope to have kids and adults enjoy the fruits of our labor by next year!
• Neighborhood: Melrose

Melrose Library Rose Garden

• Project Description: Adding a rose garden to the Melrose Library will draw people  and demonstrate pride in this green oasis located at a blighted intersection. The rose garden presents an opportunity for learning basic plant care and complements the library's gardening program. 
• Neighborhood: Melrose

Rainbow Community Group (NCPC 27Y)​ Parklet

• Project Description: Adding gabion boxes for seating and signage for the location of native live plants.
• Neighborhood: Seminary

Rancho San Antonio Beautification

• Project Description: Project goals include planting more trees, beautifying tree wells, acquiring planters for areas that cannot have a tree well, adding wrap around planters to beautify signage, painting a local utility box to prevent graffiti, and anti-coating the box to protect the mural. 
• Neighborhood: Rancho San Antonio

San Antonio in Bloom: Urban Gardening to Empower Neighbors

• Project Description: Plant two trees, add a bench by the bus stop w/ a planter, (the 40 bus is how people get in and out of the neighborhood, and they often have to stand for long periods of time), and install 20 planters across the three diverters (this prevents diverters from being moved and gives them a feel of being more integrated into the community).
• Neighborhood: San Antonio

Wood Park Community Restoration

• Project Description: Revegetate Sausal Creek with native plants and care for its surrounding areas through erosion control, increased community access to the creek, improved aesthetics and ecological health of the park for residents and visitors, and improved quality of accessible green space for Oakland. Project activities include assessing the health of planted natives, monitoring water quality and wildlife, observing changes in park use and access, and addressing ongoing needs.
• Neighborhood: Reservoir Hills

Congratulations to the 2022 Small Grant awardees. Thank you so much for your commitment to keeping Oakland beautiful! We can't wait to see your projects come to life. More info on each project coming soon!


Rancho San Antonio 16th Ave Tree Planting

Revitalize San Antonio's Foothill Transit Corridor

Dimond Branch Library Garden

LAMP Welcome Garden

Melrose 27X NC Urban Farm (Garden Restoration)

Bottoms Up Community Garden

Friends of Mandela Parkway Plant Replacement Project

Hope Avenue: Neighborhood Garden Exchange

Friends-Stewards of AAMLO Beautification Project

Biological Reserve Cerro Hermoso