2009 Grand Prize Winner - $2500
Bridging The Gap
(Ivanhoe Vacant Lot Beautification)
435 Westport Rd., Ste. 23
Kansas City, MO 64111

Contact Person: Angela Schreffler
816-561-1061, ext. 110
angela.schreffler@bridgingthegap.org
www.bridgingthegap.org

About Bridging the Gap
Bridging The Gap and its affiliates, Heartland Tree Alliance and Keep Kansas City Beautiful, are working with the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council and neighborhood residents to beautify a vacant lot at 3624 Highland Ave in Kansas City, MO. In the interest of removing blight and improving the appearance of the neighborhood, the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council worked with Jackson County Land Trust to acquire ownership of vacant lots in the neighborhood. The lots were selected based on the potential for infill housing and for green space (play areas for children and rest areas for seniors). This particular lot was chosen for this project because of the severity of dumping in the lot, and the opportunity for creating a garden in a low-income neighborhood.

The most important goal for the Ivanhoe Vacant Lot Beautification project is to improve the appearance of the neighborhood. Second is to address environmental issues and concerns. Low-income, urban neighborhoods often have increased air pollutants and planting trees in this lot will help improve air quality. Studies also show that beatifying neighborhoods creates a safer place to live by encouraging neighbors to get outside and get to know each other. A final goal of the project is to create environmental stewards by training the neighborhood residents to properly plant and care for what is planted.

Bridging The Gap has significant experience in volunteer engagement and grass-roots neighborhood projects. Bridging The Gap and Ivanhoe have partnered on many projects in the past, including a large-scale tree planting project in a neighborhood park and multiple litter clean-ups.

Ivanhoe has more than 300 volunteers that participate in neighborhood activities. Neighborhood supporters include the police, the City of Kansas City, MO, James B. Nutter & Co Realty, Bank of America, Commerce Bank, Hall Family Foundation, Legal Aid, Bryan Cave Law Firm, Habitat for Humanity, Macedonia Baptist Church, Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, and Gregg Tabernacle AME Church.

Bridging the Gap Project Details

Update on 6/15/2009
Bridging The Gap and its programs, the Heartland Tree Alliance and Keep Kansas City Beautiful, (which is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful), will use the generous grant from Nature Hills to help the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council and neighborhood residents improve their community.

The Ivanhoe neighborhood, home to over 7,800 people, is one of Kansas City’s largest neighborhoods. Unfortunately, it struggled for many years with crime, poverty, trash and blight. Drugs and abandoned houses were almost easier to find than hope and community pride. Then, in the late 1990’s, the neighborhood began to pull itself together with the help of a few grants and many concerned and active residents. A neighborhood association, the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, was created, staff members were hired and a building purchased and renovated to become a community center. Neighbors began to get reacquainted with each other and a sense of community identity and pride was reborn and nurtured.

The renaissance has now been going on for over a decade. Many local companies have invested time and money to empower the good people of Ivanhoe. One of their most prominent accomplishments was for the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council to acquire title to approximately 200 abandoned lots. These lots are now maintained and many are slated for redevelopment. However, some are simply too small to hold a new house. It is these lots, as well as part of the land adjacent to the community center, that are the planting targets for the Bridging The Gap project.

For example, the master plan calls for the vacant lot at 3624 Highland Avenue to be transformed into a place of beauty and peace by planting beds of flowering perennials such as Blue Autumn Asters or Buttered Popcorn daylilies and perhaps a small grove of white dogwoods (Missouri’s state tree) or a majestic pecan . The master plan also calls for a small orchard of fruit trees to be planted in the area adjacent to the Community Center and to acquire additional plant materials for the small community garden that is already in place at that location. The final plan is dependent on soil tests and some subsurface investigation to determine if foundations remain in place from the house that once stood on the property. As in all projects, Heartland Tree Alliance and Keep Kansas City Beautiful are mindful of the long-term viability of the plantings and so are proceeding with the diligence required when working with previously developed land.

While the detailed planning proceeds, all of the parties involved are exploring the possibility of using the availability of these plants to leverage further donations such as benches, playground equipment and/or porous paving materials for a walkway around the orchard and garden site. The ideas of the community are being incorporated and plans are underway to engage the small but dedicated group of school children who created the community garden mentioned above.

The generosity of Nature Hills will have many, long-lasting positive impacts on the Ivanhoe neighborhood and Kansas City in general. One of our most economically-challenged neighborhoods will be beautified, an act that has been shown to engender community excitement and deepen feelings of ownership and responsibility. The trees planted in this urban setting will help offset the heat island effect and thus lower energy consumption during Kansas City’s long, hot summers. They will also create oxygen, reduce traffic noise, sequester carbon, provide wildlife habitat and help absorb the runoff from storms. The beauty of the shrubs and flowering perennials will compliment the beauty of the trees. And of course, the orchard and added vegetables will provide much needed fresh, healthy food to a low-income neighborhood.

The Heartland Tree Alliance and Keep Kansas City Beautiful are committed to making this project a resounding success. We pledge to use our extensive volunteer base and community contacts to monitor and maintain the plants installed, and to teach the residents of Ivanhoe the proper means of providing this maintenance themselves.

We look forward to sharing with Nature Hills and its customers the progress that is made as both the community and the donated plants grow and thrive.

Project Photos of Lots to be Transformed