Announcing Our Youth and Amateur Sports Grant Award
Exciting news! In September, King County Parks awarded Parkour Visions a $38,000 Youth and Amateur Sports Grant (YASG). This award will fund free parkour classes and events in Seattle, especially for low-income and youth of color. This is the second time Parkour Visions has won this grant. We feel fortunate to have this opportunity to give back to the community.
For our YASG program coordinator, we've hired Dan Dye (they/he) from Michigan. Dan started the organization Project Traverse, which advocated for public spaces and created partnerships to bring parkour into schools. As a parkour athlete of 8 years, they are passionate about making parkour more accessible to low-income and athletes of color.
Dan explains, "What made it easiest for me to stay in parkour was the fact that I could train anywhere I chose, and I generally didn't have to spend any money to do it. Having that kind of access was really beneficial to my growth, and I want to increase the range of that access across the board, especially to more folks of color."
Dan is connecting with potential partners and would love to hear from you! Since they are new to Seattle, they could use your help catching up with the history and issues folks are facing in our city. Dan will be connecting with schools, community centers, and local organizations in Seattle and south of Seattle to offer workshops and weekly classes.
Please share any connections or resources you have! You can reach Dan at dandye@parkourvisions.org.
You can meet Dan on Saturday, October 23 from 12-4pm, where we'll be setting up our scaffolding to promote the Garfield Super Block Project. There will also be a live DJ, local food vendors, and a community art project.
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About King County Parks
King County Parks—Your Big Backyard—offers more than 200 parks and 28,000 acres of open space, including such regional treasures as Marymoor Park and Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, 175 miles of regional trails, 215 miles of back country trails and a world-class aquatic center. By cultivating strong relationships with non-profit, corporate and community partners, King County Parks enhances park amenities while reducing costs.
About the Youth and Amateur Sports Grant Program
The YASG program is funded and sustained through a 1-percent car-rental tax authorized by the State in 1993. King County Council restructured the program (formerly Youth Sports Facilities Grants) in 2017 to provide Council-directed grants, as well as competitive grants, to non-profit organizations, local governments, Tribes, and school districts. Funding is available for sports and recreation programs and capital projects.