Outdoor ‘Reading Room’ with Interactive Chalkboard Mural

Website

www.updayton.com

How would you cultivate a deeper relationship with the community you’d like to serve?

Updayton's Streetvival is an all-volunteer committee improving one of Dayton, Ohio’s most challenged yet promising neighborhoods through creative beautification. There is currently a vacant lot at the central intersection between the elementary school and community center. Our project will provide casual seating, low-maintenance landscaping, and a mural on the adjacent wall. We plan the mural to be both colorful designs painted by the schoolchildren and an interactive chalkboard with permanent prompts painted to engage the neighborhood in thinking about its future, such as “My Dreams...For Myself____For My Neighborhood____For My City____,” etc. This pocket park will give schoolchildren and residents much-needed public space to gather in the center of the neighborhood.

How would you use the $1,000 to turn your idea into a reality?

The $1000 would pay for materials to create the interactive mural – finishing materials to smooth out the brick wall, colorful paints, chalkboard paint, and a budget for ongoing chalk replacement. All labor will be done by volunteers in collaboration with the school and the community center. Our umbrella organization, Updayton, will provide additional funds for seating and landscaping.

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