PEACE (Parks Equity and Access for Citizen Engagement) Project

Duties included:
- Conceptualizing the project based on Mayoral "greenspace" priority.
- Collaborating with internal stakeholders to ascertain feasibility of project elements.
- Research of literature from 25+ sources to understand benefits of green infrastructure, parks and children's health, parks and seniors' health, impacts of parks on property value, and the rate at which particulate matter is taken up by native plants.
- Research park construction, accessibility standards, standards of inclusivity, and other cities' response to new park construction.
- Create a list of every element to be included in each park, research recent cost and begin to build budget.
- Identify match - I decided to use everything but "new" dollars and instead used anticipate site land value, salaries for anyone who would touch the funded project, and additional grants I applied for.
- Build three budgets -- one line item, one project-based, and one funding source-based.
- Write the proposal for funding, using literature research, images collected from Yelp, and budget documents.
- Respond to RFP, answer direct questions regarding the proposal, attend Wayne County Commission budget session to provide support to Mayor (project's champion).
- Manage line-item budget of project as budget balloons due to success of the proposal (money attracts money). Budget is now more than $35M.
- Manage project, including vendor relations, billing, and grant reporting. Provide new vendor education to construction company regarding public budgeting/billing practices.
- Manage "Project Management Dashboard," including migration of project data from Asana to Monday.com. Manage tasks, scheduling, and meeting agendas with project committees. Attend committee meetings and identify areas in need of clarity or resources.
- Continue to seek funding as project grows. Three new parks, Camp Dearborn park WiFi, and multiple accessible playscapes across the city turned into an escalated effort to provide high quality recreational options for residents. Utilize original proposal and new data to "spin off" multiple project proposals.