Community-led efforts and philanthropic support are strengthening neighborhoods along Sacramento’s Del Paso Boulevard
For nearly fifty years, Sierra Service Project has worked with teenage volunteers to strengthen local communities through hands-on construction projects. But the need to scale back services at the beginning of the pandemic — and its leaders’ participation in our program that invites nonprofit leaders to design innovative programs — prompted its team to envision new ways to carry out their work.
They took stock of their resources.
They examined the need in neighborhoods surrounding their headquarters on Del Paso Boulevard in Old North Sacramento, neighborhoods that are marked by abundant assets but where decades of underinvestment have left many without equitable opportunities to flourish.
Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance
And then, in January, they launched the North Sacramento Free Tool Library, a resource of over 120 items available to residents for home repairs, creative endeavors, and community projects — such as the Community Days hosted by the Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance (DPHGA), which bring neighbors together to build and beautify accessible, safe neighborhood spaces.
At a recent Community Day in a local garden, a small army of volunteers used the tools to install 200 feet of pathway border and 250 feet of irrigation line, mulch 500 square feet of the garden, care for 150 existing plants, and plant 20 more. Nearby, other groups collected socks for those in need and offered free haircuts by student stylists.
This is just the type of community-building that inspired a fundholder who prefers to give anonymously to establish the Del Paso Heights Neighborhood Fund at the Foundation, which annually awards grants through a competitive process to support an array of projects in the area. The DPHGA received a grant from the Fund this year, along with Sierra Service Project, California Black Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Feed Sacramento Homeless, Gateway Community Charters Foundation, Greater Sacramento Urban League, Hmong Youth and Parents United, Neighborhood Wellness Foundation, and Sacramento Youth Center.
From tool libraries to gardens, and from financial literacy resources to job preparedness programs, the projects funded by the grants have something important in common: each demonstrates that community commitment and philanthropic support are powerful tools in building stronger, more resilient, and more vibrant neighborhoods. Now that’s an idea worth growing.