Partner Grants Cultivate Connections to Water

Capitol Region Watershed District’s (CRWD’s) Partner Grants fund programs and projects led by public, private and non-profit organizations that increase clean water actions and knowledge. The Partner Grants program began in 2007 and has supported programming serving thousands of residents in CRWD.

Recent grant projects include educational programs, youth internships, performances, and community outreach initiatives. Read more about the projects and programs supported by 2024 Partner Grants.

2024 Partner Grants

Afrocontigbo: A Stream of Black Voices – Movement, Conversation and Water Tasting

A Stream of Black Voices public event in August 2024 at Como Park Pavilion in Saint Paul centered on water and community. The event included water-themed yoga, bingo, trivia questions, dance and spoken word performances. The event featured Water Bar water tasting, Saint Paul Regional Water Services, CRWD and Saint Paul Natural Resources with macroinvertebrates, and Como Conservatory with a plant giveaway. The event was created and hosted by Afrocontigbo, a contemporary African dance studio promoting wellness, culture and community engagement.

“…It [the event] was really informative for me too. I never had a discussion about water, but talking about and just interacting with people made me realize how important it is and how water can even bring people together. Also, dance feeds my soul so integrating water into dancing was really moving for me personally and touched my soul.” – Sahara, event attendee

We All Need Food and Water: “Green Light” Puppets for Healthy People and Planet

We All Need Food and Water’s Green Light environmental puppet shows promote health for people and the planet. They performed puppet shows for over 250 second-grade students at five Saint Paul Public Schools in Capitol Region Watershed District during summer programming in 2024. The puppet shows are a magical way to teach young learners and their adults about important issues and lessons in an uplifting way. They combine important social topics like empathy, communication, kindness, and equity into various environmental issues, including the “Water Heroes” curriculum focused on stormwater and water conservation. We All Need Food and Water is a non-profit organization dedicated to fun and engaging environmental education.

“The puppets made me love water even more!” —Mai, age 7

“I’m a water hero. Are you?” Teaching artist overheard this exchange between a second-grade student and his classroom teacher after the lesson.

Urban Roots: Conservation Program Internships

Urban Roots Conservation Program supported internships for 38 youth who participated in habitat restoration at parks in Capitol Region Watershed District like Rivoli Bluffs, Swede Hollow Park, Willow Reserve, and Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary. The internship program includes learning about the natural world and culture through a weekly curriculum called Green Your Mind. Youth also engage in citizen science projects, such as insect surveys, water sampling, and forest inventories. Urban Roots is a long-standing non-profit organization that operates extensive youth development programs in the East Side of Saint Paul.

“… I’ve really enjoyed learning how to identify plants. I didn’t have an interest in them at the beginning but being around them, and learning the small, intricate details made me more interested. The ability to identify plants is pretty cool and useful. I also feel that summer education has been impactful because I didn’t know any of this before my internship started but now recognize how important it is for us to be aware of place, history, and issues within the place.” – Urban Roots intern

East Side Arts Council: Watershed Art at Johnson Senior High

The Watershed Art residency of public artist Gita Ghei at Johnson High School in Saint Paul included engagement with 70 students through ceramic and photography classes. CRWD and Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District staff joined for in-class presentations on watersheds that Gita continued to build upon through a series of class visits. Students then created water-themed tiles for a courtyard bench, along with photography projects centered on water themes.

The grant also supported three high school students from Johnson High School to intern with East Side Arts Council. The interns engaged in watershed education with CRWD at Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary. Interns also were able to connect with Minnesota Department of Transportation staff working on the nearby Arcade Street Reconstruction Project to receive in-depth learning about careers in public art, water, and engineering. Interns learned about the unique place of their neighborhood in the watershed context of Saint Paul, urban infrastructure, two watersheds and public art. The East Side Arts Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging creativity and strengthening the community, managed this project.

“The most impactful part of working on the project was learning about the different ways our water usage affects our environment and community. I still think back to our mini lessons and our art piece whenever I see a rain garden or even walk around places like Phalen Lake.” – Jennifer, student participant

Saint Paul Parks and Recreation: Parks Ambassadors

The City of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation’s Parks Ambassadors program facilitates outdoor recreation outings for new audiences in CRWD. In 2024, the program held 20 events including outings, special programs, and workshops for over 200 participants from diverse backgrounds, including those who have been historically marginalized and excluded from outdoor spaces. Program activities focused on fostering a connection to the watershed, enhancing water quality knowledge, and strengthening participants’ relationships with the land and water. Each activity prioritized education on becoming better stewards of the natural environment while emphasizing community building and the interconnectedness of water and land. Program organizers continue to shape the activities through input from community members to ensure relevance and impact.

“I’ve been out with this group before, and the commitment of always sharing how to be a good water steward has now been ingrained in me and whenever I pick up litter around me I think of the speech that is shared at the beginning of these events.” – Natividad, a participant in the Nature Journaling outing

Hamline Midway Coalition: Clean Streets, Clean Water

The Hamline Midway Coalition (HMC) Clean Streets, Clean Water program organized eight neighborhood trash clean-ups with over 550 people. Through the cleanups, nearly 400 bags of litter were collected.  The HMC program also launched a fall curb clean-up campaign called Midway to Mississippi, with 26 residents cleaning 1,900 feet of curbline near Griggs Park in Saint Paul. The campaign was promoted with yard signs for participants. The final piece of this grant project was a campaign on winter chloride pollution that generated 11 commitments to the Salt Pledge, a voluntary pledge to use less deicing salt in the winter to protect clean water. Hamline Midway Coalition is one of Saint Paul’s 17 district councils. These community-based volunteer organizations work to represent the interests of local residents and businesses and aim to improve the quality of life in their community.

“Attending HMC’s trash clean-ups has become part of my summer routine. I like being out with neighbors and feeling like I’m doing my part to keep the neighborhood clean.” – Trash clean-up participant

YMCA of the North: Adventure in the Neighborhood Day Camps at Hidden Falls Regional Park

YMCA Adventure in the Neighborhood Day Camps hosted two four-day summer camp sessions in July and August 2024 at Hidden Falls Regional Park in Saint Paul. Over 65 campers in grades 1-5 learned about the mighty Mississippi River and explored water recreation through canoeing and fishing on the river. The National Park Service also supported the day camp with lessons from a Park Ranger on how to care for natural resources.  Adventure in the Neighborhood provides innovative programming to connect young people to the outdoors that surround them daily while promoting a sustainable connection to neighborhood green spaces and natural resources.

A parent shared that her child woke up excited every day to go to camp and talked incessantly about new friends and how fun the staff were. She was amazed at how much he had learned about the Mississippi River and wanted to protect it because he was a “Junior Ranger”.

MN Seed Project: Building a Community of Practice for Saving Seeds from Native Plants

MN Seed Project coordinated several community events centered on native plants and their seeds. This included a winter seed sowing event at Como Streetcar station with education on how to start native plant seeds outdoors in the winter. They also hosted six native seed collection events where they demonstrated how to collect seeds from over 150 different species of native plants, and shared packets of seeds. The group also coordinated seven events to clean collected seeds and prepare them for sharing. Through seed education the MN Seed Project empowers people to collect, clean, save, swap and grow native plants.

“So glad I ventured out in the pouring rain to attend this event. I learned a lot (seeds can be so tiny!) and enjoyed the camaraderie. Great event.” – Seed cleaning event participant

Parkview Center School: Parkview Water Project (PWP)

The Parkview Water Project (PWP) organizes water education experiences for elementary students at two Roseville Area Schools, Parkview Center School and Harambee Elementary School. PWP begins in Kindergarten with a winter field trip to Lake McCarrons. The first-grade field trip to Lake McCarrons is in the spring so the student scientists can observe the seasonal changes in the habitat as they search for the aquatic larvae of dragonflies and damselflies to catch and release.

Educators carefully pair activities integrating water education into the curriculum at each grade level. For students at Parkview Center, the project culminates for fifth graders with a canoe paddling trip on the Mississippi River to experience the river firsthand. PWP provides learning for approximately 400 students and their families from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds

“Now that we have been participating in this grant for a number of years, I can really see how our students are growing over time. This year we were able to compare water quality from Lake McCarrons 4th grade trip with samples from Minnehaha Creek and we all agreed the students had a much stronger interest and understanding because of their years-long background with the project!“- Mary Sweeney, Parkview Center School ESTEM teacher

Frogtown Green: FrogLab!

FrogLab is a neighborhood nature program that hosts seasonal interactive workshops for children and is run by Frogtown Green. Through FrogLab, children build science projects and create art centered on stewardship of water and the environment, pollinator protection, and other aspects of environmental sustainability. In 2024, FrogLab offered weekly workshops at West Minnehaha Recreation Center and Frogtown Community Center. Frogtown Green is a resident-led volunteer group in the Frogtown neighborhood of Saint Paul that supports increasing community green spaces and environmental stewardship.

“FrogLab kids love anything that takes them outside for play that includes learning about nature–anything from bee house building to fishing. We’ve tapped trees for maple syrup, gone on leaf shape scavenger hunts, and looked for evidence of evaporation and condensation on outdoor windows. Even simple things are a source of learning and joy.” – Patricia Ohmans, Frogtown Green Executive Director

Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi: Urban Conservation and Restoration

Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi coordinated Urban Conservation and Restoration activities at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary and Indian Mounds Regional Park, both in Saint Paul. Through the Restore! Program, a volunteer restoration program in partnership with the City of Saint Paul Natural Resources, volunteers removed invasive species, added native plantings and collected seeds from native plants at the Wakan Tipi Center site in Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. Over 150 participants collected over 1,500 pounds of trash during an Earth Day cleanup at the Wakan Tipi site in April 2024. Additional events included volunteers planting 68 new trees and Volunteer Fridays dedicated to volunteer restoration activities.

Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi (formerly known as Lower Phalen Creek Project) is a Dakota-led, Native-run, environmental stewardship non-profit organization. It focuses on a project area between Lake Phalen and the Mississippi and throughout the East Side River District.

“Jen was awesome, and we learned a lot from her about the space, the plants, its past, its present, and its future. It was the last field trip for us for the semester, and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. The prairie was blazing in full glory, and the cottonwoods were dancing against the bluest sky. We noticed a pair of bluebirds towards the end of our walk, and an eagle passed overhead too.” – Restoration event volunteer

District 10 Como Community Council: Como Cleanup

The District 10 Como Community Council (D10) hosted four cleanup events around Como Lake, with 149 volunteers collecting 274 pounds of trash. D10 also organizes an annual Como Curb Cleanup each fall, encouraging residents to clear fallen leaves from the curb near their homes to reduce phosphorus pollution in Como Lake. In 2024, residents from 81 households reported their efforts to clear over 39,000 feet of curbline during the month-long event.

D10 piloted a new program to provide Como Cleanup Kits for individuals and organizations hosting their own neighborhood cleanup events. The kits include trash grabbers, bags, gloves, and high-visibility safety vests. Seven groups borrowed the kits and reported collecting 55 bags of trash. D10 is one of Saint Paul’s 17 district councils. These community-based volunteer organizations work to represent the interests of local residents and businesses and aim to improve the quality of life in their community.

“Thank you for doing this! We have always tried to clean our two sewer drains over the last 36 years but reporting this helps me be more conscious of it!” – Como Curb Cleanup participant

In Progress: The Waterers

The Waterers Project, led by In Progress, is a community-centered campaign dedicated to informing the public about watersheds and waterways through shared elder stories about their relationship with water. This project is embedded in the idea that our elders are waterers carrying history and knowledge. Through collecting elder stories, we can understand how their relationship with water enriches our lives.

Four learning sessions were led by Sai Thao and supported by Pang Foua Xiong, Layla Whipple, and Kristine Sorensen. Participants were immersed in cultural, environmental and media advocacy training. They shared stories given by elders and water advocates and developed plans for creating digital messages. The participants completed their projects with guidance from professional artists TJ Lor, Tomas Leal, Sai Thao, Tiana LaPointe and Kristine Sorensen. Twenty-two artists/waterers pairs contributed to projects that created eight digital video messages and a series of ten postcards with images and stories featured in The Waterers exhibit opening. In Progress is a non-profit arts group committed to sharing stories, honoring diversity and strengthening communities through the arts.

“Living close to water grounds me, to see it, hear it, smell it, and feel it. It quenches my thirst for living. I love, appreciate and need living water in excess; it is to be protected as life’s greatest asset that’s always giving.” – Della Rootues, a Waterer and Collector

Partner Grants Help Us Achieve Our Mission

Partner Grant projects and programs critically support CRWD’s mission by incorporating key themes outlined in CRWD’s 10-Year Watershed Management Plan. We are committed to engaging new and historically underrepresented groups and believe we can achieve cleaner waters through engagement across all communities. In 2024, many projects and programs took place in or served residents from Trout Brook, Phalen Creek, Saint Anthony Hill, Urban, Como Lake, and Lake McCarrons watersheds. These are identified priority areas for CRWD.

We cannot do our work alone! Partner Grantees and project and program participants help us achieve our mission to protect, manage and improve the water resources of Capitol Region Watershed District.