The Richmond Children’s Foundation announced yesterday that the City of Richmond is the recipient of a $2.5 million grant under the State of California Murray-Hayden Urban Youth Services Grant Program that will be used to rehabilitate the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center and Park on Harbour Way South in Richmond. The grant application was prepared on behalf of the City by the Richmond Children’s Foundation in December of 2003.

The purpose of the Murray-Hayden grants, funded by the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2000, is to provide grant funding for capital projects, including parks, park facilities, environmental enhancement projects, youth centers, and environmental youth service centers that are within immediate proximity of a neighborhood that has been identified by the Department as having a critical lack of parks and/or open space and/or deteriorated park facilities that are in an area of significant poverty and unemployment, and have a shortage of services for youth. Priority goes to capital projects that employ neighborhood residents and at-risk youth.

For more information, contact the Richmond Children’s Foundation at 510/234-1200.