Laura Michel
Avers Community Garden tree house
What do Groupon Grassroots, Michigan's Greenbush Brewing Company and MPC's 2012 Placemaking contest honorable mention winner, Avers Community Garden, have in common? A great spread in the Aug. 5, 2013 edition of Crain's Chicago Business, that's what.
Winners of last year's contest, the Space in Between - which highlighted the best transformations of vacant or abandoned spaces into community assets - all received a one-week campaign with Groupon Grassroots, which connects individual donors with philanthropic causes. In the case of Avers Community Garden, donations were matched by Greenbush Brewing Company in Sawyer Mich., and resulted in one set of parallel bars, four chin up bars, three balance beams and a tree house full of young people on a formerly vacant lot in North Lawndale.
One of the great things about crowd-sourced funding—the best-known vehicle may be Kickstarter—is that while it's about raising money, it also reinforces the Placemaking principle that big ideas do not always require big money. For the Avers project, $10 each from 160 people has completely transformed their block. As Placemaking guru Project for Public Spaces points out, a lack of money is often used as an excuse for doing nothing. Most people do not have access to foundations and corporations to support their ideas, especially in the early stages. Platforms like this allow creative people to build on the networks they do have, and create a track record and following. Now that you've got both, Avers Community Garden, we can't wait to see what you do next.