Belmont Neighborhood
Community Development Project
Improving Neighborhood Health and Vitality
Strong and healthy neighborhoods benefit everyone. Our community development projects began as an outgrowth of our annual outdoor health and wellness festival, Streets Alive! Between 2011 and 2023, Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln organized and sponsored Streets Alive!, a one-day event that promotes good nutrition and active living. For the event, we collaborate with medically underserved neighborhoods that serve as co-hosts for Streets Alive! to take health and wellness education and resources throughout 2 miles of neighborhood streets to encourage people to walk or bike the route. The event welcomes thousands of visitors each year and showcases the host neighborhood. Streets Alive! is on hiatus in 2024 to give us time to refresh, reinvent, and reimagine the festival. Change is good!
In 2017, we began working with the neighborhoods that hosted Streets Alive! to identify and implement projects that could enhance neighborhood health through improved access to physical activity opportunities, walkability, and safety. We collaborated with the host neighborhoods, Lincoln Parks and Recreation, community organizations, and other sponsors to make a lasting positive impact through a community development project that would not only benefit the host neighborhood but add to the beauty, safety, and well-being of our entire city.
Belmont Park Project
The 2017-2018 project focused on improvements to Belmont Park, a neighborhood hub that offers outdoor activities on playgrounds and walking/biking trails to residents of Belmont and surrounding neighborhoods. The project idea was a result of a collaboration between Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln, Lincoln Parks & Recreation/Lincoln Parks Foundation, Belmont Elementary, the Neighborhood Association, Belmont Recreation Center, Belmont Community Center, and residents.
Project Goal
The project goal was to strengthen neighborhood health, promote revitalization, and increase educational opportunities by addressing the growing need within the neighborhood for safe and accessible active outdoor space in Belmont Park, the heart of the neighborhood. As a result, a covered shelter for an outdoor living and learning center was built, filling a void left when an older, unsafe facility was torn down 7 years prior.
Completed Project
The new covered shelter, completed in May 2018, now serves as an outdoor classroom for neighborhood schools and pre-schools; allows expanded afterschool and seniors programming; and provides meeting space for neighborhood organizations and families. For additional safety, the shelter was located in a well-lit area, visible from the street and accessible by walking, riding a bicycle, or by car.
Then City Council Chair, Bennie Shobe, a long time supporter of Streets Alive! officiated at the dedication, and members of the Kiwanis clubs joined neighborhood children and Lincoln Parks & Recreation staff to help landscape the shelter site by planting trees.
Project Sponsors
The project was made possible through the support of platinum sponsors Lincoln Parks & Recreation, the Lincoln Parks Foundation, the Nebraska Iowa Kiwanis Foundation, the Sunrise, Northeast, Lincoln Center, Capitol City, and Cornhusker Kiwanis Club; gold sponsors Lincoln Concrete Specialists and Husker Concrete; and silver sponsors Realtor’s Association of Lincoln and NeighborWorks Lincoln. Also contributing were bronze sponsor Wells Fargo; and good neighbor sponsors Cornhusker Bank and Costco.
