South Cumberland Community Fund has been awarded a grant from the Tennessee Department of Health to conduct a planning study for the towns adjacent to the planned Mountain Goat Trail. The $50,000 project will start this winter and conclude in the fall of 2025.
The Community Fund is seeking volunteers to lead participatory design sessions, with training for the work starting this fall. Volunteers will receive design facilitation training and a generous cash honorarium for work that they will do over the next few months.
Get in touch with the Community Fund at 931-954-9116 or talk@southcumberlandcommunityfund.org.
“We know that when the trail is complete that it will be a big boon for visitors that will boost the local economy,” said Tom Sanders, executive director of the Fund. “We wanted to make sure that it brings just as big a benefit to the folks who live here in terms of opportunity for healthy living.”
The grant will allow the towns along the trail from Tracy City to Palmer to host design meetings, to think about access to the trail, amenities such as affordable housing that could be located near the trail and other ways that people in Grundy County can benefit from this recreational asset.
“Grundy County was once the least healthy county in Tennessee,” said Mr. Sanders, “but we’ve been moving up in the rankings. One factor that holds us back is that fewer than 40 percent of the population has easy access to recreational facilities, even though we have some of the best parks and trails in the state. We think changing that fact is going to take good participatory design, where the needs and wishes of the public are taken into account.”
After the initial planning meetings take place this spring, planners at the Civic Design Center in Nashville will develop a Health Equity Plan, which will present how Grundy citizens believe the best development can take place to take their health into account. That plan will then inform the development of a “Design Your Neighborhood” curriculum in local schools.
The “Design Your Neighborhood” phase of the project will be developed by Dr. Katy Morgan, Sewanee professor, and teachers and administrators in the schools. Through Design Your Neighborhood, a three-week civic project for sixth through eighth grade students, Grundy County’s youngest citizens will learn about health equity in the built environment, design connectivity plans for their communities, and engage in creative placemaking that reflects their communities’ identity.
In April of 2025, students will host a Community Design Exhibition to share their art, design ideas, and priorities for community connectivity. At the exhibition, youth will engage community stakeholders, local elected officials and other leaders in an effort to elevate youth voice in long-term community planning. The grant will then conclude with a revised Health Equity Plan that includes youth priorities for healthy development.
Anyone wishing to be part of this project should contact the Fund at talk@southcumberlandcommunityfund.org.