Grants

At a Glance: Grant Programs in North Carolina

0

local governments

assisted through PARTF

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local government projects

funded with PARTF assistance (as of Jan. 1, 2024)

$0

PARTF grants

awarded to local government projects (as of Jan. 1, 2024)

0

local governments

assisted through LWCF

0

local government projects

funded with LWCF assistance

$0

LWCF grants

awarded to local government projects

Types of Parks and Recreation Grants

PARTF Grant

Funded through the North Carolina General Assembly, the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund awards matching grants to local governments for parks, public beach access, and improvement in state parks.

Parks and Recreation Trust Fund Grant

The PARTF grant cycle begins in the fall, with the application due in late spring or early summer of the following year. Grant recipients are announced in early fall.

LWCF Federal Grant

The Division assists in managing North Carolina's allocation of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, a nationwide Department of the Interior program permanently funded through royalties from offshore oil and natural gas.

Land and Water Conservation Fund Federal Grant

2025-2030 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan

For states to be eligible for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, or SCORP, must be updated every 5 years. The 2025-2030 SCORP is called "Shaping Outdoor Recreation from Mountains to Sea."

2024 Accessible Parks Grant Program

The Accessible Parks Grant Program provides $12.5 million in matching grants for parks and recreation for people with disabilities. The grants fund the construction of special facilities or adaptation of existing facilities that meet the unique needs of people with disabilities or that enable them to participate in recreational and sporting activities, regardless of their abilities. This program is administered through the Division and PARTF.

Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Grant Program

The Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program is a subset of the LWCF, a grant program intended to provide new or significantly improve recreation opportunities for economically disadvantaged communities in larger urbanized areas (as designated by the Census Bureau) that are underserved in terms of parks and other outdoor recreation resources.

The Great Trails State Program

The Great Trails State Program provides funding for the new trail development and extension of existing trails within the state of North Carolina. This includes paved trails or greenways, natural surface trails, biking trails, equestrian trails, and any other type of trail recognized by the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

2022 Accessibility for Parks Grant Program

The Accessibility for Parks program was a non-recurring grant that provided $10 million in parks and recreation grants to benefit children and veterans living with disabilities in North Carolina. The AFP grants were awarded in March 2023.

Recreational Trails Program Grants

The Recreational Trails Program provides funding for construction of new trails, maintenance and repair of existing trails, land acquisition, purchase of trail tools and planning, and legal, environmental and permitting costs. For more information, please visit the North Carolina Trails website.

Complete the Trails Program

The Complete the Trails Program provides funding for the planning, construction, promotion, and maintenance of North Carolina state trails. For more information, please visit the North Carolina Trails website.

RRS Grant Locator Tool

The map below can be viewed in a full window on the ARCGIS website.

Recreation Grants and Outreach

About the Program

The Recreation Grants and Outreach team with the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation provides local governments guidance in applying for and managing grants that "help build happiness" all over the state of North Carolina through land acquisition for and development of parks and recreation facilities. Our goal is to assist communities all across the state in their efforts to improve their parks and recreation services, which in turn improves the quality of life for their citizens and helps make their communities more inviting to businesses, new residents, and visitors.

Recreation Grants and Outreach Staff

Manager	Vonda Martin vonda.martin@ncparks.gov 919-707-9338
Grants Specialist (PARTF, AP)	Lillian Heaton lillian.heaton@ncparks.gov 919-707-9362
Grants Specialist (RTP)	Talivia Brodie talivia.brodie@ncparks.gov 919-707-9320
Grants Specialist (LWCF, ORLP)	Sophia Olson sophia.olson@ncparks.gov 919-707-9342
LWCF Grants Compliance Specialist	Aiden Manley aiden.manley@ncparks.gov 919-707-9370
Mailing Address	1615 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1615
Physical Address	Division of Parks and Recreation Nature Research Center, 3rd floor 121 W. Jones St. Raleigh, NC 27603

Recreation Resources Services

About RRS

Recreation Resources Service is a technical assistance program jointly administered by the Division and North Carolina State University's Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management.

With its team of consultant, RRS regularly helps local governments submit grant proposals and follows through with project inspections, application processing, conversion issues, and closeout processing.

Technical assistance also includes: assistance with the establishment of new parks and recreation departments; organization and training for new parks and recreation advisory boards; benefits-based programming; playground safety; Job Service Bulletins; grants; and workshops.

Grant funds are distributed through a reimbursement program with RRS consultants processing the reimbursement requests and forwarding them to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources for payment.

RRS annually conducts the North Carolina Municipal and County Parks and Recreation Services Study. Three research themes (salaries, fees/charges, facilities inventory), budget data, and special interest area data are sought from every public parks and recreation department. With roughly 50 percent responding, about 35,000 data points are collected. That is used to generate an executive summary and is used to generate special request studies, such as salary and fee comparisons.

Annually, RRS also sponsors continuing education opportunities for parks and recreation professionals and citizen board members.