Decatur Legacy Project

Legacy Decatur was established in 2015 to grow programs, partnerships, and resources that create and support a positive legacy for Decatur. It exists as a distinct nonprofit aligned closely with the City of Decatur, offering a flexible means of connecting elected officials with community leaders and motivated citizens in support of legacy-oriented initiatives, particularly those involving housing attainability, community-building, and the environment. Legacy Decatur provides a non-profit vehicle by which individuals and organizations can personally contribute, as donors or volunteers, to meeting broader community goals, and through which grants and other forms of funding can be pursued. Beginning in 2021, we entered into an Operations Management Agreement with the City of Decatur to facilitate the implementation of the community's master plan at Decatur Legacy Park and direct operations and programming at the property. This 77 acre property was once the United Methodist Children's Home and includes over 30 historic buildings and with over 22 acres protected by a conservation easement. We focus on leasing the buildings to non-profit organizations and programs that support the mission of the park, manage event rentals and film rentals to generate revenue to support the operation of the property and support the development of affordable housing opportunities at the property in partnership with the City of Decatur and other organizations and agencies in the area.

We have an operations agreement with the City of Decatur to serve the city's non-profit partner to implement the community's vision and goals for the 77-acre former United Methodist Childrens Home acquired by the city in 2017. This property, renamed Decatur Legacy Park, represented a major financial investment in the future of our City by securing a large tract of open space and preserving over 30 historic buildings to enhance our city and increase opportunities to address the vision and goals of our community. The bold master plan incorporated a diverse set of goals for the property to include environmental protection and education; repurposing historic buildings for non-profit offices, community programs, artist studios and creative, affordable housing options; expanded recreational programming and the development of new affordable housing units. This management agreement offers Legacy Decatur an opportunity to address the specific mission of our organization and provide the City of Decatur the flexibility required to implement a long-range master plan for this property that meet the communities long-range visions for the city and for the property. It also allows us to pursue some revenue generating programs at the site that will provide funding to support the implementation of this master plan.

We have expanded our role as a convener and supporter of other city-based non-profit organizations and citizen-driven activities to provide a platform and a vehicle to educate and inform the community about their work and a mechanism to host specific project-related fundraising in support of these programs. We provided a fundraising platform in partnership with the City of Decatur and the Decatur Business Association to raise funds to support small, locally owned businesses during the pandemic. We partnered with the City of Decatur and DeKalb County to serve as the fundraising partner in support of a community wide effort to fund a public art installation honoring the life of the late Congressman John Lewis on the old courthouse square. The public art piece replaces a Confederate Memorial removed in 2020. We supported the development of an affordable housing development at Legacy Park in partnership with the City of Decatur and the Decatur Housing Authority scheduled to break ground in 2023. We are partnering with the Decatur Land Trust to issue an RFP for a smaller cottage court affordable housing development to be issued later this year. We have partnered with the Decatur Arts Alliance to repurpose four buildings at Legacy Park to provide affordable housing and studio space for local artists and secured a $209,000 grant through Congressman Hank Johnson for that effort. We now house nine non-profit organizations at Legacy Park providing a variety of services from a program supporting economic stability for refugee women, to a wild bird rehabilitation center.

We expanded our board to four additional at-large community members with expertise in affordable housing development, financial management, volunteer organization and public management. We hired our first full-time staff person effective January 2022 to direct programming and rentals at Legacy Park, created a monthly newsletter, facebook page and expanded our communication platforms and outreach. This full-time staff person supports the work of our part-time executive director to meet the needs of increased programming and tenants. We continue to generate revenue through office and program space rentals, event rentals and film rentals at Legacy Park generating revenue to cover the costs of operations and help fund capital investments to expand community life at the park and support affordable housing developments at the site.

-Expanded our board to 11 members
-Held our third annual board retreat
-Created a regular monthly -enewsletter and expanded our online data bases to over 1000 members
-Launched a new website specific to Legacy Park programs, rentals and operations
- Launched a wedding rental venue utilizing the 1911 historic chapel in 2021
-Expanded the number of small non-profits leasing office space in the Administration Building to seven
-Renovated three individual buildings in partnership with three non-profits to provide programming ranging from the Refugee Women's Network, the Frank Hamilton Folk Music School, and the Wild Nest Bird Rehabilitation Center.
-Hosted a growing number of meetings and conferences at Legacy Park
-Began the renovation of the historic, stone dairy barn for use as an environmental education center
-Successfully pursued a grant to support the renovation of four buildings to serve as the Creative Village providing affordable housing and studio space for area artists
-Successfully pursued a grant to build an accessible and inclusive playground at Legacy Park as outlined in the master plan
-Partnered with local leaders to provide fundraising support to create a permanent, public art installation in the City honoring the life of Congressman John Lewis.
-Published our first annual report

-Provided private donation platform in support of a city-led small business loan program to help locally owned businesses impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The City of Decatur pledged $400,000 to the effort, the City's development authorities contributed $100,000 and the Legacy Decatur fundraising effort generated over $50,000 from over 200 Decatur residents for the effort. The loan program was able to provide no interest loans averaging $20,000 each to 27 local businesses as a result of this effort. The campaign raised awareness of our organization and provided an important example of just how we can support our city and assure that we leave a positive legacy for future generations.

What's Next:
-We will focus on the successful approval of a management contract with the City of Decatur to manage operations at Legacy Park
-We will expand our community partnerships and public awareness about our organization and mission