A grant from the Philip L. Graham Fund will give the Federal City Council (FC2) the funding to give DC citizens a stronger voice in the redevelopment of the Langston Golf Course.
“We’re delighted the Philip L. Graham Fund supports the Federal City Council’s efforts to foster a vibrant DC economy and to engage DC residents around the Langston Golf Course as community leaders in deciding the future of their neighborhood and the city,” says Anthony Williams, FC2 CEO and executive director.
The Langston Initiative will revamp DC’s three public golf cours¬es in federal parks—Langston, Rock Creek and East Potomac—and a tennis facility in East Potomac. Owned by the National Park Service (NPS), the courses would eventually be leased and operated by the FC2.
The $75,000 grant will be used to hire a consultant who can engage directly with the neighborhood adjacent to the Langston Golf Course over the next 12 months. The consultant will begin community engagement efforts in January 2018.
Established in 1963, the Fund honors the memory of Philip L. Graham, who was publisher of The Washington Post and president of The Washington Post Company. The Fund focuses chiefly on causes in the Washington, DC, region.
“One of our goals is to be very intentional about how we engage the community around Langston,” says Emeka Moneme, FC2 deputy executive director. “We want to ensure they have a feeling of agency in the efforts around planning and community development, and to help them identify a basket of community benefits that could be provided from the operations of the golf course.”
The activities would include helping the Langston neighborhood think through its community infrastructure so citizens are able to have a voice in terms of deciding who speaks for the community, what its network’s organizational structure should be and how new resources coming from the Langston course might be used.
“The whole point of the Langston Initiative is to improve these public facilities so they will benefit the public,” says Maura Brophy, senior associate for infrastructure investment. “Improved golf courses will benefit people who like to golf, of course. The work we do with the consultant involves the community in the process so it can shape those benefits and figure out what those benefits are.”
