1,000+ Opportunities
Find the right grant
Search federal, foundation, and corporate grants with AI — or browse by agency, topic, and state.
Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program is a historical grant program from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, that provided matching grants and technical assistance to economically distressed urban communities for the rehabilitation of critically needed recreation facilities.
Active between 1978 and 2002, the program awarded nearly $272 million across 1,461 grants to 380 local jurisdictions in 43 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. The program supported rehabilitation of playgrounds, recreation centers, parks, ball fields, and conversion of surplus buildings into community centers. All rehabilitated sites remain protected in perpetuity for public recreation use.
Get a weekly digest of new grants like this
A free weekly digest of new foundation and federal funding opportunities as they're added to Granted. Unsubscribe anytime.
Or search similar grants →Extracted from the official opportunity page/RFP to help you evaluate fit faster.
Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Program (U.S. National Park Service) Skip to global NPS navigation Skip to the footer section Active between 1978 and 2002, the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery (UPARR) Program was established in November 1978 by Public Law 95-625 to provide matching grants and technical assistance to economically distressed urban communities.
The program provided direct federal assistance to urban localities for rehabilitation of critically needed recreation facilities. The law encouraged systematic local planning and commitment to continuing operation and maintenance of recreation programs, sites, and facilities. In total, the UPARR program awarded nearly $272 million for 1,461 grants to 380 local jurisdictions in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The UPARR program has supported a range of locally-led efforts such as the rehabilitation of inner-city playgrounds, tot lots, recreation centers, parks, ball fields, tennis and basketball courts, and swimming pools, as well as the conversion of abandoned and surplus buildings into community centers.
Recreation sites and facilities rehabilitated through the UPARR program remain protected in perpetuity for public recreation use under the provisions of Section 1010 of the UPARR Act. Learn more about what this program does. Explore the history of the program.
Frequently Asked Questions Find answers to some common questions about the program. Get in touch with our program. Last updated: May 6, 2025
According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Local governments in urban areas. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program is funded by U.S. Department of the Interior. Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
A new Interior Department policy routes every grant and cooperative agreement of $50,000 or more through two political appointees for manual review. The result is a backlog of roughly 1,400 grants and $362 million in delayed funding — up from fewer than 10 two years ago. Here is how the bottleneck works, why it matters even for recipients who already have an award letter, and what nonprofits, universities, states, and tribes should do to protect projects that depend on Interior dollars.
Read articleThe FY26 BLM Youth Conservation Corps NOFO (L26AS00064) holds a Round Two deadline of October 16, 2026 — $900,000, eight awards, $30,000 to $220,000 each. Its siblings are larger and richer, and every one of them explicitly bars Public Lands Corps work. That exclusion, not the dollar figure, is the strategy.
Read article