Venture Outdoors will receive a $30,000 grant from outdoor apparel and equipment store chain L.L. Bean to jump-start funding for the 2009 Family and Community Programs Initiative .

Announcement of the grant coincides with last week's grand opening of L.L. Bean's new store at Ross Park Mall, the only L.L. Bean location west of the Allegheny Mountains.

"In [L.L. Bean's] efforts to establish a store in Pittsburgh, they did research here to find out about the area and found us," said Sean Brady, assistant executive director of Venture Outdoors. "In our discussions with them, we discussed the Family and Community Programs Initiative and they thought it very closely matched their corporate goals here."

The Family and Community Programs Initiative stems from the Diversity Outdoors pilot program of 2008, funded with a $5,000 grant by Pittsburgh 250 Community Connections and the Sprout Fund. The program will require $200,000 annually in funding over three years.

The pilot program was successful, said Brady, providing outreach activities at community festivals and events held in underserved neighborhoods, and including activities such as bike tours, climbing walls and geo-caching hikes.

The goal of the new program is to launch new family-focused activities next year designed to help young participants get their families more active outdoors.

Both programs are intended to increase diversity among the population using parks, trails and waterways for recreation by hosting outdoor festivals in urban neighborhoods.

"One of the great things about Pittsburgh is that almost every neighborhood has a great park nearby," Brady said. "But inner-city neighborhoods generally don't utilize their natural resources, like the parks, trails, rivers and lakes."

The grant from L.L. Bean includes $20,000 in financial support and $10,000 in apparel and equipment.

Venture Outdoors will kick off the program at its annual Venture Outdoors Festival in May.