Volunteers contribute their time and energy to the greener good at Murphey Candler Park in the City of Brookhaven. park PARKPRIDE.ORG | SUMMER 2018 Your Contribution Makes a Difference Small Investments Make a Big Impact All too often, we are told that to make a difference we must "go big or go home." However, thanks to the collective work of committed individuals, we're proving that small, grassroots strategies to park improvements have a big impact within our greenspaces and communities. How, you ask? Consider the following graphs showing three years of data from two Park Pride programs that facilitate community-led park improvements. When combined, the hours volunteered and dollars invested result in a significant contribution to parks and a positive impact for our quality of life and city. Volunteer Program Fiscal Partners Program Within the last three years, community Under the umbrella of Park Pride's members have dedicated nearly 57,000 nonprofit status, Friends of the Park hours of work to neighborhood parks: an groups have raised over $840,000 for investment valued at over $1.3 million. neighborhood parks since 2015. in this issue Expanding the Parks Movement page 3 Friends Groups Celebrate Park Improvements page 4 Activate Your Park page 5 Conference Executive Summary continued on page 2. page 6 ENGAGING COMMUNITIES TO ACTIVATE THE POWER OF PARKS donor profile: why i give it's bigger than parks Debbie Kimerling Schneider DeKalb County community member and Park Pride advocate "Park Pride makes communities feel proud of their parks. Park Pride brings terrific energy to local communities. They work to activate our shared, public spaces—making them work for the people who live there. For Earth Day, Park Pride and the Friends of Hairston Park brought together volunteers from That’s the true beauty behind Invesco, Wells Fargo, Antioch AME Church, and others to clear overgrown walking trails. Thank you for your investment of time and energy in our parks! Park Pride’s mission: it is so much bigger than parks. Park Pride Small Investments from page 1. unites people. Taken together, contributions to these two programs have leveraged over $2.1 When working with Park Pride, million in support for local neighborhood parks. neighbors who have never met get to know one another. These examples illustrate that even small investments in our parks, our They can hold open, honest communities, and in Park Pride have a significant and positive impact on discussions with each other, and our community. Small is surprisingly powerful. It is authentic, inclusive, they generally come out with inspirational, and empowering. Small is beautiful. a better sense of how to work together. Thank you for giving your energy, time, and dollars to support great parks and the communities that love them! Ultimately, these communities become united behind a common goal for their park. Park How Can You Contribute? Pride just gives them the tools Would you like to help your community leverage the big power of small and resources they need to investments? Here are some ideas to get you started: envision and advocate for it. • Give a bit of your energy – check out the Park Pride calendar and sign Park Pride is an organization up to join us for a volunteer project. Or, plan a special volunteer outing with something for everyone—for people of all ages and from all for your corporate team or community group! When commenting on why walks of life. And, as beneficiaries Wells Fargo invests in parks and Park Pride, Kristina Christy, Wells Fargo of this wonderful service, it’s up to Vice President, Atlanta and North GA Community Affairs, noted, "It is us to ensure that Park Pride has a great partnership for us when we fund an organization and our team the resources they need to carry members are involved in the program as well." parkpride.org/volunteer out their mission. • Give a bit of your time – wear green and join us at a monthly Park Meeting That’s why I’m a proud supporter of the greener good." to connect with other park advocates and learn about opportunities to parkpride.org/parkmeeting engage with the parks movement. Will you support the greener good? • Give a monthly gift to Park Pride – a little each month makes a huge Your gift will help more communities, parkpride.org/monthlygift difference for the greener good! like Debbie's, unite through the power of parks. Visit To learn more about Park Pride and the impact your investments have parkpride.org/donate. in our parks and communities, please view our 2017 Impact Report on our website at bit.ly/parkimpact17. 2 parkviews | summer 2018 Expanding the Parks Movement park pride is growing: meet the team Welcoming Brookhaven and As the Friends of the Park Program expands to meet the Tucker to the Parks Family needs of more communities wanting to improve their parks, Word is spreading about the earlier this year. During the Park Pride is similarly growing to power of parks across the Atlanta intervening time, the Friends of ensure that each Friends group is area—thank you for raising your well-supported. Tucker Parks remained committed voice and sharing your passion for to the greener good of their Kayla Altland greenspace! As a result, both the City neighborhoods by hosting volunteer Kayla joins the of Brookhaven and the City of Tucker workdays, organizing community Park Pride team have joined the Park Pride family. events, and completing park as our Friends of Prior to their incorporation as cities, improvement projects. the Park Associate Park Pride supported Friends of the and will provide “Park Pride is exactly the type of support to Friends Park groups in both jurisdictions. of the Park partner we need to improve the level groups in DeKalb, Brookhaven, After Brookhaven's incorporation of service to our community and and Tucker. She brings with in 2012, Friends of the Park groups to really reimagine what Parks and her a unique skill set—formed (using Park Pride’s advocacy model) Recreation can be in Tucker," said from experience working within banded together Tucker Parks the National Park Service and as the Parks and Recreation developing programs for youth organizations—and, of course, a & Recreation "Having Park Pride return Director, Rip passion for parks! Coalition to our community is like a Robertson. (PARC) of reunion of familiar friends" Brookhaven to The expansion Additionally, four fresh-faced ~ Sue Binkert, of the Friends interns have joined us for the serve as a united Chair of PARC of Brookhaven of the Park summer, using their knowledge voice for parks. and enthusiasm to increase the In addition Program gives capacity of our staff: to playing a groups in coordination role between all the Brookhaven and Tucker access to Tim Davidson the tools and resources that support Community Building Friends groups, PARC also laid community-led park improvement Intern; rising senior at the groundwork for Park Pride to Emory University develop a relationship with the City efforts, including capacity-building of Brookhaven. workshops, the Park Play Library, the Fiscal Partners Program (which Jiaying Hu "Having Park Pride return to our allows Friends groups to raise funds Park Visioning Intern; community is like a reunion of without the burden of forming master's student at familiar friends," said Sue Binkert, a nonprofit), and the Volunteer University of Florida Chair of PARC of Brookhaven. Program. "PARC's members and the city will We look forward to connecting further Emma Nortje benefit from having Park Pride's Marketing + Dev. expertise to leverage community with the leadership and communities Intern; 2018 graduate efforts, thereby advancing and in both cities, strengthening our from Georgia College enhancing the quality and function relationships with existing Friends & State University of Brookhaven's parks." of the Park groups, and helping neighbors establish new groups. Nick Stephens The City of Tucker incorporated in Join us as we extend our warmest Park Visioning Intern; master's student at 2016 and took over management welcome to the communities and Georgia Institute of of their parks from DeKalb County parks of Brookhaven and Tucker! Technology Learn more about the process of forming a Friends of the Park group in your community. Visit parkpride.org/friends. parkpride.org | for the greener good 3 Sara J. González Park Photo credit: Eric Soderstrom The Legacy Grant awarded to the Friends of Sara J. González Park will support a complete park redesign, turning this underutilized space into a thriving community centerpiece with a playground, playing fields, and greater access to/from the surrounding community. A groundbreaking ceremony for this park—named in memory of Sara J. González, a pillar of Atlanta's Hispanic community—was held in May. Families from the surrounding community gathered at the park for a hard hat tour of the new playground site. Sara J. González Park is the first park named after a Latino in the State of Georgia. Friends Groups Celebrate Park Improvements Friends of the Park groups across the city are celebrating transformational park improvements made possible by Park Pride grants. Our grants are generously funded by The Woodruff Foundation (Legacy Grants) and The Home Depot Foundation (Community Building and Small Change Grants) and are matched at least 1:1 by the community. Henderson Park Blue Heron Nature Preserve A new kiosk and signage, both funded in part by a Community The Grist Mill Dam is a beautiful artifact that will delight visitors to Building Grant, welcomes and informs visitors to Henderson Park's Blue Heron Nature Preserve's Blueway Trail. A Legacy Grant will White Trail. In April, the Friends of Henderson Park celebrated support the trail's expansion along the habitat rich Mill and Nancy these and other amenities supported by the grant—including the Creeks and will eventually connect to Chastain Park and PATH400.