Joining Community Groups Involved with Parks

Partnerships for Parks

Partnerships for Parks, a joint program of Parks & Recreation and the City Parks Foundation, works to start, strengthen, and support neighborhood park groups; to link them together, so they can learn from each other and be stronger collectively; and to promote parks in general, so people will join in efforts to restore and preserve them. They provide workshops, small grants, organization development, and problem solving to support local efforts to revitalize parks and the neighborhoods that surround them.

There are hundreds of community-based organizations throughout the city that care for parks in their neighborhoods on a regular basis. To find out if there is an active group or to learn how to start a new group, contact the appropriate Partnerships for Parks outreach coordinator for your borough.

To get on the Partnerships mailing list, so that you can receive the newsletter, Leaflet, or to receive information in the mail about how to get involved with a community group in your neighborhood park, informational workshops, and/or technical assistance materials, please call (212) 360-1310 or visit the Partnerships for Parks website.

If you want to volunteer in one of the City's flagship parks (including Bronx River, Central, Flushing Meadow/Corona, Forest, Prospect, Greenbelt, Riverside, Van Cortlandt/Pelham Bay), please contact the appropriate flagship park coordinator (also listed for your convenience on the Partnerships Directory). For more information on flagship parks, visit our Flagships Parks and Virtual Tours section.

City Parks Foundation

The only independent, nonprofit organization to provide free, park-based programs to all New Yorkers, City Parks Foundation (CPF) combines arts, sports, and education programs with community involvement to revitalize parks and the neighborhoods that surround them. CPF's park-based programs, the majority of which are free, reach over 600,000 children and adults throughout New York City each year. In addition to providing free programming, CPF contributes to the revitalization of the city's neighborhoods by helping communities support their local parks.

CPF focuses on parks because they are the shared spaces where people of diverse backgrounds and different ages can come together for recreation, enrichment, and personal growth. Active, vital parks reflect thriving, healthy communities, drawing together the assets and aspirations of neighborhoods. Programming, therefore, becomes a a crucial tool in helping to rebuild communities from the inside out, with a primary focus on those neighborhoods that are under-served.

Visit the City Parks Foundation website.