October 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 40

Adam Cohen

Partnerships for Parks

Case Study: Astoria Heights Park
Friends of Astoria Heights Park was formed in the fall of 2013 by a group of neighbors
who felt strongly about protecting their Queens, New York, neighborhood park and ensuring
their community had the same clean, safe, fun and inspiring public spaces as other neighborhoods in the city. The group, whose mission is to " aspire to work with all of their neighbors
to make the park a place where we gather to celebrate and demonstrate respect both for
our common values and for our unique backgrounds and perspectives, " started by bringing
maintenance and safety issues to the attention of NYC Parks and its Community Board.
While the drive and mission originated with this group, Western Queens PfP Outreach Coordinator, Nichole Henderson-Roy, worked closely with the leadership team to connect them
to the right people in the agency to achieve what they set forth to do. This collaboration with
NYC Parks and PfP - participating in PfP's It's My Park program, participating in a peer-mentoring Academy Fellowship program, being fiscally sponsored by City Parks Foundation to
receive tax-deductible donations for their group, receiving Capacity Fund grants that funded
summer programming, a mural and street tree care - has led to a clean and active park that
is well-used by the community.
Astoria Heights Park serves an ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhood and according to Lynn Kennedy, Chair of the Friends of Astoria Heights Park, the leadership team is
intentional about seeking out groups and individuals who are representative of the community's diversity to help foster community pride. They engage new constituents by hosting
fun events that reflect the local community's culture and interests and have found that these
activities result in neighbors caring for this public space and holding it to a high standard of
cleanliness through It's My Park projects and encouraging positive activity by hosting fitness
programs, sing alongs, book giveaways, and puppet shows
The heightened feeling of community created by Friends of Astoria Heights Park has resulted in increased participation at park events and funds raised, and a strong partnership
with elected officials, city agencies, and local institutions and businesses. The group's voice
is now heard beyond the park's borders to address the needs of the community including
advocating for increased safety measures in the neighborhood's streets and more programming for school-aged children. With a park renovation underway as part of NYC Parks' Community Parks Initiative, Astoria Heights Park will be an even more vibrant community space
led by a dedicated friends group that will continue to beautify and activate the park.

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riched community support for parks.
With community input collected
in-person and online, NYC Parks is
redesigning and reconstructing neighborhood parks and targeting other park
spaces for immediate physical improvements and repairs. In addition to these
physical changes, the agency is enhancing public programming on its properties
in these neighborhoods. To better connect these parks with their users, NYC
Parks has adopted elements of PfP's
model of community building to ensure
sustainable community support structures for all CPI sites. PfP staff works to
raise awareness of CPI, engage community members in the park redesign process, and unify and develop communities
of park advocates and stewards.
Participatory Park Design
In 2014, NYC Parks set forth the Framework for an Equitable Future, a vision
for a strong, just parks system, including
citywide programs like the Community
Parks Initiative. Community engagement
is at the core of the Framework, which is
why NYC Parks has taken historic steps
to further involve the public in park design decisions, from making capital project
tracking accessible online to putting strategies in place that ensure high attendance
at public input meetings. PfP has been part
of the participatory design movement as
well, collaborating with several local partner organizations to develop resources that
explain and teach New Yorkers how to
participate in the NYC Parks' process for
funding, designing and building capital
projects. The Center for Urban Pedagogy
and New Yorkers for Parks worked with
PfP on an illustrated publication, How
Can I Improve My Park, that walks citizens
through who to know and the steps to take
for both capital and maintenance projects. Participatory design experts at Hester Street Collaborative created " People
Make Parks, " a joint project with PfP that
October 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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