Atlanta developed a Parks and Recreation Equity Data Tool for the city’s 10-year master plan, Activate ATL, to use data-driven mapping to accurately identify disparities within the parks and recreation system and help pinpoint specific strategies to eliminate those disparities. The interactive tool evaluates community and park needs and identifies neighborhoods with the greatest need for park investment and capital improvements, and will ultimately track and evaluate the impact of the agency’s efforts over time.
Our Network for Learning and Action
Park Equity Communities of Practice
The Park Equity Communities of Practice is a capacity building and peer learning network that brings together cities throughout the U.S. to focus on improving park equity. Through a co-creation and rigorous approach, we work to generate policy recommendations, resources, and guidance that supports changing park equity practices on the ground.
Creating Solutions Together
Over 300 city stakeholders, including city officials, planners, and parks professionals, from over 80 cities across the nation have come together through the Park Equity Communities of Practice. Participants dialogue with each other and subject matter experts to learn, workshop challenges, exchange ideas, and identify best practices that can be scaled and applied throughout cities of all types across the country.
Elevating Innovation
Examples from our Expert Panels
Atlanta, GA
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Recreation and Parks uses equity data for their capital prioritization plan and to redress areas in the city that experienced historical disinvestment with redlining. Furthermore, the city uses this data to target areas for community engagement and allocate more funds to bring in programming and recreation to those neighborhoods.
Henderson, NV
Henderson Parks and Recreation established best practices and guidelines for developers to maximize park access and community benefits for residents. As a result, the city has been able to build new parkland more efficiently in and near residential developments, in which 43% of new parks built in the last decade (since 2012) came from private development.
2021-2022: Approaches to Park Equity
This cohort tackled parks-related issues that address broader policy objectives, such as health, climate, equity, economic development, and quality of life for residents. Read key takeaways and insights from this cohort here.
- March 9, 2022 – Centering Community in Parks Decision-Making Recording || Presentation
- May 11, 2022: Increasing “Access” through a Holistic Lens Recording || Presentation
- July 13, 2022: The Power of Partnerships for Stronger Parks and Systems Changes Recording || Presentation
- September 14, 2022: Healthy and Resilient Communities: Long-Term Park Impacts Recording || Presentation
2022-2023: High-Impact Areas for Park Equity
We hosted three ‘deep dive’ tracks to explore high-impact opportunity areas that represent a significant challenge or need in the field and are most relevant to practitioners’ interests.
Community Engagement For Lasting Impact
Participants in this track exchanged best practices and ideas for conducting meaningful, equitable community engagement and gathered and tested tools to apply in their respective communities.
Nov 10, 2022 – What does engagement look like? Recording || Presentation
Dec 8, 2022 – Where to start: initial outreach Recording || Presentation
Jan 19, 2023 – Optional Session – Park Listeners Program Recording || Presentation
Feb 9, 2023 – Building relationships between communities Recording || Presentation
Apr 13, 2023 – Engaging with diverse community identities Recording || Presentation
June 8, 2023 – Building community power Recording || Presentation
July 13, 2023 – Closing session Recording || Presentation
Developer Park Partnership Strategies
Participants tackled challenges and opportunities with the growing trend of privately developed parks, and discussed best practices for public access criteria to address park access gaps and inequities in their respective cities.
Nov 9, 2022 – What are the current conditions of private parks in your city? Recording || Presentation
Jan 11, 2023 – When is a private park public? A discussion of public access & equity considerations Recording || Presentation
Mar 8, 2023 – How can cities leverage developer requirements to increase park access and narrow the park equity gap? Recording || Presentation
May 10, 2023 – What are successful stewardship, funding, & governance models for privately-owned parks? Recording || Presentation
July 12, 2023 – How can we communicate park access metrics in cities with significant number of residents served by private parks (e.g. HOAs)? Recording || Presentation
Park Qualities Incubator: Mapping Park Experiences
Participants in this track discussed and co-developed new approaches to measuring park experience types, such as. natural areas, recreational activities, and social gathering areas, as a step towards building park quality attributes for use in equity and impact analyses.
Nov 16, 2022 – Framework- Linking park experience types and health outcomes Recording || Presentation
Dec 14, 2022 – Framework- Translating concepts to metrics and action Recording || Presentation
Jan 18, 2023 – Workshop: Review 2 or 3 new mapping approaches developed from the first two sessions Recording || Presentation
Mar 15, 2023 – Workshop: Review revised approaches and open review period for participants Recording || Presentation
Apr 15, 2023 – Beyond experiences – Exploring additional approaches to park quality metrics Recording || Presentation