City Parks Alliance is the nation’s only independent, nationwide organization solely dedicated to the future of city parks. We believe that excellent park systems are critical infrastructure in building more equitable, resilient, and thriving cities.
Since 2000, we’ve been a valuable resource and collective voice for urban park leaders across the U.S. and North America. Through our exclusive network, events, and programming, the Alliance engages, educates, and empowers civic, community, and nonprofit leaders, government agencies, businesses, and funders to develop innovative approaches to healthy, vibrant parks and green spaces for everyone.
To educate and elevate a diverse constituency to leverage the power of parks in shaping equitable, resilient, and thriving cities.
Everyone in urban America will have access to high-quality parks and green spaces that are clean, safe, and vibrant.
City Parks Alliance fosters a national professional community and builds bridges among leaders across sectors, which is essential to ensuring the long-term vitality and sustainability of city parks.
The Alliance champions a partnership-based approach to the challenges and opportunities facing our cities through practitioner-centered research, field building, and advocacy to show the importance of city parks to climate resiliency, environmental protection, economic vibrancy, social cohesion, and community health. The Alliance also works to ensure robust park funding from all levels of government and other sources.
We support practitioners with the following approaches.
City Parks Alliance is the “go-to” organization for cutting-edge research demonstrating that city parks are critical infrastructure and addressing emerging issues facing urban parks professionals.
The Alliance shapes conversations and drives innovation, both locally and nationally, through our network of park leaders from public, nonprofit, private, and community-based organizations.
Recent reports include Parks and Green Stormwater: A Win-Win for Urban Resilience and Parks and Technology: Guidelines for Implementing Technological Tools for Parks and Public Spaces.
City Parks Alliance convenes leaders across sectors involved in creating and caring for city parks. We provide a forum for honest dialogue and experiential learning through high-quality, curated learning events, including webinars, peer conversations, skill-building workshops, and study tours.
Our cornerstone event, the biennial Greater & Greener conference, brings together more than 1,200 practitioners to collaborate, learn, and explore through first-hand experiences. We also organize knowledge tools such as our Park Resource Library and City Park Funding Hub.
City Parks Alliance is a national voice for city parks and securing the necessary funding to support parks and green spaces. We are a leading advocate for the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program, a critical federal funding source for locally-led park and recreation projects.
Our bipartisan Mayors for Parks coalition includes more than 60 mayors from across the U.S. The coalition advocates for increased federal funding for our nation’s city parks.
City Parks Alliance believes that parks and recreation services offer a great opportunity to advance racial equity. Equity is about fairness: Full and equal access to opportunities, power, and resources so all people can thrive and prosper, regardless of demographics.
Our work is guided and informed by our beliefs and commitments to:
We believe that everyone living in urban areas should have equal access to quality parks that provide diverse, affordable recreation opportunities in clean, safe, and healthy environments. All city park visitors should have park and recreation choices that enrich their quality of life and cultural connection to beautiful places and vibrant experiences.
We believe that park and recreation budgets can be used more strategically to address racial and economic equity. We share best practices and help local and national park leaders develop creative solutions to meet the need for both capital and operations funding that includes building cross-sector connections and leveraging resources.
We support implementing hiring policies, building cultural competency, and nurturing leadership that results in a workforce of urban park and recreation field staff reflective of the diverse communities they serve, with upward mobility for all.
We believe local voices—through public partnerships with community-based organizations—are essential to creating vibrant places and recreational services. We provide support and strategies for developing community-inspired policy and programs that serve and reflect the diversity of park users.
We strive to support park and recreation service delivery with an equity lens by sharing standards and assessment tools for data collection and measurement to help prioritize investment in underserved communities and to measure racial diversity within organizations that serve those communities, including City Parks Alliance.
We show the value of park and recreation places and programs to address cities’ broader equity challenges with other community development issues such as affordable housing, environmental justice and resiliency, youth development, incarceration reduction, food security, and transportation options.