Park Pride, an Atlanta-based parks nonprofit, is pleased to announce that Stephen Causby has been promoted to his new role as Director of Community Building. Stephen will be leading the Community Building team and supporting a powerful network of citizen park advocates across Park Pride’s service area through the Friends of the Park and Volunteer programs. This position sits at the heart of the nonprofit’s mission — engaging communities to activate the power of parks.
Causby joined Park Pride’s team last August as the Associate Director of Grantmaking & Implementation. Prior to that, he served as a planner and Manager of the Community Partnerships group at the Atlanta Regional Commission and Director of the City of Atlanta’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
Causby describes each role as leading him deeper into his personal and professional purpose, looking at ways to work with communities to accomplish difficult but meaningful goals — with a focus on equity and the needs of residents.
While Causby has been part of the team for a year, his relationship with Park Pride spans over a decade through his involvement with Mattie Freeland Park in Atlanta’s English Avenue neighborhood. A group of neighbors, including Causby, started the park as a community garden in 2008; in 2015, the Friends of the Park group received a Visioning Award to create a conceptual design plan with Park Pride’s team of landscape architects; and the park opened in 2022. Through this experience, Causby saw Park Pride’s mission, work, and impact firsthand.
“I am very excited to be a part of this amazing team and find new ways to take our work even farther, continuing to weave the civic fabric that makes Atlanta so special,” Causby said. “Our city and region are making decisions right now on what we will become over the next 50 years, and parks are a foundational part of that vision.”
The Community Building department has recently been renamed from Community Services to reflect Park Pride’s proactive approach to inviting others into the work, including increased connections, finding ways to be a better resource, and taking every opportunity to advance parks and communities.
Reach out to Stephen at stephen@parkpride.org.