Welcome to Park Pride, Jessica! Jessica Hayhurst is the Special Events Intern with Park Pride this summer, and we are excited to have her join the team. Jessica is from Cartersville, GA and she graduated this May from Berry College where she majored in Public Relations.”From staff to donors, everyone [at Park Pride] is joined on the same mission to make Atlanta’s parks great, and it’s a team effort to get there.” -Jessica Hayhurst
Recently, Park Pride’s Executive Director, Michael Halicki, joined Atlanta Regional Commission’s LINK (Leaders Involvement Networking Knowledge) trip to Pittsburgh with other metro-Atlanta leaders. The goal was to connect with and learn tactics for addressing regional issues from Pittsburgh leaders that could be adapted and applied in the Atlanta area. In this week’s Saporta Report, Michael outlines the lessons and ideas he hopes leaders will bring back and incorporate in Atlanta, especially as they relate to parks and greenspace.
SOURCE: Saporta Report
Friend, Thirty years ago, a group of passionate individuals in Atlanta came together around three shared beliefs: that great parks improve well-being, have the power to strengthen communities, and make cities and the environment more resilient. Committed to the greener good, these individuals nurtured the culture of stewardship for community and greenspace upon which … Continue Reading →
The 10-Minute Walk Campaign—a partnership between The Trust for Public Land, National Recreation and Park Association, and Urban Land Institute–today announced $400,000 in grants to advance the goal of ensuring that everyone has a quality park within a 10-minute walk of home. Park Pride received a $40,000 grant to support the Community Schoolyards Program, a pilot effort to use area schoolyards as community green spaces.
SOURCE: The Trust for Public Land
Park Pride hosts over 6,000 volunteers in parks each year, contributing over 22,000 hours of service to keeping our parks green, clean, and beautiful! We cannot thank our volunteers enough for coming out and giving back in honor of Earth Day at Zonolite Park. During this project and with the help and leadership from the … Continue Reading →
Why do we love volunteering in parks? Easy: it’s good for our health, it’s good for communities, and it’s good for the environment. Volunteer in a park today. Visit the Volunteer page for more information.
A proposed Atlanta Public Schools and City of Atlanta program would open up schoolyards for use as public parks after school, on weekends and summer breaks. It’s part of a growing national trend to use school playgrounds to fill a void in neighborhoods that don’t have public parks within walking distance. “We think of parks as being the hearts of communities, but the schools are similarly the center of communities,” said Michael Halicki, executive director of Park Pride. The Atlanta park advocacy organization, along with partners including The Trust for Public Land, are helping APS and the city open three schoolyards as public parks next year. Over three years, the program would expand to include about 10 schools throughout Atlanta.
SOURCE: AJC
Michael Halicki had the good fortune to be in the room at an Atlanta City Council committee meeting last week when Atlanta Parks Commissioner John Dargle recounted his observations since taking on his role 5+ months ago. This column is an attempt to share the Commissioner’s observations and layer on the vantage point of Park Pride.
SOURCE: Saporta Report
Such an amazing AMLI volunteer project celebrating Earth Day at Historic Fourth Ward Park! Click to watch video. Video produced by Claire Weitnauer. Partnering with Park Pride and the H4WP Conservancy for the third year in a row, AMLI volunteers helped to beautify the south end of the park by removing large overgrown plants, installing … Continue Reading →
The Friends of Needham Park are working with Park Pride on a vision plan for Needham Park. Through the Park Visioning process neighbors are examining their collective and current needs and desires for this small, beautiful park. The outcome of “park visioning” is a new, community-supported park vision plan that can be used for advocacy and fundraising. Thank you to … Continue Reading →
