Originally published on SaportaReport.
By Hannah E. Jones, Park Pride’s Marketing & Communications Manager
“A lot of people don’t have parks. We’re blessed to have a park, and we want to use it,” said Joyce Smith, a community advocate and longtime resident of the Poole Creek neighborhood.
Harper Park is a 13-acre park situated in the Poole Creek neighborhood in Southside Atlanta. Today, the park sees community events, family picnics, skaters, kids playing, sports games (even croquet) and people on their lunch break. But that hasn’t always been the case, and the Friends of Harper Park are committed to further improving and activating the greenspace.
Neighbors and community leaders Coreen Dent and Gloria Sanders established the Friends of Harper Park with Park Pride in 2020. They decided to start the Friends group because, as Sanders put it, the park was “dormant,” but they had bigger aspirations for the greenspace.
Sanders was born in the neighborhood, and as a child, she attended the now-closed Caroline Ferguson Harper Elementary School, which borders the park. Caroline Ferguson Harper was a formerly enslaved woman who purchased and farmed several acres in the area, including part of the old school site. Sanders has fond memories of playing in the park as a child, but over time, the space became underutilized.
Dent, president of the Southside Concerned Citizens community association, can attest to this. Despite having lived in the neighborhood since the late ‘80s, Dent was unaware that the park existed until 2017. And it didn’t have the best reputation.
“My experience with Harper Park, prior to getting involved with Park Pride, was passing by it — knowing there was a park up the hill and knowing that I was not really sure that I wanted to drive up the hill and see what that brought,” Dent said.
Smith added, “[We became] interested in the park because … it’s big, but it wasn’t used. We wanted to open up our park for people from the community to come out.”
The narrative is changing. In addition to the Friends group’s efforts, there’s also increased visibility into the park. The space used to be secluded and surrounded by neighborhoods, but when a transport and logistics company opened alongside the western side of the park, it provided greater visibility, accessibility and sense of safety.
In just five years, the Friends group has accomplished a lot. Dent was part of Park Pride’s inaugural class of the Park Stewardship Academy, a three-month educational and skill-building program for Friends of the Park members. The Friends group also received a 2024 Park Pride grant to support the new Ruby Harper Skatepark that opened last December, making it the third skatepark in the City of Atlanta.
“I see people using [the skatepark] all the time,” Dent said. “One day, I saw a group of guys who all went to high school together. They hadn’t seen each other in 20 or 30 years, but they met up to skate.”
Today, the Friends group is working with Park Pride’s Visioning team of professional park designers and the larger community to reimagine the park. They recently had their first public meeting, and neighbors expressed interest in an upgraded playground, restrooms, a water feature like a splash pad, ADA accessibility, beautification efforts and others.
This process is still in the early stages, but by early 2026, the Friends of Harper Park will have a new plan that will lay the groundwork for a park that reflects the community’s vision and priorities.
The grassroots efforts of the Friends of Harper Park aren’t a standalone story — this community has a history of seeing what needs to be done and making it happen. Ruby Harper, the park’s namesake, was a strong community organizer who cared deeply about her neighbors. Seeing a need within the community, Harper purchased a school bus in the early ‘60s and drove local children to and from school. Much like Ruby Harper, the Friends group is committed to bringing about the change that they and the larger community would like to see.
“[This experience] has shown me that if you focus on something and set a goal, you can achieve it,” Dent said. “One person can influence others, and that influence can bring change. Change doesn’t come overnight, but it does come with consistency and persistence.”
The power of greenspace is something that this community believes in deeply, and seeing their neighbors enjoy the space makes the hard work worth it.
Dent recalls seeing two men sitting on a bench together, and “they were sitting there just relaxing, talking and not stressed. These are middle-aged Black men, sitting on a park bench, relaxed. That says a lot in today’s America that a park has the power to do that. I carried that memory with me because that’s the power of parks.”
If you’d like to show Harper Park some love, consider coming out to Park Pride’s Greener Good Volunteer Day on Saturday, October 18, from 9 am to 12 pm. Volunteers will help maintain the new nature trail, remove invasive plants and collect litter. Click here to sign up.