Hester Street (HST) helped form the Immigrants and Parks Collaborative, a coalition of seven vibrant organizations working in parks throughout the city. The Collaborative worked to ensure that our city’s open spaces are democratic, representative of neighbors’ wants and needs, and serve as relevant resources for all New Yorkers.
Committed to fueling locally-driven, immigrant-led community development by creating opportunities for civic engagement in neighborhood parks, the Collaborative encouraged local government, institutions and organizations to work together to use parks in creative ways for inclusive community development. As part of the Collaborative, HST worked toward increasing language access and community education in the capital design process of parks for immigrant communities citywide. HST worked closely with Asian Americans for Equality to increase immigrant access to parks and to bring about community-led park improvements.