People Make Parks is a project to help communities participate in the design of their parks. When residents engage with government and weigh in on design, government builds better parks and the public continues to care for places that they have helped to create. Based on this idea, People Make Parks facilitates collaboration in park design between invested communities and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.
Hester Street (HST), working with Partnerships for Parks, created the People Make Parks Toolkit to inform residents about the process of making physical improvement to parks, help them collect information that is relevant to design, communicate it to park decision-makers in a timely way, and transition into long-term park stewardship. The People Make Parks Toolkit encourages a diversity of participants to lead in the creation of meaningful places. The initiative engages people from a variety of backgrounds, including youth and non-English speakers.
