Brownieland April Volunteer Project featuring Park Pride in Celebration of Earth Day

For our April Volunteer Project, the Brownieland Team signed up to lend a hand with Park Pride, the only Atlanta-based nonprofit that provides programs and leadership to help communities realize their dreams for neighborhood parks. In celebration of Earth Day, Park Pride offered volunteer opportunities to clean up various parks around metro Atlanta!

Park Pride is a nonprofit organization that engages communities in neighborhood parks around metro Atlanta through its work with community gardens, volunteer projects, community-led park redesigns, and grants for capital park improvements. Since 1989, Park Pride has been active in greenspace advocacy by educating civic leaders and the general public about the benefits of parks. In 2021, nineteen metro Atlanta communities have received Park Pride grants totaling over $1,370,000 in capital improvements to neighborhood greenspaces. With the belief that a world-class park begins with a strong, community- supported design, Park Pride engages communities to activate the power of parks!

Park Pride offers a Friends of the Park (FoP) program as an effective first step in creating positive and long-lasting changes in a neighborhood park. Registered FoP groups have access to numerous programs and services that assist greenspace initiatives. The Friends of the Park initiative offers a park visioning program, grant program, fiscal sponsorship program, organized volunteer workdays, monthly park meetings, capacity-building resources, and workshops. FoP groups have access to the Park Pride Tool Shed, a free service that provides basic landscaping tools and equipment for FoP groups to equip volunteers for park projects efficiently. Additionally, the Park Play Library offers rental recreational equipment packages for all kinds of activities.

Each spring, Park Pride hosts its annual Parks & Greenspace Conference, the largest parks conference in the southeast, showcasing thought leaders from Atlanta and across the nation. Through education and inspiration, the conference focuses on best practices for companies and individuals united by a common desire to improve parks and strengthen communities. On May 4th, Park Pride’s 20th annual conference: The New Case for Parks, will reflect on the past year, questioning whether the events of 2020 have set a trajectory for the next parks movement. This year’s event will dive deep into this altered landscape and how the issues of racial justice, public health, civil unrest, and extreme weather events have renewed public interest in greenspace and ignited an urgent need to invest in our park systems for the benefit of all communities. Registration is open and all are welcome! Learn more at parkpride.org/conference.

Find out more about this remarkable nonprofit and how you can lend a hand For the Greener Good HERE.