Friends
of Philadelphia Parks (“FPP”) is a not-for-profit membership organization that
advocates, builds coalitions, and educates the public in order to achieve
superior systems of parks and open space for Philadelphia.
PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS:
Urban Parks: An Investment
that Pays:
In December 2002 FPP and the Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society co-hosted a breakfast for park leaders and city officials
featuring Peter Harnik, a director of the Green Cities Program of the Trust for
Public Land and author of Inside City Parks. Mr. Harnik’s presentation and the ensuing discussion, which
focused on how to measure and create an excellent park system, stimulated
thinking about potential opportunities for Philadelphia and it’s open space.
2002 Campaign for A New Era
for Philadelphia’s Parks:
With a rally & press conference in February
2002, FPP kicked-off a three pronged campaign for A New Era
for Philadelphia’s Parks, focusing on the
appointment of Fairmount Park Commissioners in May 2002, the need for a
citywide, comprehensive strategic plan for all of Philadelphia’s parks, and an
investigation for new revenue sources for the city’s parks. These points were crafted with extensive
community input and collaboration. Two
of these issues have already been addressed with considerable success. In April & May 2002, through press
conferences and an online faxbank, FPP and a coalition of 30 community and park
groups from across the city endorsed and promoted a slate of candidates for the
Fairmount Park Commission. Three of the
endorsed candidates were appointed in May 2002. This unprecedented success is a major step in creating new
opportunities for our city’s parks. In
addition, the City of Philadelphia, through the Managing Director’s Office, has
hired a team of consultants to develop and implement a comprehensive strategic
planning process for our park system.
FPP sat on the selection committee.
For
twelve months, FPP was involved in a comprehensive strategic planning process
facilitated by our consultants, Pat Sanaghan and Joan Reilly. During this thoughtful and creative process,
our Board and staff worked together to create a plan that will guide us into
the future. In October 2002, FPP
convened a group of park professionals and constituent leaders to ask for their
feedback about FPP's mission, vision, and organizational values, as well as
their responses to a set of strategic questions about our future goals around
advocacy, education, and coalition building.
Quarterly Newsletter:
Read
by over 10,000 families and organizations, this publication focuses on issues,
facts, resources, events, accomplishments, and challenges relevant to all of
Philadelphia’s parks. Contributions
include updates about advocacy campaigns, features about park programs for
children and adults, park history and statistics, information about
park-related questions, as well as many articles of general interest.
Communications
with City Council
For
several years FPP has testified and mobilized major showings of support at City
Council Budget Hearings as well as at a special park hearing. Hundreds of park constituents, representing
over 50 organizations have attended these hearings with the goal of effecting
positive change for our city’s parks.
In October 2000, the Friends gave an in-depth slide presentation before
City Council and other officials. FPP
works and communicates with Council Members to heighten their awareness of the
essential need to maintain and improve our City’s parks; to focus on the
enormous value of our parks to the well-being of our citizens, neighborhoods,
businesses and entire city; to learn about individual Members’ concerns and
interest in our park systems; and to strengthen the partnership of City Council,
park constituents, foundations, non-profits, and city agencies, so that
together we can protect and improve our parks.
Community Resource:
FPP
serves as a general information resource and support to the community at large,
including individual citizens, park friends groups, journalists, tourists,
agencies and other non-profits.
Telephone inquiries, visits to our website, referrals, requests for
letters of support, requests for verification and clarification of facts, are
an essential component of the operation of FPP.
Regional Partnerships:
FPP
actively serves on steering and planning committees, among them, Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society/Philadelphia Green’s, Parks
Revitalization Steering Committee, the City Parks Association planning
committee. We are collaborating with
Philadelphia Green, City Parks Association, the Fairmount Park Commission and
the Department of Recreation to develop a regional parks website.
Breakfast with Blondell Park Conference:
In October 2001, FPP facilitated a conference for 80
representatives of park organizations from across Philadelphia. Constituents from Fairmount Park, Department
of Recreation parks, community groups and nonprofits convened to form alliances
and learn how to communicate effectively about park issues with government
officials, media and the community at large.
Guest speakers included Philadelphia City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds
Brown, chair of the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, Tim
Tompkins, Director of Partnership for Parks and Co-Director of Parks
2001 Campaign in New York City, and Carol Towarnicky, editorial writer for
the Philadelphia Daily News.
Annual Meeting:
Over 150 park professionals and stakeholders
gathered in Fairmount Park in June 2001 for FPP’s Annual Meeting. The featured speaker was Peter Harnik,
Director of the Green Cities Initiative at the Trust for Public Land, and
author of Inside City Parks, the study of park and recreation systems in
American’s 25 largest cities. Previous
speakers include the late Ian McHarg, renowned landscape architect, regional
planner, educator and author, and Kathleen A. McGinty, former Chair of the
White House Council on Environmental Quality, acting Secretary of the
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Mayoral Forums:
Identifying
a crucial need to bring issues about parks and open space to the attention of
future political leaders, the press and the public, FPP held Mayoral Candidates
Forums in March and October, 1999, which were moderated by Marc Howard of WPVI,
Channel 6, and attended by the candidates, and more than 1,000 park volunteers,
professionals and school children.
Issues addressed included park funding, safety, long term protection of
parks and open space, and the necessity of a regional greenspace effort with
surrounding counties.
Boelsen Cottage:
Built
in approximately 1680, this little farmhouse surrounded by beautiful gardens is
believed by some to be the second oldest building in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Owned by the Fairmount
Park Commission, restored and maintained by FPP, it serves as the Friends’
office.
Pennies for the Park:
This
project which was born in 1991, has raised over $57,000 for urban reforestation
and $6,000 for the Fairmount Park Ranger Corps., primarily from school
children. Although in 1999 FPP began to
focus our energy elsewhere, the program continues to generate funds for the
Ranger Corps. on a smaller scale and with considerable saving in staff and
volunteer resources.
Bob Thomas Tours:
Founder
and Board Member Bob Thomas continues to lead monthly hikes to magical and
often unseen places in Philadelphia’s parks, and in the countryside of
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
These evening and daylong adventures convey the history, power and
preciousness of our open space, and the need to preserve and protect it. FFP has begun to expand our tours to other
guides and venues.
January 2003