IMP-act Day: Partnerships for Parks Calls Volunteers & Communities to Action Across City Parks
First Citywide Day of Service for City Parks Volunteers Since the Start of the COVID Crisis
Hundreds of park volunteers will gather across city parks on Saturday, August 8th, for IMP-act Day (It’s My Park Action Day), the first citywide day of service in city parks since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Led and organized by Partnerships for Parks (PfP), a joint program of NYC Parks and the City Parks Foundation, IMP-act Day will bring together “friends groups” in more than three dozen parks for high-impact beautification,tree-care, and painting projects with new COVID safety protocols.
These 36+ projects are part of PfP’s It’s My Park program, which engages volunteer groups in hands-on service projects throughout city parks. In previous years, PfP has organized up to hundreds of It’s My Park projects every month, but the program was completely suspended in March due to COVID-19. IMP-act Day will mark the recommencement of It’s My Park programscitywide.
Notable sites include Marcus Garvey Park on Madison Ave, from E 120th St to E 124th St in Manhattan; Fort Greene Park on Myrtle Ave and DeKalb Ave between Washington Park and St. Edward's St in Brooklyn; St. Mary's Park on St. Mary's St between St Ann's Ave and Jackson Ave in the Bronx; Rufus King Park on Jamaica Ave and 89th Ave between 150th St and 153rd St in Queens; and DeMatti Playground on Tompkins Ave between Chestnut St and Shaughnessy La in Staten Island. All projects will take place from 9:00am – 11:00am.
IMP-act Day comes at a particularly critical time for parks and green spaces as New York City recovers from COVID-19 and faces an economic crisis. This current climate harkens back to the early days of PfP, founded in 1995 to support community groups that had emerged to support neighborhood parks in the wake of the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. With the aid of PfP and NYC Parks staff, these grassroots “friends groups” helped to transform once-neglected parks into thriving community spaces. Every year, It’s My Park programs engage more than 25,000 volunteers, and PfP now supports nearly 600 community groups working to sustain 400 parks across New York City.
“We welcome our community partners across the city back into local parks to do some much-needed cleaning and beautification work on IMP-act Day,” said Hannah Gall, director of the Volunteer Program at Partnerships for Parks. “Community support will be crucial in the coming months and years to ensure our parks remain clean, green, and vital.”
“Our parks volunteers embody the spirit of caring and love that make community parks much more than just open spaces,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP. “As our city recovers from COVID-19, community-building events like IMP-act Day demonstrate how far we’ve come – and the incredible work New Yorkers are willing to do to support the Greatest City (and the Greatest Parks Department) in the world.”
“It has never been more clear that parks are essential for the health and well-being of our city,” said City Parks Foundation Executive Director Heather Lubov. "Our green spaces are where we reflect, play, and connect, and where communities come together to build a better world. On IMP- act Day, New Yorkers will join their neighbors to care for their local parks, volunteering in green spaces safely and supporting their city.”
For a complete list of projects, please visit our website
About Partnerships for Parks: Partnerships for Parks is a unique public-private partnership between City Parks Foundation and NYC Parks that supports and champions neighborhood volunteers by giving them the tools they need to advocate and care for their neighborhood parks and green spaces. More information about Partnership for Parks is available at www.partnershipsforparks.org.
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