Parks, trails, community gardens, and other urban green spaces serve as fundamental building blocks to create healthy, vibrant communities. In principle, public parks belong to everyone. In practice, access to parks and recreation areas is anything but equal. Many communities with low household incomes and communities of color have few—or no—green spaces, and existing parks and recreation areas may be poorly maintained, understaffed, unwelcoming, and unsafe.
PI works with a breadth of partners and communities to develop strategies and practices to keep people healthy and safe in the first place. Below is a selection of ongoing or recent projects.
People, Parks, and Power will support community-based organizations and base-building groups working in urban, low-income communities of color across the United States to increase park equity through local policy and systems change.
To achieve park equity, people living in communities that have been historically excluded from park-related decision-making must be heard. The materials in this toolkit were designed to support community-based organizations, their members, and others who are building power to secure equitable investments in park infrastructure in disinvested communities.
Park equity—fair and just access to parks, trails, community gardens, and other green spaces—is essential to healthy communities. But park inequities unjustly affect low-income communities across the U.S., especially people living in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. Through our local-level projects and national initiatives, we are building momentum for park equity.
We research and write reports, white papers, fact sheets, opinion pieces, and journal articles, as well as produce videos and podcasts. Here are some of our latest offerings.
This theory of change describes the approach of People, Parks, and Power: A National Initiative for Green Space, Health Equity, and Racial Justice.
In Changing the Landscape: People, Parks, and Power, Prevention Institute and Alessandro Rigolon of the University of Utah propose an approach to addressing park and green space inequities that prioritizes building power among people closest to the problem so that they can drive policy and systems change solutions.
This policy brief reviews evidence of park inequities in the Los Angeles region, lays out a framework for achieving park equity, and sets forth policy recommendations.
This research synopsis describes findings from new research linking the availability of parks and life expectancy at the census tract-level in Los Angeles County.
We have developed a broad range of practical, free-to-use tools to guide practitioners, advocates, and policymakers in planning and implementing prevention strategies. We also provide services to help you use our tools to create healthy and safe communities.
These profiles, written by PI and our partners, show what community prevention looks like on the ground, all across the country.
