People, Parks, and Power (P3) is the first national funding initiative in the U.S. to support power building by community-based organizations to achieve park and green space equity in Black, Latine, and Indigenous communities across the country. While there is broad consensus on the value of parks and green infrastructure, evidence shows that there are persistent and deep-seated inequities in access, availability, quality of facilities, and programming by race, place, and income.

Drawing on our experiences in community power building and the systemic drivers of inequitable access to parks and green space, we co-designed the P3 vision, logic model, and theory of change. P3 launched in 2021 as a 2-year grant program with 14 Local Partners, with a second phase beginning in 2024 with 7 continuing Local Partners.

We lead and manage the P3 initiative, overseeing the national grantmaking program for Local Partners and convening a Strategic Learning Exchange for power-building organizations and subject matter experts that offers peer learning, technical assistance, and capacity building aligned around green space equity. This includes advancing research and evaluation and implementing strategic communications grounded in health equity framing to support policy and narrative change. Together with our local and national partners, we work to advance the following outcomes:

• Effective park, green space, and land use policies that align with health equity and racial justice;
• Strengthened voices and leadership among individuals and communities most impacted by green space inequities;
• Tools and resources to build capacity and engage community-rooted organizations, park and green space practitioners, and environmentalists & conservationists to adopt policy & systems change and power-building approaches towards park equity; and
• An inclusive national network of community-based groups, public agencies, nonprofits, researchers, and funders engaged in green space equity work.