Engagement with Community Organizations and Volunteers

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Settle down, guys. We are going to begin. Settle down, please. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Welcome to the New York City Council hearing on the Committee on Parks and Recreation. At this time, please silence electronics and do not approach. At this time as well, please, no food or drinks are to be allowed in the hearing room. Thank you.

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Good afternoon, everyone. I am Ty Hankerson, Chair of the Committee on Parks and Recreation. It is good to see everyone here. I would like to welcome everyone who has come to participate in today's hearing.

While the park system is anchored by the work done by the Parks Department and the public resources devoted to it, the full range of how it operates and the benefits our parks provide cannot be realized without the engagement of countless partner organizations and volunteers. New Yorkers love to get involved in their communities to improve the quality of life for themselves and their neighbors. Parks offer up the best opportunity for doing so, whether it be through directly maintaining and beautifying our parks or providing cultural, recreational and sports programming.

The main entity involved in fostering greater engagement is Partnership for Parks, which is a joint program run by the nonprofit City Parks Foundation and the Parks Department. Its mission is to start, strengthen and support neighborhood park groups and to link these groups together so that they can become active participants in caring for their respective parks. The partnership's outreach coordinators connect all available resources to mobilize people into friends of the park groups. These friends of groups connect local people and organizations with the Parks Department in order to work as partners to improve their local parks. Technical assistance is also provided to help these groups learn skills on how to manage, care for and maintain the areas they serve, as well as providing information and access to funding.

The span of community engagement with parks is wide, as the Parks Department itself offers direct opportunities for volunteers, such as Green Thumb, Shape Up, or to become a steward to assist with forests and wetland restoration, planting and pruning street trees or monitoring local wildlife. New Yorkers clearly want to engage and the numbers prove it. For example, in June 2023, Parks launched "Let's Green NYC" to increase the numbers of volunteers helping to beautify their local parks, with apparently over 400,000 volunteers getting involved with their parks. Most recently, in July 2025, over one million volunteers engaged with parks, resulting in more than 200 million volunteer hours being documented — something to be celebrated.

The trend is clear and efforts to encourage volunteerism and civic participation in caring for our parks is needed to supplement the work of the department, and is another step to achieving greater park equity. It is important to note that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of small community-based groups that would love to take on a greater role in caring for and supporting their parks, but there are those that cannot. So we need to do all we can to alleviate this disparity and support these smaller groups so that they can thrive.

I would like this hearing to be used as a springboard to encourage greater participation by individuals and local community groups in the parks system, by making it easier to engage with the City and in turn making the Parks Department more responsive to concerns raised by its partners and its volunteers. In order to do that, however, we need to obtain some greater detail on what the current processes and oversight elements are and how it all functions, since it remains somewhat of a mystery to many New Yorkers.

We would like to do a deeper dive into the programming of the partnership and how distribution is coordinated throughout the system, what the funding allocation is from both public and private sources, what would be an ideal funding amount, what are the duties of outreach coordinators and how many parks do they support. We would like to know how the partnership works with the Parks Department in terms of capital projects and in terms of procurement.

It is my hope that this hearing will set the stage for this Council and the administration to continue working together to tackle the disparities that exist in our park system, and recognize that encouraging volunteerism and participation in caring for our parks is just as crucial a step to achieving equity as ensuring sufficient amounts of public funding for our parks. I am curious to explore these bills today and engage with what members of the Parks Department and the public have to say regarding this. Thank you again and welcome to everyone.

Now I will turn it over to our committee counsel Krista Story to swear in members of the Parks Department. But before we do that, I am going to turn it over to my colleague CM Michelle Thomas.

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...for remarks regarding our Bill.

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Thank you, Hankerson, and the entire Committee on Parks and Recreation. So you will be hearing Int 0822-2026 today, which I am proud to support — legislation that I am co-sponsoring with CM Maloney to honor two global icons through the co-naming of Pelé Way and Thierry Henry Way. While this legislation recognizes greatness on the field, this is really about community and culture.

You see, what makes soccer so powerful is that it belongs to everyone, no matter where you come from. The game creates community, and that started with Pelé. Pelé was not just one of the greatest soccer players of all time — he helped transform soccer into a global language. For millions of people around the world, Pelé was their introduction to the joy and possibility of soccer itself. He showed young people, especially Black and Brown children, that they could be part of something greater, and in doing so he brought beauty, creativity and humanity to the game in a way that inspired generations across continents.

That is the spirit of Queens, and that is why honoring Pelé here matters so deeply. In just weeks, the world will arrive in New York City for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. More than a million visitors are expected to come to our region, generating billions in economic activity and creating opportunities for workers and small businesses across the City. This legislation is the chance to show the world who we are. It would help connect visitors not just to the game, but to the culture and communities that make this City special.

When people come to Queens during the World Cup, they will experience the energy of our business corridors, the flavors from every corner of the world, the sounds, the languages, the storefronts and the pride that make this borough unlike anywhere else. Naming Pelé Way becomes part of that experience. It encourages visitors to move beyond the stadiums and into the surrounding communities, to experience the culture and diversity that makes Queens the world's borough. And when the final whistle blows...

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I will blame it on the weather. Good afternoon, Chair Hankerson, members of the Parks Committee and other members of the City Council. My name is Margaret Nelson, the Deputy Commissioner for Public Programs and Community Engagement for Parks, and I am joined here today by Carina Smyth, our Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Community Engagement, and Matt Jury, our Chief of Citywide Legislative Affairs.

We are pleased to be here today alongside our incredible partners at the City Parks Foundation to testify about one of the most critical aspects of our agency: engagement with community-based organizations and volunteers. Robust public engagement is a central plank of our agency's strategic plan. Our Parks employees have direct engagement and interaction with the public in a huge variety of ways, whether it is a Shape Up class instructor at a local parks recreation center, an Urban Park Ranger leading curious park visitors on a nature walk, a City Parks worker advising visitors where the nearest bathroom is, our local borough staff attending community board meetings and Council participatory budget info sessions, or a capital team hosting a public design input session. Practically every member of our agency staff has the privilege of regularly engaging directly with the public, an experience we value deeply.

One major avenue for this engagement is our agency's direct relationship with countless individuals, volunteers and local community organizations that are working alongside us to make sure their local parks reflect their community's needs and priorities. We are very proud of the work our dedicated staff do to care for our City parks, and our efforts are bolstered and supported by engaged and empowered New Yorkers making these spaces even more active and vibrant and sources of community pride. Hundreds of local groups dedicate their precious time and energy throughout the year in our City's parks and public spaces, benefiting from connection to nature and to one another, all while having an impact on the environment.

For New Yorkers looking to get more involved in their local parks, they can visit our agency website to learn more about a wide range of potential opportunities, from becoming a member of your local Green Thumb community garden, helping plant a tree or monitor horseshoe crabs in Coney Island through our stewardship program, or joining an "It's My Park" event in their community led by your incredible Partnership for Parks team.

Partnership for Parks is a unique public-private partnership between New York City Parks and City Parks Foundation, and serves as our primary mechanism to support and champion grassroots volunteers by giving them the tools they need to advocate and care for their neighborhood parks and green spaces in a dedicated, sustained way. Partnership for Parks equips people, organizations and government with resources and opportunities to ensure these spaces are dynamic community assets. Partnership for Parks offers resources and opportunities to neighborhood organizations in all five boroughs while driving equity by prioritizing investment in areas that have experienced historic disinvestment. Support includes tools and supplies, training and coaching on topics like group development, event planning, working with elected officials and fundraising. Through our partnership with City Parks Foundation, Partnership for Parks makes hundreds of thousands of dollars in programming and capacity grants each year, and even provides fiscal sponsorship to enable informal groups to receive grants for their activities. In 2025 alone, Partnership for Parks distributed over $900,000 in grant funds to grassroots groups to conduct stewardship and programming.

Through our Partnership for Parks community engagement coordinators and organizers, we provide direct expertise and support for park beautification, community events, strategic planning, leadership, group development and advocacy, including ongoing help securing permits and building stronger relationships with our New York City Parks staff. The "It's My Park" program offers support for community, nonprofit and corporate partners to revitalize local green spaces through cleaning, painting and gardening. Further in service of equitable community support and our commitment to underserved park communities, Partnership for Parks employees execute focused, intensive park engagement efforts through our Catalyst program, which equips individual leaders and dedicated park groups with the tools they need to make positive changes in parks that need it most, focusing on equity and community representation in addressing quality of life and other critical local issues.

In fiscal year 2025, Partnership for Parks supported over 490 active community groups involved in parks across the City, including over 400 groups that provided direct hands-on care through cleanup, gardening and painting projects. Through the "It's My Park" program, Partnership for Parks supported over 1,400 beautification projects annually with over 27,000 volunteers from community, nonprofit, civic, youth and corporate organizations, accomplishing 102,000 hours of volunteer time.

Green Thumb is our agency's community garden program, facilitating free access to land, gardening equipment and materials, technical assistance, educational workshops and seasonal programs to support community gardeners and urban farmers. Our Green Thumb agency staff provide programming and material support to dedicated garden groups. Green Thumb is the largest community gardening program in the nation, with 567 Green Thumb gardens, 391 of which are located on property under our jurisdiction, all offering a diverse array of spaces for relaxation and community engagement, located on 100 acres across our City. Over 20,000 New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds are the backbone of the Green Thumb program, and we are grateful for their efforts that make these community gardens such special places.

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Our agency stewardship program engages volunteers on projects across the City's 12,000 acres of natural landscapes, working to remove invasive plant species, care for nature trails, install protective fencing and plant native species to enhance biodiversity. The program promotes engagement with street trees as well, as our stewardship volunteers remove litter and weeds from tree beds, cultivate the soil and spread fresh mulch. In calendar year 2025, the program engaged over 6,100 volunteers who donated nearly 14,000 hours of service at 450 events caring for New York City's trees and natural areas.

This can take the form of a single-day stewardship event, but our stewardship team also engages, educates and empowers volunteers through our Green Neighborhoods program and works with advanced volunteers called Super Stewards. The Green Neighborhoods program is an initiative to engage local communities in the care of street trees, forests, wetlands, gardens and...

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Other natural resources and connections between individual volunteers and groups that are vested in and care about nature in their neighborhoods, and works to broaden public understanding of the role and place of nature in the City. The Super Stewards Program is a training and permitting program designed to support long-term ongoing volunteerism across the City. Super Stewards work independently to care for their neighborhood parks, recruit neighbors and friends, and track and coordinate their efforts with us. We are also in the midst of our decennial tree census, in which volunteers are helping us to survey and count all of the trees within our landscaped parks. Over 2,500 dedicated tree lovers came out last summer to take part in this effort, which will start back up later this month, and we welcome all of you to help get the word out and even come out and join us in our parks.

Through each of these programs and initiatives, though each of these programs and initiatives are being implemented by different divisions within the agency, our teams work in close coordination and collaboration and find every opportunity to leverage our agency's engagement efforts in a strategic manner. For example, as part of the development of the recently released Urban Forest Plan, the City, led by the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice with significant support from Parks, undertook a major engagement effort. More than 8,000 New Yorkers participated in public workshops and tours in all five boroughs, virtual focus groups and a citywide online questionnaire, and many of these community input activities were designed and led by our City Parks Foundation and PFT Catalyst team members from winter 2024 through fall 2025. These efforts gathered over 20,000 unique comments reflecting a diverse range of opportunities and challenges for New York City's urban forests and how communities hope to be involved.

In alignment with one of the actions detailed in the Urban Forest Plan, PFT is collaborating with our forestry and stewardship teams to plan engagement around the neighborhood tree planting program and expand tree stewardship in vulnerable neighborhoods, so more trees can thrive and communities can directly benefit from their efforts to combat climate change. PFT will also provide community tree stewards the training and technical assistance through our Partnerships Academy program and educational materials to teach communities how to care for trees and the importance of trees for human and environmental health.

At Parks, we know that information is an essential resource and we are dedicated to transparency, making sure our volunteers, park advocates and interested New Yorkers can get access to data and information that can help them get more involved with their green and open spaces. So we developed and launched the Vital Parks Explorer, a public-facing digital map that empowers New Yorkers with data about access to critical components of a vital park system. For the first time ever, New Yorkers can compare their community's access to park amenities and services with other neighborhoods in the City, which means they can more effectively advocate for more resources for increasing access and performance of their local parks and help ensure there is equitable investment in their community.

One important way that local organizations help activate and energize our parks is through special events and programming as well as athletic tournaments and league play on our fields and courts, including everything from soccer tournaments and Little League matches to movie nights and cherry blossom viewing parties. New York City Parks is pleased to work with special event organizers and sports leagues to support events beyond the 20,000 free public programs provided by the agency each year, as we feel that activating our parks with a wide range of recreation and cultural activity helps make them more robust and dynamic spaces for everyone to enjoy. We recognize that these special events and athletic activities provide tremendous added value to our park system and we are committed to offering fair and equitable access to these spaces for organizations and individual New Yorkers alike, while ensuring that all proposed activities are appropriate and avoid negative impacts on our shared open spaces.

For example, in November 2024, we updated agency rules and permit fee schedules for athletic fields and courts to allow for more equitable access for nonprofit community organizations, increasing transparency and improving customer service for in-demand ball fields and courts. In addition, we implemented process improvements for our athletic permits to ensure a faster, more streamlined request experience while introducing new system features designed to enhance usability and expand access to available permitted time. We also hold preseason field and court public information sessions to help guide leagues and civic leaders through our permit process.

We heard from local community organizations that our special events permitting process could be difficult for some to navigate, so we hosted nine public input meetings in all five boroughs with support from our borough offices and PFT staff, and we are undertaking a variety of process improvements, including updating the special events landing page to make it more user-friendly and easier to navigate. We also have plans underway to update our permit application portal on our agency's website. Parks is also producing a how-to guide for holding special events for community groups in multiple languages so they can better understand the special event permit process.

New Yorkers need and deserve vibrant parks that serve their local communities. While our agency invests considerable staffing, capital improvements and dynamic public programming across our network of green spaces, we know that bringing residents together in our parks through volunteering builds social capital in a community, fostering trust, understanding, cohesion and unity. We are proud to be the agency responsible for building and maintaining our park system in collaboration with our partners and friends groups ranging from larger conservancies with formal license agreements to small informal gatherings of neighbors organizing volunteer cleanups, and of course the individual New Yorkers and park visitors who use our parks every day and do their part by treating these public spaces with the respect and dignity they deserve, so we can all enjoy this vital resource that we all have to share. Thank you for allowing us to testify before you today and for your continued advocacy and support for our parks. After we hear from our colleagues at the City Parks Foundation, we will be happy to...

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Turning it over to Heather. You were sworn in already?

(00:25:08)

Hi. I am Heather Lupo. I am the Executive Director of City Parks Foundation. I am really excited to be here to talk about partnerships for parks. I hope this is just the first of many conversations that we will have going forward. We are the private side of the public-private program that is Partnerships for Parks. We also serve as an administrator of the 45-member New York City Parks and Open Space Partners Coalition of nonprofit stewardship organizations, and we manage and administer the New York City Green Fund, which is a pooled fund that makes grants to grassroots and medium-sized organizations and programming groups working in parks and open spaces. And of course, although not the subject of today's hearing, we directly bring hundreds of free sports, arts and environmental education programs to parks across the City. The primary benefit of a public-private partnership is...

(00:26:02)

...that we as the private nonprofit organization can bring diverse funding to the table. In addition to the Council's own Parks Equity Initiative, we raise funds from private individuals, corporations and foundations. In total, we are adding $3.6 million to support Partnerships for Parks. Additionally, as the administrator of the New York City Green Fund, we are adding another amount every year in grants to grassroots and medium-sized partners that directly support free community-led arts and culture, environmental and health and wellness programming, along with stewardship activities across the City.

Another benefit of a public-private partnership is that as a private organization that has been working with communities for 37 years, we have built up a level of trust that has strengthened the relationship between residents and their local government. Navigating City systems can sometimes be difficult, especially for volunteer-led groups, and our role is to provide the support, the structure and the flexibility that allows communities to take action.

There are several programs within Partnerships for Parks that are supported exclusively by City Parks Foundation. The first of which is Catalyst, which is an intensive outreach effort that historically and to this day focuses on disadvantaged communities, or those that have experienced disinvestment and inequity. Catalyst embeds a community engagement coordinator in just 25 parks at a time, and that is a much smaller portfolio than a typical community engagement coordinator. We do this in order to build deep and lasting relationships and networks. We go out into a community and identify local leaders, we foster connections, and we create the conditions for sustained engagement where it does not yet exist, empowering communities to become civically engaged in a way that has not previously been possible or accessible.

Two examples of past Catalyst projects include the creation of the Bronx River Alliance many years ago, or our more recent work in Coney Island Creek and Kaiser Park, where deeply rooted environmental justice issues were addressed through community involvement in park planning, advocacy and the restoration of critical environmental infrastructure. As you heard, our funding also supports a new forestry street outreach team that helps collect community input for the first Urban Forest Plan. The team of three full-time staff will now develop and support street tree stewards throughout the City so that our existing trees thrive and our canopy increases.

The technical assistance team is also City Parks Foundation-supported and offers skill-building workshops and seminars on everything from how to start a park group to how to host a family day. The team provides fiscal sponsorship for 200 groups that are either not registered as 501(c)(3)s and or do not want the responsibility of managing funds. By us handling the administrative requirements, we are enabling community leaders to focus on the visible, on-the-ground improvements that their neighborhoods need. Finally, the technical assistance team also includes the staff that review, distribute and manage the New York City Green Fund's grassroots grants. They currently oversee 144 active grants worth more than $900,000. I will point out here that the Green Fund also distributes more than $2 million annually, so on top of the grassroots program, we also make grants to medium-sized organizations. The maximum budget is $2.5 million, so they have some staff, but they are generally pretty small. The vast majority of all grants that we make are directed to environmental justice communities and are run by BIPOC leaders.

To round out our work, the corporate engagement effort is My Park, generating both awareness among and funding from our City's corporate community, encouraging them to be good corporate citizens and to better understand the role that parks play in the well-being of our City.

I do want to say a word about the Parks Equity Initiative, which is a City Council-directed initiative that was created in 2014 to match the administration's addition of $1.4 million at the time, so that New York City Parks could hire more community engagement coordinators to reach more parks and more people, particularly in under-resourced neighborhoods. That investment has been critical to the program's success. This year we are requesting an expansion of funding for the Parks Equity Initiative to increase support for Partnerships for Parks and the groups that we serve. There are so many parks and public spaces that still lack organized stewardship and many communities that are eager to be engaged but need the support to do so.

In addition to our work with Partnerships for Parks, Parks Foundation co-founded and now serves as the administrator for the New York City Parks and Open Space Partners Coalition, which is a network of just under 50 conservancies and other small nonprofit parks stewards. Originally set up as a way for all of us to share information during COVID, it has turned into an association that provides a support system for the many nonprofits that work in the field. The median annual budget for our members is just $2 million, so while these groups are incorporated and have staff, they are small, and just about half do not have license agreements, but they are a little bit too large to work with Partnerships for Parks. We have been working very closely with the team at New York City Parks to help address some of the issues that these organized nonprofits face, especially when they are small and have modest funding. That could be anything from shared services to all kinds of traditional management concerns.

Finally, through the New York City Green Fund and a special set-aside specifically for systems change, we have been able to support research, convenings and stakeholder engagement to better understand challenges that open space stewards face and to help advance solutions across the public realm. With grant support, the Trust for Public Land was able to document the economic impact of parks in New York City, the Center for an Urban Future was able to identify multiple ways to secure alternative funding for parks, and the Design Trust was able to research how permitting is handled in other cities and make recommendations that would make the process easier in New York City. We have a convening scheduled for next week, at which time we will identify action steps for the next year.

Thank you for shining a light on the critical community engagement work that Partnerships for Parks supports. While we can all get caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of our work, in the end I am regularly reminded that what Partnerships for Parks is doing is building civic engagement across our City. Numerous studies have demonstrated that volunteering in parks has a spillover effect. Civic engagement is meaningfully associated with park volunteering and environmental identity is a key mediating factor. In a city like New York, where parks serve as our backyards and our living rooms, the work we are doing at the hyper-local level is critical for addressing many quality of life issues and building and supporting our democracy.

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Thank you so much, Heather. All right. I am going to do something a little different. I am going to start with my colleague, CM... I know that she has to run to the nurses event. We love our nurses.

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Thank you. I am so appreciative of you, Chair, because yes, nurses matter and this is Nurses Week. They are powerful and I have to be present. We need them to keep our healthcare structure going for us. So to the panel, you know...

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...why I am here, because you mean so much to me too, and I want to say thank you for all the amazing work we have been doing in the south side of Brooklyn in my district. City Parks Foundation has been really my partner, my greatest partner I could ask for. I have to say thank you to Murray and Garrett from Fresh Creek, Jamaica Crockery Parkway... I mean, Parks Conservancy. Thank you to Naomi, sure that is in the house. Matt, thank you for Marine Park. And Scott Middleton... I was forgetting Scott. So what I am saying with all these thanks is because Saturday we had a big walk and trash cleanup in our community, so parks stepped up. By the time we got there, it was so clean. So I want to say thank you. We do not have much to do around parks, so thank you for your presence here.

But I have a few questions since you know I am running. If you can answer them for me, that would be nice. How much are you asking for? Because you are so important. I want to ask: what oversight mechanism exists to ensure that volunteer labor is not being used to substitute for paid parks staff in ways that reduce head count or undermine union agreements? And when a volunteer is injured while performing work in a City park, who bears the liability? Are all volunteers adequately informed before they show up? And most volunteer recruitment and communication runs through online portals. What is the department doing to reach community members who are not digitally connected? We know seniors are not always connected.

At the last hearing I asked about the salaries for park gardeners and raising them to attract more talented field position candidates. Has any progress been made on this issue? What is the protocol for a community-based organization to apply for a license agreement so that they can raise funds and perform maintenance and capital improvements in parks? What are the criteria for those who qualify for a license agreement? Who currently at the Parks Department is responsible for establishing those agreements? That is a lot, if I can repeat that...

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I am going to take a stab at a few of those questions and turn them over to my colleagues for some of the other questions.

First of all, to your question about the issue of volunteers versus our paid parks staff. I just want to be clear that we have a huge infrastructure of our paid parks workers who are out there maintaining our parks every day. We have the schedules of maintenance for each of our parks at different levels, depending on what we see as the demand, and we maintain a high level of cleanliness. We rate ourselves. We have independent inspectors from a different part of the agency coming out and checking our parks. So I would say that at that base level we take responsibility for making sure we have uniformity across the City in terms of maintaining basic levels of service and cleanliness. It is so important, though, when volunteers come in and they supplement the work we do and they can help beautify, they can help add value to that existing park system. So we do not see it as replacing it at all. We see it as an added value and we appreciate the work. I think as you also heard, it is not only helping that park but it is really creating that civic infrastructure and bringing communities together, and that is the other reason why it is so important to support these volunteer activities.

So that is number one. In terms of outreach, in terms of website versus in person — I hear you. I think we try to provide a lot of information online so that it is easily accessible, but a lot of people do not have access or are not online. Our Partnership for Parks staff are always out there in communities. They are tabling when we are doing in-person scoping sessions for our capital projects. We are setting up a table and letting people know about volunteer activities. Our community engagement coordinators each have their own geographic areas throughout the City and they are constantly on the phone and at park events. So we are trying to be out there in person in addition to the online and digital outreach that we do.

In terms of salaries for parks gardeners, salaries for all of our agency staff are not negotiated by Parks. They are part of collective bargaining. They have union representation that goes to OLR, so certainly seeking to increase salaries — we certainly appreciate that — but that is not something that Parks is in charge of, and you would probably have to take that up with OLR as the agency responsible.

In terms of license agreements, we do have about a couple dozen license agreements now with partners and we are in the process of discussing with other organizations that are interested in having license agreements with us. I would say that the preconditions for a license agreement is that a group is bringing some value that needs to be captured in a license agreement. Obviously, if a group wants to help maintain a park or help advocate for a park, that does not require a license agreement. So I think there is a certain threshold that has to be met where they are bringing such substantial funding into a park that we have to have that covered in a formal agreement so that both sides are protected. But we are happy to have more conversations with you about that process. I think under Assistant Commissioner Carina Smyth, she has another division that works on partnerships and works very closely with our license partners and our prospective license partners, so she can speak more to that if you have time.

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I am going to make it short because that is not my hearing. To me, since I love parks, I always have a lot of...

(00:40:55)

Questions. Yeah, and I just think in terms of who is responsible for license agreements — it is primarily legal documents. So our General Counsel's office is the one that is moving those license agreements forward with the Law Department. The Law Department also has to sign off, and if there is a concession revenue that is part of that agreement it has to go through the process as well. But again, the strategic partnerships team, small and mighty, does do a lot of that individual hand-holding and working with groups that are looking at or going through that license agreement process.

In terms of if a volunteer is injured — I am not sure I have... I can interject a little bit here and just say that the fact is that it will depend on the circumstances. Traditionally, depending on the scale of the event and the nature of the incident, where that liability and responsibility lies can vary widely. So ultimately there are complications. It is one of the reasons why for larger gatherings and special events of that nature, providing proof of insurance is sometimes a requirement, because the City needs to protect itself legally. But your question is, for example, if an informal volunteer is informally taking care of, helping pick up around the park, and injures themselves — that is a more complicated discussion that would have to be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis.

And then lastly, I think you asked for a reiteration of Heather's testimony about the Parks equity initiative, so I think she can quickly recap that as well.

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Currently we received $778,500, primarily for staffing for

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Partnerships for Parks. So we are asking for a $221,500 increase, just to get us up to a million.

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Thank you, everyone, and thank you, Chair, for being so patient with me. I have got to run. Happy Nurses Week to all the nurses at this hearing. Thank you.

(00:42:53)

Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. You know what, I think I am just going to do this entire hearing a little differently. But I have a couple of follow-up questions. How often do inspectors conduct cleanliness assessments of the parks, and does it differ by

(00:43:08)

borough? Sure. So there are layers of inspection that happen on any given day, and I will start with the most granular and work our way up. So our park supervisors and managers are in our parks every day. I think we would argue there is a layer of inspection and supervision that is happening nonstop. Additionally, there are monthly park supervisor inspections, which are undertaken by our Maintenance and Operations Division, where they are spot-checking parks that are under their management purview.

Separate and apart from that, what is known as our Parks Inspection Program is undertaken by an entirely separate division. For people who worked in the retail industry, it is a little bit like a secret shopper experience, where a highly trained staff — not in coordination with, not announced to our maintenance staff — is doing very granular, comprehensive, deep inspections of park properties. They are out there providing thousands of inspections at all of our properties.

(00:44:14)

What are the types of things that they are looking for in these inspections?

(00:44:18)

Generally there are two categories that they are inspecting. One broad category is cleanliness and the other is overall condition. Cleanliness would refer to graffiti, litter and dog waste. Overall condition could be faucets within a public restroom facility, a broken bench, broken glass, a broken sidewalk — there are pieces that are more structural, if you will, that they are assessing as well. These assessments are accumulated over time and that is actually what informs the cleanliness and overall condition ratings that are in our Mayor's Management Report. So those are the gold standard, if you will,

(00:44:59)

that we hold ourselves to. So if an inspector goes out there inspecting a park and they see that there is litter, trash, et cetera, do they make a call to the park manager?

(00:45:11)

When does it get addressed? Great question. Yes, and it works in a cascading sort of prioritization. If they see any immediate concern — let us say a jagged piece of metal or something that could be an immediate hazard — that is known as an immediate action item and it is flagged immediately for maintenance staff and addressed as quickly as possible. Separate and apart from that, this data is reviewed on a monthly or bimonthly basis — very frequently — between Parks Inspection Program staff and maintenance staff, where this comprehensive data is reviewed and patterns are detected. Any repeated challenges with a given park — if it has struggled through one inspection or two in a row — those are given a deep dive. The information is shared immediately and consistently.

(00:46:06)

If someone has a permit for, let us just say, a family day or community day, something like that, and that happens on a Saturday — is the park inspected after the event? Is there someone that goes out and how soon after does that happen?

(00:46:21)

So the beauty of the Parks Inspection Program is that the inspections are essentially randomized. That can work in either direction — the inspection can theoretically happen right before a big event, at the beginning of a busy weekend, or at the end of a busy weekend. So it is a snapshot in time. Statistically, it will account for what we are looking for, which is a consistent level of service being provided to a park, even though at any given moment it could be really, really busy.

So as these inspections are repeated over time, you are building a statistical base where you can zoom out and rely on the data. Otherwise you are just capturing one specific moment

(00:47:06)

in time. I just wanted to add to that because I think your question is also a little bit about how a specific event is seen by our local park staff. As part of the special event permit application and approval process, the special event application goes to our special event permit staff for review. Part of their review is talking to the local park management about the event and the timing of the event. They get the approval of the local park staff, so the local park shop is then also going to know when that event is happening. They make sure that the site is ready for the event on the morning of the event, and our protocol is to try to have someone from park maintenance on site checking the event, especially at the end of the event. We require folks to clean up after their event, so if the event was not cleaned up after and it is going to require our resources, we note that and try to let that group know that they are in violation or did not clean up appropriately, and we may have to charge them for that cleanup.

(00:48:13)

I was going to ask what, if any, enforcement measures are taken if you realize that a group did not uphold their end of the bargain,

(00:48:21)

to use that terminology, in terms of cleaning up. Yeah, I think we try to work with groups around making sure they understand the expectations and meet those expectations. If they have not met those expectations, we will let them know. We might make sure that the next time they apply for a permit we take note of that. We do sometimes take bonds, and those bonds are to help pay for any damage or any additional cleanup. That is the purpose of the bond system.

(00:48:52)

Okay. Thank you for that. Because I am doing this hearing just a little differently, I want to make it more conversational. So I am going to turn it over to my colleague CM Morano, and then I will jump back in. Thank you.

(00:49:02)

Thank you for your testimony today and I also want to join CM Narcisse in praising the work of great groups like H2O, which helped to make the parks in our district a lot cleaner and a lot better. Thank you for your work. By the way, for a group like H2O, there is some concern about how formalized the structure is for them to become a partner. Can you speak briefly about how that actually occurs?

So I think we have a good working relationship with H2O. I think they do a lot of different programming throughout our park system. I think most of that is taking place using special event permits. I think we are also in the process of talking to them about using work permits because some of the work they are doing is actual restoration work and may require a different kind of permit. So again, not

(00:50:03)

every group — and especially H2O, which is lightly touching a lot of different areas — is the appropriate vehicle for

(00:50:12)

a full license agreement, as I understand it. But we can look more into that. I am not familiar specifically with all the complexity of that specific group. Happy to talk more. Thank you. To follow up — you mentioned in your testimony prioritizing historically underserved communities and equitable investment. Staten Island has more parkland per capita than any other borough.

(00:50:37)

Can you tell me specifically how Staten Island fares in Partnership for Parks staffing, grant funding, volunteer programming and community partnership resources compared to the other boroughs?

(00:50:56)

I will just say top line, I think we look to distribute our resources equally across the boroughs. We do have a coordinator in Staten Island as we do in other boroughs. I think in terms of the money that we are giving out, it really is a function of who is applying for the money. I was excited to hear that in terms of the Catalyst Program, where we are actually reaching out to figure out which parks need more of that support and more organized volunteer groups, we are working with several Staten Island parks and working with the Catalyst Program to do specific outreach in Staten Island, which I am excited about.

(00:51:33)

And then I will turn it over to Heather, who wants to speak more to this. Yes. So we have a Catalyst organizer who is working along the North Shore Esplanade, in Corporal Thompson Park and in Tappen Park, and that is specifically to do community engagement work at a very local level. It is just those three parks that he is working in — the Esplanade is large, but it is just those three locations. In addition, we have been trying very hard to get as many groups as possible to apply for the Green Fund grants. We have seen a slight increase. If you could get the word out to groups, we would be happy to fund them. We have seen a slight increase as we try to get the word out, but any help that you could provide, we would

(00:52:21)

love. I was really glad to hear in your testimony, Deputy Commissioner, the admission that the permitting system can be difficult to navigate, because it has been a frustration from a lot of the folks that I have heard from. In your testimony, you said that community organizations told you the special event permitting process was difficult to navigate. What specifically were the biggest complaints that you heard?

(00:52:49)

As I said in my testimony, we did a series of nine borough in-person forums last year where we invited groups to come and talk to us so they could both hear about what the special event requirements are and also hear from them what their challenges were and how we might be able to address them. So I think we have to keep in mind that we have a special event permit process in order to make sure that events happening in our parks are happening safely, with the right considerations, not impinging on other people's use of space, and a variety of other things that we have to keep in mind. So there are a lot of checks and balances here that we have to make sure we are providing for the safety of the park.

So we ask people to apply to host a special event using our special event process, where we need people to apply at least 21 days in advance but ideally months in advance. Sometimes things that people want to do might require insurance. They might require you to go to NYPD for an amplified sound permit. If you have a generator, you have to go to... and sometimes all of those requirements are not clear to a small group up front. So as they are trying to figure out their event, they are running into

(00:54:06)

these obstacles. So I think first of all we are trying to provide more clarity up front. We have revised our website to make it more clear what some of those requirements are. That is one of the things that we are doing. The other thing is we are putting together a pamphlet with this information on how to do a special event, trying to get our rules and our requirements more out there so that groups are familiar with them.

(00:54:29)

I would say that one of the great things about Partnership for Parks is that those community engagement coordinators can really hold the hands of small groups who do not understand the special event permit process and really help walk them through it, help them develop that relationship with the special events borough permit coordinators and make sure they are getting answers to their questions.

(00:54:55)

The other thing we heard is that there is a bit of transparency issue — like they might be applying for a site and that site might not be available, and they want to know, well, how do I find out when it would be available? So one of the things we did with our athletic permit process a few years ago is that we were really able to create more transparency by putting online a map of all our courts and fields and being able to show the public when those courts and fields are already permitted, so you are not applying for a permit for a site that is not available. So again, in some of our parks there is a lot of demand — you might apply to do an event and that site is already taken. So that is something we are looking to see if we can replicate with the special event permits process too, but that is still to come.

(00:55:41)

One final question. I noticed a lot of impressive-sounding volunteer numbers in the testimony and the briefing materials, but the Mayor's Management Report shows volunteer turnout declining. Can you explain that contradiction? Are people counted multiple times? What exactly counts as a volunteer? Did the counting methodology change?

(00:56:11)

I think we have various ways we count volunteers. So my guess is that whatever is reported in the Mayor's Management Report might be a subset, but I do not have that in front of me. So it is something we can get back to you on. Assistant Commissioner Smith? That is exactly what I was going to say. The Mayor's Management Report is exactly a subset of volunteerism in the Parks Department, as the Commissioner said.

(00:56:38)

Volunteerism comes into Parks in a variety of ways and in many different buckets, so that is probably what is accounting for that discrepancy in the report. Okay, thank you.

(00:56:56)

I believe that the Council Member gave you a promotion to Deputy Mayor.

(00:57:00)

Congratulations — someone called you Mayor today. This is my third hearing of the day, so I do have a couple of follow-up

(00:57:07)

questions before we go to the Bronx. When will... so you mentioned a pamphlet that would help folks. When will that pamphlet be complete and ready for distribution?

(00:57:18)

Thank you for the question, Council Member. It is in production at the moment. We are vetting a few final items. We are hoping to have it ready by the end of the year, and when we do produce it, it is going to be in multiple languages so that it is accessible by all communities. Thank you.

(00:57:38)

...work with local Council Member offices to get the word out about all the help that is out there. I know that the resources are there and the help is there, but how do folks actually gain access to them?

(00:57:52)

Yeah, I think we would... we do work with Council Members' offices and we would love to work more with any Council Member that is interested. I mean, we can put together an informational event. We can attend any meetings you have with community members to kind of promote our services, and I think again...

(00:58:13)

If you know of a group that is interested in volunteering in our park or doing some service in our park, you should contact us and put them in touch, because our community

(00:58:23)

engagement coordinators can start that intake process of talking to them about what they want to do, connect them to trainings, connect them to resources. So we want to be a resource for you and your community groups to engage with Parks.

(00:58:38)

Absolutely. I would love to — and we can talk about this offline — but I would love to hold just a workshop. There are 25 or so Council Member offices. We would love that. We would love that. Yeah, thank you. One final

(00:58:53)

question. This is for Heather. Can you name the neighborhoods that are currently benefiting from Green Fund grants? Oh, I actually... I mean, Green Fund grants are pretty much all over the entire City, but I will say I think it is about 80% focused in environmental justice communities. But basically we try to hit every neighborhood. So here is the answer. This time around, we gave away 49 grants totaling $325,000 — six in the Bronx, 19 in Brooklyn, eight in Manhattan, seven in Queens, four in Staten Island, five serving multiple boroughs. 71% are serving environmental justice areas and 80% are led by majority BIPOC leaders. I want to make sure that goes on the record. Now I should point out, though, that there are some grantees that are multi-year grantees. So these are new grants that are being made, so it does not mean that there are no other grants out there that are being spent. This is just the new money that we are about to distribute.

(01:00:27)

And you talked about potentially increasing in Queens. How would you go about that?

(01:00:33)

Every way that we can. It is really a matter of getting the word out. We go to community boards, all the same things that you have heard — social media, email, community boards, in-person meetings, brochures, postcards, whatever we can do to get the word out. So we would love your help.

(01:00:55)

I just want to add, I think the Green Fund grant program, which is relatively new, is such a critical tool in helping these community-based organizations, because as you know they want to see a lot of activation of their parks but they might not have the funds to do that. So now the fact that they can go and get a grant to do an activity in their park for the community is just a really wonderful asset that we can provide these community groups. Okay, thank you. CM Sanchez?

(01:01:31)

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. I am in the same boat as CM Morano — we have been spending a lot of time today together, which is awesome. So I first just wanted to start with so much gratitude for the work of Partnership for Parks, the support from the City Parks Foundation, and really, really give flowers to Pilar Mashie. I do not know if you know her directly, but she has been there for a long time and the work that she does to organize our friends groups in the West Bronx is transformational. It is just incredible — this woman will put up flyers, she will just spend a whole day putting up flyers on every building just to get folks out to a meeting and build that civic capacity. It really just matters. We have very low civic capacity right now. Most of the engagement, because we are such a low-income community... but this is what starts to transform that, right? Getting people involved.

So I have a very simple, direct question. In preparation for this hearing, I reached out to all of my friends of parks groups at Aqueduct, at Washington's Walk, at Sidetrack, and all the others, and I actually heard one thing resoundingly from them, which is a frustration around dealing with smoking in our parks — folks going in there smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, smoking around children, things like that. So my question for you all is, one, I am flagging it for you, just to make sure it is on your radar for the PEP officers and everything, but what should I tell our friends of parks volunteers regarding how they should best route those concerns? Because they are concerned about getting into an altercation with folks like that.

(01:03:28)

Thank you, Council Member, for the question. That is a frustrating thing for the groups to have to experience. I really do recommend that groups use the 311 process — that would avoid that direct conflict with the person in violation of our park rules. That information does go to Park Enforcement Patrol. As you know, they might not be able to respond in the immediate time frame, but having that record of complaints helps them figure out where they are doing regular patrol. So if we see a pattern of complaints coming in regarding smoking in a certain park, that will help them try to send some resources there in the future. So I would recommend that to the

(01:04:12)

groups. Thank you. And just to make this more of a hearing-style question — do you have information about how quickly you are able to respond to those kinds of requests? I do not have it here, but we could look at that data. Because I think basically we would have the 311 data for complaints about smoking in parks and we can show what the resolutions were. If I am going to have to guess, most of them are going to be closed without being able to respond right away, just because of our enforcement capacity. But we can work with you on making sure that for the parks that people are complaining about, we are working with the captains in the Bronx to have some patrols there. Got it. And not out of scope for this, just asking — does NYPD ever get involved in this if a complaint is narrowly about smoking?

(01:05:03)

I think, you know, we work very closely with NYPD. They really focus on crime and crime patterns, and I do not believe that they would — they do not really enforce against park rules in our parks.

(01:05:15)

Got it. And I am sorry, I said that was the last one, but this is the last one. I misspoke. What does a PEP officer do if they are able to make it in time? Sure. I think for our PEP officers, they are there to enforce park rules. They would first try to educate the park goers. We try to use enforcement as a last resort, but they do have the ability to issue a summons for smoking. Great, thank you so much, Chair.

(01:05:49)

I just want to go back before we go to Harlem. I want to go back to something you mentioned earlier about the data. The volunteer data that you have — is that

(01:06:06)

compiled with the data that comes from NY Service, or is it aggregated into one, or is it separate? Thank you for the question. NY Service data is separate from ours. We really compile and collect our own volunteer data and information. We have multiple divisions within the Parks Department that collect the data and then we have a central repository for that information called the Let's Green initiative, and we store the number of hours and number of volunteers that do formalized projects in our parks.

(01:06:51)

So the data from NY Service — if NY Service is involved in a project that we are doing, we collect the data ourselves through our different management arms.

(01:07:02)

Thank you. What are the criteria for programming — sports, wellness classes, cultural programming — to determine if such a program will be allowed to occur on Parks property? Sure. Thank you for the question. If a group is looking to do an event in our park, they would use the special event permit process to apply for such an event, and we really do want to encourage groups to activate and use our parks for those

(01:07:34)

kinds of events — youth events, cultural events. We just need to screen them to make sure that where they want to do the event it is not already permitted for some other activity. We need to make sure, depending on the nature of the event, that they can provide the appropriate insurance. If they need amplified sound, as I stated before, they have to get a sound permit. There are places that we do not necessarily allow sound. So that is what the role of our special event permit coordinators is there to do — to take that application of what they are looking to do and help them work through it and make sure they can run a safe event for the public. Again, we do not do a lot of denials. I would say the main reason for denial is probably going to be that the space is not available because it is already permitted.

(01:08:36)

I have a few groups in my district that for some reason every summer they run into issues with the permitting office, particularly in Queens, where either they are denied or they are just given a really, really hard time. Oftentimes our office has had to step in — all the previous offices had to step in — and so that is why I asked the question about what would constitute a denial, because I do see it in my district quite often.

(01:09:18)

I am surprised to hear that. I think we should work with your office to take a review of what you are seeing. We are happy to do that, because I think by and large we are permitting over 20,000 permits annually, and so I think we are permitting a significant number of events in our parks. In that process, if the original site or the original day that somebody is looking to do an event is not available, I think our permit coordinators really work with the applicant to try to find an alternate time or day to help them be able to do their event. That is what they do day in and day out. So I am surprised to hear of the difficulties. We certainly want to work with you to try to overcome them and have that be a

(01:10:03)

smoother process. I appreciate that.

(01:10:06)

Aside from conservancies that have formal contracts or licenses to perform maintenance activities in parks, do any volunteer groups or other local community groups perform similar maintenance activities or other park functions that would otherwise be performed by staff? Yeah, thank you, Council Member, for the question.

(01:10:26)

So basically, as I said before, we have a huge maintenance staff that is on schedule cleaning our parks and we take great pride in the level of cleanliness and care and condition that we keep our parks in. We do not see other groups coming in where we step back while they step in. The volunteer work that is happening really is a supplement and an added value to the base level of care that we are providing for our parks.

(01:10:55)

Thank you. One final question, and then I am going to turn it over to CM Salaam. When a potential partner organization makes a proposal to Parks but there are concerns about insurance, permits, staffing, safety, noise, lighting or site

(01:11:08)

conditions, who works with them to revise and fine-tune the idea? So if a community-based organization is not affiliated with Partnership for Parks and they are just applying for a permit directly to the borough, the borough permit coordinator would work with them. But again, a plug — for groups that are affiliated with and have a community engagement coordinator, that person can really help them navigate the process and work with them to run a successful event.

(01:11:46)

And I will just interject quickly that if a proposed event is of a specific size or scale — typically over 500 or so — we actually have a dedicated citywide special events team for events that have a little more complexity or, you know, more moving pieces, a little more substantial for lack of a better word. That team, similar to our borough permit offices, can help applicants clarify policies and things of that nature as

(01:12:09)

well, as the borough permit offices do. Do they work closely with Partnership for Parks?

(01:12:15)

There is essentially... sorry. Yes, the permit offices are certainly — our boroughs, our bureau operations, our commissioners and their teams — work very, very closely with our outreach coordinators. So we are one family. Yes, I think it is very common. I do not think "refer" is quite the right word, but there is certainly dialogue. It is not uncommon for someone to say, hey, we are interacting with this organization about a permit. There is no firewall, it is not siloed. They will have discussions with the borough commissioner, with our... you know, with the Partnership for Parks. Commissioner Smith, do you have anything else you want to

(01:12:47)

add? Sometimes the question comes up — like if a group goes through the borough process, the borough automatically asks if they are affiliated with Partnership for Parks. If they are not, sometimes there is a referral — maybe not exactly the best word there. But if they are not, they might be tagged with a note saying, like, you know, this group is coming to us often to do these things, you might want to consider working with them, or something like that. So it comes in dribs and drabs in different ways.

(01:13:14)

Is it required that the staff person do that, or is it at their discretion?

(01:13:20)

Is it required? I am sorry. He is asking whether it is required that the staff person working with a group that is applying — let us say this group is having issues — is it required that they, and I do not want to use the term "refer" again but I do not know what other term to use, refer them to Partnership for Parks, or is it at their discretion to do so?

(01:13:40)

If I can... I think I would characterize it this way: for a permit at our borough permit office, it may not be immediately clear that the applicant could just be an individual or a family, right? It is not always immediately clear that they represent a formalized organization. So there is not really a formal mechanism in place for a referral. I think it is more of an organic kind of process where when we become aware of an organization and it becomes more substantial, we want to make sure they might be aware of what is available. Do you

(01:14:10)

think it would be helpful if it was something that was required — if there was a process in place? I am asking because I... I think it would be. Well, I guess in

(01:14:19)

No one ever wants it to be that if there is a group that unfortunately has a bad reputation with the person they are working with at Parks, that they would not have access to what other groups have access to. Do you get where I am going? I think, probably speaking for everyone, what we want to make sure is that any individual, any group, whether formalized or not, if they want to help their local parks and make those parks more exciting and better places to experience, we want to make sure they have access to that. There should not be any lesser-than treatment or anything like that.

If there are relationship complications — some of these groups have known each other for years, or if there is anything with the agency that needs to be resolved — that is something we would obviously want to know about and take a very close look at, and do whatever we can for conflict resolution or whatever that path might be. Thankfully, it is exceedingly rare. Again, as Commissioner Nelson noted, tens of thousands of New Yorkers are coming to us every

(01:15:25)

single day with things they want to do in our parks, whether that is super special event permits, filming, athletic permits, or what have you, or even outside of the permit process, interesting ideas and interesting proposals. We do everything we can to hear those out in advance, as many of them as possible, whether it is through formal processes or not. That is something we want to continue and obviously improve on. If groups are having issues with a permit office, who would they escalate their complaint to?

(01:15:55)

One of the improvements that we made when we took a look at the permit process is to really streamline and centralize it. In the past, borough permit offices, depending on the borough, had different reporting structures. So we streamlined it to have all the borough permit offices report directly to the borough commissioner in that borough. That is one change that we made, so you could escalate to the borough commissioner. The other change we made is to really centralize policy. We now have a citywide special events policy office and a citywide athletic permit policy office, and that also centralizes things and helps make sure that those standards and policies are

(01:16:44)

consistent across the boroughs and not just borough-based. We make it a point, especially when we are dealing with the police department, to ask about cultural training. Is that something that Parks employees, particularly in the permit office, have to go through as part of their job responsibility, given that they are dealing with so many different community groups of different cultures? Is that something they go

(01:17:17)

through? I think we have a high level of customer service and we do customer service training. We would have to check to see what cultural components are included in that and are happy to get back to you on that.

(01:17:31)

How often is the customer service training? I will have to check and get back to you on that. Okay.

(01:17:40)

Please. I would love the answer to that question. Thank you, CM Salaam.

(01:17:45)

Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the testimony. The Parks Department has approximately 85 contractual agreements with privately owned... private funding arrangements historically channel more resources towards parks in wealthier neighborhoods. What is the current framework for evaluating whether Parks and private partner agreements are equitably distributed across all five boroughs? What metrics does the department use to ensure that parks in lower-income communities, which typically lack access to philanthropic support, are not falling further behind as the system increasingly relies on private dollars and volunteer labor?

(01:18:27)

Thank you, CM, for the question. I think, again, with the resources that we have as a City, we do a great job at taking care of our park system using City employees, City resources and capital dollars to renovate our parks. We do appreciate when private groups come in and can enhance the work we are doing with their private fundraising, but I recognize that that is more easily done in certain neighborhoods than others. I think, again, that is why it is so important that we have this 30-year partnership with City Parks Foundation, because they are out there fundraising from private donors to bring money into underserved parks. Through their Green Fund grant program they are doing exactly that, bringing private dollars and allowing small community groups who do not have access to those fundraising resources themselves to apply for grants that they can then use to activate their parks and provide more programming and activities.

So again, I think this Partnership for Parks program that we are talking about is really one of the ways that Parks is working in this public-private partnership to bring more private dollars into under-resourced parks — not only private dollars for their own activities, but it is funding the staff that are working with these communities to build capacity.

(01:19:51)

I would add a couple of things. When we started the Green Fund, it was really meant to be temporary. It was meant to help address funding cuts during COVID. But what we found from philanthropists, frankly, was that the knowledge that we have of the community and the ability we have to vet projects and then distribute money made it possible for those funders to get money out into neighborhoods that they themselves would not necessarily make direct grants to. So we are definitely seeing that money being spread out in a way that it had not been before. We have right now 20 supporters of the Green Fund. I am hoping to double that if not more, because the more money we have, the more money we can give out.

The second thing is the Catalyst Program in particular was designed to help build groups in communities that do not have groups, which is why the number of parks that each organizer works with is so low — because they really spend a lot of their time in those neighborhoods. The final thing I would say is that the parks and open space groups of conservancies that have money is not really the case. In fact, most of those groups are pretty small. The benefit of having a membership that is made up of big and small conservancies is that we are able to share resources. So for groups that do not necessarily have access to a full HR person or a full-time staff member, we are able to share back and forth. We are training together, subsidizing management training, subsidizing cultural awareness training, subsidizing training for gardening. So we are doing everything that we can to share those resources with as many groups as we can, whether they are big or small.

(01:22:01)

Chair, one last question. The Parks Department reported a 25% decline in volunteer turnout in the first four months of fiscal year 2026 versus the same time period of fiscal year 2025, citing a suspension of its "It's My Park Day" events. Focusing on strengthening community engagement, given that 73% of young New Yorkers want to volunteer but do not know how, what is the plan to rebuild the volunteer pipeline, including through a new digital portal and volunteer directory? And when will structured programming like "It's My Park Day" be fully restored?

(01:22:43)

Thank you, CM, for the question. I am going to turn it over to Assistant Commissioner... hi, CM, I can see you. We actually worked on the Gate of the Exonerated together, so this is

(01:22:59)

So the "It's My Park" program was suspended for a little bit, but what we actually learned is that there was still robust engagement happening while it was technically suspended. That is going to happen again — it is not suspended. Actually, "suspended" is not the right word. "Paused" is a better word. It is no longer paused and is in full motion. "It's My Park" season is happening right now in full swing.

In terms of a volunteer pipeline digitally, I am pointing back to the "Let's Green NYC" program. I have been describing it as sort of a... when people are not really sure where to go, if you are able to go to our webpage, it is sort of like a Match.com kind of situation. So if you say that you are interested in working with dogs, you can click that on our website and it will link you to different groups who are stewarding dog runs, for example. Or whatever your interest is, you can go to our "It's My Park"... I am sorry.

(01:24:14)

That is "Let's Green NYC." Find something that speaks to you and allows you to be able to volunteer with an organization listed that provides that type of engagement or that type of volunteer opportunity, and you can reach out to that organization and join them and see if you can be a part of it.

There are also opportunities if you yourself do not see anything speaking to you on our website. On that "Let's Green NYC" page there is a button that says "I want to volunteer individually," and then you can self-select what it is that you want to do. If you do not know, but you know you want to do something, that is a great way to get in. That will connect you to a Partnership for Parks coordinator who can help you figure out what it is that you want to do.

(01:25:05)

Got it. I also just want to add on top of that: "It's My Park" events are a very specific kind of volunteer event. So even though we did pause for, I think it was about two months in the summer when we usually have to cancel a lot of those events anyway for weather, there are lots of other volunteer events that are happening throughout our park system. When you look at the "Let's Green NYC" numbers that Commissioner Smith was talking about, we have tried to really collect all the data we can from volunteer activities throughout our agency. It is engagements over the past three years. So I think we have a very robust volunteer engagement system that we are always looking to grow. I just wanted to add that. Thanks.

(01:25:54)

Thanks. And CM, I wanted to correct myself real quick. The individual volunteer button does not connect you to Partnership for Parks — that connects you to a person actually in my office who is overseeing the "Let's Green NYC" initiative and can then help you figure out which part of Parks to connect to. I just wanted to clarify that it does not go directly to Partnership for Parks.

(01:26:19)

Thank you for that clarification.