The Catalyst April 2018

New Yorkers for Parks: A Business Plan for Impact

" Parks and open spaces are essential green urban infrastructure … for civic life, recreation, rest and environmental health. Our role, working with community groups and city-wide organizations throughout New York City, is to ensure that we have high quality, well maintained parks and open spaces that are accessible to all New Yorkers." Lynn Kelly, Executive Director, New Yorkers for Parks

New Pressures Require a Creative Plan

Since 1908, New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) has been the trusted, independent city-wide voice for the protection of our treasured parks and open spaces. Today, there are many new and emerging pressures on the City’s park system : the tremendous development push city-wide, the drive to create affordable housing, Parks Department’s budget constraints, and fragmented support for quality parks as a vital public amenity.  These pressures highlight the importance of an independent champion for quality parks in every borough.

Effective Advocacy in Every Strategy

To design a more effective approach to its important work, NY4P brought in The Whelan Group. We facilitated an inclusive business planning process.  In addition to initiatives like NY4P's popular Daffodil Project, our plan found four major themes to animate NY4P’s mission and vision: A stronger program focused on community outreach and engagement An enhanced role as pro-active convener of parks/open space partners A more highly focused agenda driven by its own evidence-based research A more effective way for NY4P to secure a seat at the table for public policy discussions and decision-making on the full range of parks and open space issues.

To learn more, please go here to review highlights of NY4P’s Business Plan.

To learn more about our creative Business and Strategic Planning Services , and our other capabilities, you can reach us by phone at 212-727-7332 or by email at: info@whelangroup.com .

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