Park People’s Executive Director, Erika Nikolai, has been honoured with the Distinguished Individual Award from World Urban Parks—an international recognition that celebrates her leadership and the growing national movement Park People has helped build here in Canada.
Why are events in parks important? How do grants fit into Park People’s larger goals for creating change in city parks?
The emerging stream of the Park People Nature Connect Fund provides up to $5,000 to grassroots and registered organizations across Canada that connect people with nature, foster ecological stewardship, and restore urban parks and green spaces.
The scaling stream of the Park People Nature Connect Fund offers up to $20,000 to registered organizations across Canada that connect people with nature while fostering ecological stewardship and restoring urban parks.
Learn more about green social prescribing, an evolving practice that encourages individuals to reestablish connections with nature and one another to enhance their mental, physical, and social wellbeing.
A reflection on the BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC Survey Report, exploring how Black communities experience parks and public spaces, and what fosters joy and belonging.
How do we build a healthier, greener, more joyful Toronto? We start at the park. Discover how communities across the city have transformed their green spaces over the past fifteen years. Then roll up your sleeves and help shape what comes next.
By donating to Park People, you’ll support vibrant parks for everyone.
Assistant Professor, Department of Integrative Biology at University of Windsor
Dr. Febria (she/her/siya) is a Pinay/Filipina immigrant settler to Turtle Island and an assistant professor at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER) & Dept. of Integrative Biology at the University of Windsor situated in Waiwiyaataanong (Windsor). Her lab – Healthy Headwaters Lab – advances freshwater science and restoration ecology efforts that connect land, water and people. Her research engages diverse knowledge systems and interdisciplinary approaches. Her lab hosts both a Farmers Advisory Board and Ode’imin Indigenous Knowledge Circle, the latter centres Indigenous science practitioners and communities in restoration and stewardship projects including one with co-panelist Clint Jacobs and others to launch the University of Windsor National Urban Park Hub in 2023. The Hub is the only university-based, research-focused initiative seeking to co-create and evaluate wise practices for equitable and inclusive engagement, Indigenous-led stewardship and programming to inform the National Urban Parks Policy and Programs.
In addition, Catherine also leads the Healthy Headwaters Lab and research team and serves as: co-Director of the GLIER Organic Analysis & Nutrients Laboratory (a central research facility), the Associate Director of FishCAST (an NSERC CREATE graduate student training program), is Canada’s nominated Multidisciplinary Expert Panel member with the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Co-Chair of the International Science Advisory Panel for New Zealand’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge, and as Coordinating Editor with the journal Restoration Ecology. Since 2019 she has successfully received more than $7.5 million in research-based funding and in 2022 was an inaugural recipient of the Great Lakes Champion Award from the International Association of Great Lakes Research for her efforts in championing equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of her teaching, research and service.