This year again, local leaders gathered their neighbours, built connections, and restored nature in projects big and small. The movement continues to expand, and we're pleased to share just some of these impacts in our 2025 Impact Report.
Ready to rally your crew and make a visible difference in your local park? This guide walks you through everything you need to host a successful community clean-up in Toronto
Discover ways to help you host events in your local parks during extreme heat events.
Explore key findings from five years of the Canadian City Parks Report, highlighting significant trends, issues, and practices shaping urban parks across the country.
A guidance and resources to measure the impact of your park work on community health and wellbeing, integrating a social equity lens.
The 6th Montreal Park People Forum is back on September 17 under the theme “Remembering, Looking Forward, and Taking Action for Urban Parks".
By donating to Park People, you’ll support vibrant parks for everyone.
Manager of Research and Analytics for Parks, Forestry and Recreation, City of Toronto
With a background in landscape architecture, international development cooperation, and social impact measurement, Jia currently manages the Research and Analytics Unit at the City of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry, and Recreation Division’s Policy and Strategic Planning Branch to provide decision-support to improve quality of life for the public. She has a special interest in community development through design, performance measurement, and socio-ecological resilience research.
Jia brings to the City of Toronto a decade of experience in international development cooperation, working in over a dozen countries in the global south on improving organizational and program effectiveness within non-governmental organizations and government agencies. She has worked with Plan International, the World Bank (Asia), Ministries of Health in Tanzania, Mali, Ghana, Bangladesh, as well as donors including Dubai Cares, Global Affairs Canada, Global Sanitation Fund, and African Development Bank.
In Canada, Jia has developed organizational effectiveness strategies for the Ontario Trillium Foundation and created a social impact measurement toolkit for Park People, a public space NGO. She has also worked with Toronto-based design firms Office Ou and the Planning Partnership.