As Dave Harvey retires from his co-leadership position at Park People, he reflects on the incredible journey since founding the organization in 2011.
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.
The programs offers community members from equity-deserving neighbourhoods training and coaching to help them enhance or transform vacant or underused spaces into public green areas.
A guidance and resources to measure the impact of your park work on community health and wellbeing, integrating a social equity lens.
Meet the Ontario Community Changemakers and learn more about their inspiring initiatives transforming parks across the province.
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By donating to Park People, you’ll support vibrant parks for everyone.
Sarah Munro
Park People
Oct 2, 2025 Canada-wide
Learn more about the Cornerstone Parks program.
Canada’s large urban parks play a proven role in supporting the healthy ecosystems and connected communities that make for thriving cities.
From 2021 – 2025, a growing network of Cornerstone Parks – from coast to coast – tracked their shared impact on people as well as the planet. They demonstrated how caring for the land by removing invasive species and planting native species, among other activities, positively impacts community volunteers’ mental well-being and physical health.
Cornerstone Parks also proved the enormous value of their work to their cities. For the vast majority of parks departments in Canadian cities, financial and human resources are insufficient, and parks departments are being asked to address broader social issues that they feel ill equipped to handle (CCPR, 2024). Meanwhile, Cornerstone Parks and their volunteers provide significant economic value to Canada’s major municipalities, offer needed support to City staff, and lighten the load for traditional health and social services by providing community care.
The tireless work of our Cornerstone partners proves that, for people living in cities, parks are vital sites of connection – to nature, to our neighbours, and ultimately to solutions that make Canadian cities more livable.
Discover the impact of Canada’s large urban parks’ stewardship initiatives.
Cornerstone Parks, Stewardship
Explore the impacts of large urban parks on communities’ connectedness to nature and–by extension–their health and happiness.
Discover our new partners within our growing national network of Cornerstone Parks: the Edmonton River Valley Conservation Coalition, Toronto Botanical Garden and Ecology Action Centre.
This summer, Park People welcomes new partners into the Cornerstone Parks program. Everett Crowley Park & the Champlain Height Trails. Together they hold space for nature in cities and demonstrate what’s possible for communities within large urban parks.