How park groups can mentor one another

How did Friends of Hancock Woodlands become the “little sister” to The Riverwood Conservancy (TRC), and how did TRC’s experience help shape volunteerism and community engagement at Hancock Woodlands? 

We spoke to Robin Haley-Gillin, Manager of Organizational Development & Volunteers at TRC and Sytske van der Veen, Chair of the Friends of Hancock Woodlands, to learn more about their impressive collaboration.

For 35 years, The Riverwood Conservancy has been dedicated to stewarding Riverwood, a 150-acre urban oasis featuring woodlands, meadows, and nature trails. Each year, over 10,000 people participate in TRC’s nature-focused events, and their volunteers contribute more than 24,000 hours of service. TRC has received the Park People Greenbelt River Valley Connector grant twice, which supports programs that connect people to their local Greenbelt-protected watersheds.

As an organization with a strong understanding and foothold in the community, TRC was in an ideal position to help a new Mississauga park group start their volunteer program. 

Friends of Hancock Woodlands was established when the City of Mississauga purchased a family-owned plant nursery with plans to open it as a new garden park. From the start of the project, the City was committed to ensuring the park had a robust volunteer program, including a strong community park group. Hancock Woodlands was finally opened as a public park in 2018. In 2019, they received their first TD Park People grant to organize fun events connecting the community to their newest park.

Despite The Riverwood Conservancy being over 20 times the size of Hancock Woodlands and having a long-established presence in their city, their collaboration has had a significant impact. 

Expanding the movement

The Riverwood Conservancy relished working with the newly established park group because it was an opportunity to see a new garden park project come to life. Riverwood has “expanding the garden park movement” right in its vision statement.

Rather than seeing their groups as competitors battling it out for volunteers and event attendance, the two groups saw themselves as engaged in the same ultimate goal of successfully growing the garden park movement.

Does your park group’s vision and mission include collaboration? What local groups could your group turn to for support and mentorship? Consider these questions as you examine how the two groups worked together.

From policies to plants and everything in between

The Riverwood Conservancy gave Friends of Hancock Woodlands access to its events, networks, knowledge and experience in order to get the group prepared to become officially registered with the City of Mississauga.

In the early days, TRC gave the new group access to the core policy and governance documents they’d need to establish their Friends group. This included sharing key documents like terms of reference, volunteer job descriptions, and group bylaws.

A few years elapsed between forming Friends of Hancock Woodlands and the official park opening. During this time, Friends of Hancock Woodlands planned and hosted educational events. At this stage, TRC provided Hancock Woodlands with marketing and outreach support by printing brochures, featuring the group on their website and sharing space at tabling events. They also provided a meeting space so the group could meet and begin planning its future.

Finally, as the park opened, TRC helped the Friends group get its core members working well together. TRC also offered practical support, like discounts on garden materials that were being purchased in bulk, helping the garden flourish with a lower price tag than Hancock Gardens would experience as a single vendor.

Leveraging differences

Sure, Riverwood is 20 times the size of Hancock Woodlands, but that’s just the start of their differences. Hancock Woodlands has its unique natural features including a heritage woodlot and gardens flush with Rhododendron, Azalea and Mountain Laurel.
The two organizations also have very different histories and locations in the city of Mississauga.

TRC has always valued a strong partnership approach and shared the significance of local collaborations with Friends of Hancock Woodlands. However, when Hancock Woodlands sought out partners, they were able to forge their own unique collaborations, which was exciting for Robin to witness. For example, Hancock Woodlands established a partnership with the local food bank, dedicating plots in their community garden to grow food for those in need. Additionally, they introduced a system where canned food donations serve as ‘payment’ for attending Hancock Woodlands events.

Today, Friends of Hancock Woodlands has a core group and a network of close to 200 people who attend events like invasive species pulls, education about the gardens’ history, and gardening workshops.

Now that the group is officially registered with the city, it will invariably face new challenges, such as working together as a committee and increasing its reach within the community.

Robin says that while the formal aspect of the mentorship is coming to a close, there is a strong push to ensure the project realizes its full potential. Today, Friends of Hancock continues to be “the little sister” organization to TRC, and like sisters, they are growing together and becoming their own.

Thank you to the McLean Foundation for their support in funding this resource.