September 21-23, 2022, The Park People Conference will bring together park professionals, community park group leaders, non-profit organizations, municipal staff and urban enthusiasts to create an abundant future for city parks.
Day 2
Sep 22: Abundant Connections
Fostering deep and lasting connections between people and city parks
6:00 am EDT
The Real 311: A Regional Networking Session
Networking
Have you always wondered who to talk to about park issues and ideas in your city? Connect with the other municipal staff, NGOs and community groups in your city at this dynamic regional networking session.
11:30 am EDT
Keynote
Family & Community Engagement Specialist @Akiima Price Consulting
Nature and Engagement in Economically Stressed Communities
Join acclaimed thought leader Akiima Price at the intersection of social and environmental work for compelling stories on how community empowerment and healing-centered engagement create healthier parks and people, and learn change-making strategies on trauma-informed partnerships, and creative programming that champions community mental health, physical health, and social well-being.
EN w/ FR interpretation
12:45 pm EDT
Generating Power by Sharing Power with Communities
Panel
In managing complex situations, city authorities often double down on exerting their decision-making power. In this session, understand the practices that can disempower communities and learn how to adopt transformative practices that recognize community members as experts in their own lives and public spaces.
Akiima PriceFamily & Community Engagement Specialist @Akiima Price Consulting
Annisha StewartProject Manager @Mama's Healing Garden
Mercedes Sharpe ZayasPlanning Coordinator @Parkdale People’s Economy
Artful Parks: Building Community Art into Parks
Panel
Community artists are skilled at connecting people through creation and sharing. Learn from community artists from across the country who use public spaces as canvases for connecting people across difference. Understand how art-based approaches cultivate community connection and explore how your municipality can best support and integrate this vital work into park engagement, design and programs.
Ima EsinCommunity Programs Coordinator, @STEPS Public Art
Joaquin VarelaFacilitator/Co- founder @Roots to Bloom
Sylvie StojanovskiCo-Founder @Roots to Bloom
Carmen RosenFounding Artistic Director @Still Moon Arts Society
Marie LopesCoordinator, Arts, Culture and Engagement @Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
2:00 pm EDT
Big Opportunities for Large Urban Parks
Panel
Representatives from established and emerging organizations stewarding some of Canada’s large urban parks, and partners of Park People’s Cornerstone Parks program, will discuss how they’ve weathered the storm of the past two years and what the outlook is for large urban parks.
Project Manager @Park People
A Compassionate Approach to Building Belonging in Parks
Panel
City parks are places where community members often bear witness to the struggles of others. Explore how the public nature of parks creates opportunities to be sites of healing and justice. This panel of park leaders shares their insights for approaching park work with a deep sense of compassion and love of community.
Sarah CommonCo-Director: People, Plants and Pollinators @Hives for Humanity
Jim McLeodCommunity Engagement Lead @Hives for Humanity
Ali KennyCommunity Engagement Lead @Hives for Humanity
Donnie RosaGeneral Manager @Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
Ryan EppTreasurer @Kapabamayak Achaak Healing Forest
Nicolette FelixDirector of Community Mobilization @MABELLEarts
Deb RadiFounding member and Co-Chair @Kapabamayak Achaak Healing Forest
Val VintKnowledge Keeper @Kapabamayak Achaak Healing Forest
Dignified Design: Health-Equity Design with Unhoused Communities
Workshop
As cities across Canada grapple with the housing crisis, urbanists have rightfully pointed to the harmful and exclusionary practice of defensive design. In this session we ask, what would the opposite of defensive design look like in urban parks? Catch a glimpse of inspiring examples of inclusive park amenities that create a sense of safety and belonging for unhoused park users.
Senior Project Manager @Park People
Lived Experience Caucus Member @Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness
Nurturing with Nature: Nature Programming Inclusive of People with Disabilities
Panel
Learn directly from people who have lived experience with disabilities/chronic illness about the creative and effective ways they have fostered community capacity and individual wellbeing through inclusive nature programming. The impacts of their Accessible Nature Wellbeing Programs will be illustrated through photo collages and participant survey responses. EcoWisdom’s accessible training program for Nature and Forest Therapy Guides will also be described, and graduates will share their stories of offering mindful nature connection programs that are inclusive of people of all abilities.
Kari KroghCo-Founder @EcoWisdom
Paul GauthierExecutive Director @ Individualized Funding Resource Centre (IFRC) Society
Mahnoor KhanResearch Coordinator @EcoWisdom
Linda McGowanNature and Forest Therapy Guide @EcoWisdom
Karen Van BiesenNature and Forest Therapy Guide @EcoWisdom
Kirsten McEwanAssociate Professor of Health and Wellbeing @University of Derby
Kim EggerCo-founder/Co-leader @South Fraser Active Living Group
3:15 pm EDT
A Playbook to Embrace The Power of Play
Panel
Play brings joy, wonder, and movement to our public spaces. Because of this, play helps us reimagine how we engage in public spaces and with each other. Join this dynamic group of play-based programmers, researchers, and thought leaders to delve deep into the rejuvenating powers of play in parks.
Annie VandenbergCo-Founder @Recreate Place
David CareyCo-Executive Director @The Bentway
Stephanie WattCo-founder @Metalude
Margaret FraserCo-founder @ Metalude
Kelsey SnookSenior Creative @Daily tous les jours
Marieve BlanchetProfessor @UQAM / Chercheure
Amanda O'RourkeExecutive Director @8 80 Cities
Heidi CampbellSenior Program Manager @Evergreen
Melissa MongiatCo-Founder @Daily tous les jours
Paula GalloCo-Founder @Recreate Place
Peacemaking in Placemaking: Conflict Resolution in Parks
Workshop
Join two municipal leaders as they share first hand lessons in conflict resolution. Emily Dunlop shares what she learned managing the controversial pedestrianization of Stanley Park and Niall Lobley draws lessons from responding to calls to decolonize Kitchener’s parks. Joined by a community-based conflict resolution specialist, learn productive ways to address, manage and reframe conflict in parks.
Director of Parks & Cemeteries @City of Kitchener
Senior Planner @Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
Engagement Like You Care
Panel
Even with the best of intentions, community consultations can undercut community and individual agency and turn local changemakers into cynics. Join creative and leading edge community engagement experts to cultivate new tools and tactics that give communities joyful ways to share their visions for public spaces and build place-based connections that can be sustained long after the ribbon is cut.
Vancouver Project Manager @Park People
Principal and Co-Founder @PROCESS
Project Manager @RECOVER Urban Wellbeing, City of Edmonton
5:00 pm EDT
Canada’s New National Urban Parks Network
Panel
Co-hosted by Park People and Parks Canada, this session will give you an inside look at Parks Canada's new program for the creation of a network of national urban parks to expand nature access and protection in urban spaces. Park People will share nine key takeaways from their engagement sessions to inform an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming national urban park network. This is an opportunity to learn how park-aligned organizations that have not traditionally been engaged envision the future of large urban parks and how this exciting network or national urban parks is taking shape.
Program Manager @Park People
National Urban Park Project Manager @Parks Canada