Washington Parks & People

Here in North America's greenest major city, Parks & People works to reclaim, restore, and repeople parks and green spaces across DC to grow city-wide park-based community health, equity, and vitality for all. Over the past 36 years, Parks & People has mobilized over 250,000 volunteers to help communities across DC reclaim over 300 green spaces of all kinds across DC. Our impact hubs are at Meridian Hill/ Malcolm X Park in Columbia Heights, where we created the community coalition to save the park for all in 1990 and have been growing park-based community ever since, and in Marvin Gaye Park in Far Northeast, where we operate the one-acre Marvin Gaye Community Greening Center and Urban Farm and the Riverside Center for Healthy Living, inside the old nightclub where Marvin Gaye had his professional debut as a teen growing up alongside the park. We also own two model greenspaces, the Columbia Heights Green and the Piney Spring Green.

Parks & People helps communities clean, green, restore, and program community parks and green spaces of all kinds, including parks, playgrounds, trails, schoolyards, streambanks, community gardens and farms, vacant lots, streetscapes, and more. We grow food, learning and discovery, food, jobs, arts and culture, healing, peace, and community all over DC.