Once our parks are complete, we stick around to ensure that they are well cared for during the critical first years; nurturing new plantings and cultivating new patterns of behavior. We set up the city and community for success to continue the work required for parks to thrive for many years to come.

Our first set of eight completed parks have taught us a lot, and we are perpetually honing our model. Yet every park is unique, and we are continuing to find new solutions to meet each park's needs.

This summer, we had another successful year of our Stewardship Mini Grants and Community Park Ambassador programs in Paterson, NJ at the newly reopened Barbour and Vera Ames Parks. We awarded 10 mini grants (the most in a single year to date) to local organizations to host events in the two parks. Offerings ranged from basketball clinics on the newly refinished courts at Vera Ames to yoga on the lawn at Barbour Park.

The Muture Sisters, one of this year's recipients, held a community wellness event in Barbour Park. They described how hosting an event in the park helped them meet their mission goals: "by utilizing the park as a central location for outreach, education, recreation and resource navigation, the event strengthened community partnerships, increased awareness of available services and created meaningful opportunities for our residents to improve their overall health and well-being."

NCP also continued our successful Community Park Ambassador program that we piloted in Poughkeepsie, by hiring our first Ambassador at Vera Ames Park. Community Park Ambassadors serve as a welcoming presence in the park to invite neighbors back and help with light maintenance including keeping the park clean.

Ronald Joseph truly became a fixture at Vera Ames this summer. His love of the park and community came through in all he did, and he decided to give out free ice pops to local kids during Paterson’s record-breaking heat wave. Hear directly from Ronald about his experience this summer.

We have just completed Phase 1 of our largest park to date, Paterson’s flagship 27-Acre Westside Park. This dynamic park now offers the community five refurbished sports facilities, gathering places, a kayak launch, new walking paths, seating, and many new trees. Its scale demands a unique plan for its future sustainability.

NCP has partnered with the New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC) to create the Westside Park Conservancy to oversee maintenance and programming of the park for years to come. As the park enters this new chapter following significant reinvestment, we are seizing this unique opportunity to keep it active, welcoming, and well cared for over time. The Conservancy will build and sustain that momentum by bringing people, resources, and community partnerships together to support the park’s ongoing life.

The Conservancy is raising funds to support programming and improvements and will play a pivotal role in helping coordinate and manage partners and stakeholders. This community-centered effort will support the long-term success of Westside Park long after NCP’s involvement ends.

The Westside Park Conservancy and all our other stewardship work is spearheaded by NCP's Projects & Partnerships Director, Chanda Bennett. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Conservancy in its incubation phase.