Toronto's parks are our city's lungs. As our neighbourhoods continue to grow, intensify, and evolve, the importance of green spaces is becoming ever more apparent, and parks like Trinty-Bellwoods have become focal points of community life.

Toronto's Park People believe that our city is on the cusp of a park renaissance, and thus they aim to facilitate greater neighbourhood engagement in local parks. While developing a network of local community park groups, Park People seeks to foster awareness of the social, health, economic, and enviromental benefits that local green spaces have on our communities.

Rendering of the soon to be complete Corktown Common, Image courtesy of Waterfront Toronto

Park People holds events quite regularly to promote their green agenda, and there are a couple coming up this next week worth checking out.

First, on June 8th for anyone near Withrow Park (725 Logan Avenue south of Danforth Avenue), there is a tour led by Park People and LEAF to demonstrate the success of their Adopt a Tree program, where volunteers foster the health of young trees and work to grow our urban tree canopy by performing tasks like mulching, weeding, and watering.

Second, on June 11th there is a talk on the uses of underutilized park structures at 6PM in the Bloor Gladstone Library. The talk will discuss bringing new life to a park with ideas like new cafes or installing a resident artist. This opportunity to learn how to create vibrant social gathering spaces in disused structures will feature various panelists from Parks Forestry, Parks Friends Groups, and others.

For more info on these events, and the work Park People does in Toronto, check out their website here.