City Parks Alliance

City Parks Alliance is the only independent, nationwide membership organization solely dedicated to urban parks. The mission of the City Parks Alliance is to engage, educate, and nurture a broad-based constituency to support the creation, revitalization, and sustainability of parks and green spaces that contribute to more vibrant and equitable cities.

City Parks Alliance (CPA) leads and serves the community of diverse organizations that encompass the parks and recreation world, from neighborhood groups to government agencies, championing high quality urban parks throughout the nation. City Parks Alliance is vital to sound public policy and citizen engagement that recognizes city parks as an integral part of forming strong, vibrant, equitable cities that nurture their communities and local economies. Our vision is that everyone in urban America will have access to the benefits of parks, recreational opportunities, and green spaces. 

City Parks Alliance believes that parks and recreation services play a critical role in advancing racial equity.  Equity is about fairness:  Full and equal access to opportunities, power, and resources so all people may thrive and prosper regardless of demographics. Equity is embedded in all of City Parks Alliance’s work, from our approach to curating our conferences and selection of speakers and community based stories, to our research focus on creating more equitable city-wide systems, to our advocacy efforts to increase investment in urban parks and recreation in neighborhoods of greatest need.  We continue to learn and grow as an organization to broaden cultural, racial, and ethnic perspectives on our board and staff.  See our organizational values and statement on racial equity and justice for more about our commitment to advance these principles.