There are 6,414 acres of green space in Seattle, including small pocket parks, natural areas, and boulevards. Ensuring our communities have recreational opportunities in these parks and public spaces is critical to the long-term health of our residents. Time in nature and outdoor recreation supports children’s health, increases mental well-being, and can improve health outcomes for adults. A 2017 National Institutes of Health study in urban parks in low-income neighborhoods found that safety concerns arise when there is a lack of activation and positive recreational usage of parks.

Seattle Parks Foundation is committed to parks and public spaces that offer opportunities for all community members to connect, engage, and participate in recreational activities. Activating a park can be as simple as adding chess boards or cornhole to building new pickleball courts, playgrounds, and amphitheaters for arts and cultural activities. We work with communities to ensure their parks and public spaces are culturally relevant and address their neighborhood’s specific recreational needs.

Some current ways we support activated parks and healthy people include:

• Advocating for funding of recreation facilities and staff in the Metropolitan Parks District.
• Leading public/private funding efforts for the Urban Parks Partnership, which activates downtown parks with music, art, events, and activities.
• Fiscally sponsoring many recreation community groups focused on bringing activities to our public spaces like summer night out events, pickleball courts, youth basketball programs and more!
• Supporting the creation of new arts installations in public spaces such as the AIDS Memorial Pathway and the Volunteer Park Amphitheater.

Each of the projects below focuses on the work of activated parks and healthy people in different ways. Click to learn more about them.