WORKSHOPS
Tuesday, June 24
Round Two: 4:00-5:30pm

This round includes both indoor workshops (listed first) and outdoor walking workshops.

Prospect Park's Strategic Alliances and Partnerships

Because of a far different neighborhood context than Central Park, Prospect Park has developed a strategy based on alliances with community groups, businesses, elected officials and park users. Through partnerships with community organizations, the Alliance has developed innovative programs, such as the Prospect Park Youth Council, to promote stewardship. Through partnerships with local parks organizations, they are campaigning to restore basic services to all Brooklyn parks. By connecting with other cultural institutions, such as Brooklyn's Museum of Art, Public Library, Children's Museum, Botanic Garden, and Zoo, they are developing programs that leverage their collective efforts. Lastly, working creatively with park users, they have tamed hundreds of snarling dog owners into a cuddly team of park advocates. Hear from the Alliance's strategic planners, and some of their partners.

Parks and the Bottom Line, Part II SOLD OUT!

In this second session on evaluating and demonstrating the value of parks, hear the perspective of a New York City official, Ernst & Young analysts studying the benefits of parks (sponsored by New Yorkers for Parks), and Chicago LISC representatives who have studied the impact of how a park in a low-income neighborhood became an engine for economic development and a destination for hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans.

How to Turn a Park Around, Part II

Part II of the Project for Public Spaces training workshop on revitalizing parks. In this session, participants will go out into the field, evaluate and observe spaces in and around the park, and apply placemaking principles learned in Part I.

Learning From Abroad:
International Challenges And Successes SOLD OUT!

Recent case studies of what's happening in parks and public spaces in Europe. This year we examine nonprofit initiatives in the Czech Republic and Green Urbanism in cities as diverse as Copenhagen, London, Heidelberg, and Zurich.

The Excellent City Park System:
What Makes it Great, and How to Get There

Great park systems require more than extensive acreage, manicured ball fields, or beautiful gardens. True park system excellence involves planning, citizen involvement, user satisfaction, funding, safety, programming, access and stewardship. And the excellent park system rewards the surrounding city with significantly added value. Building on a year's worth of research, the Trust for Public Land has identified eight basic components of the excellent city park system. Learn what they are, what some of the benchmark measures are, and how to achieve excellence.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden:
A GreenBridge Grows in Brooklyn

Learn about Brooklyn GreenBridge, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's community horticulture program, which shares the knowledge and resources of the garden with the diverse neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Working with block associations, community gardens, community centers, and other groups, Brooklyn GreenBridge promotes conservation and community through gardening activities. This workshop will also tour the BBG's more than 5,000 rosebushes, which bloom in June, the Herb Garden's 300 species, the innovative Fragrance Garden, and the exquisite Japanese Garden and world-famous Bonsai Museum.

Getting Past the Goalie:
Youth Involvement in Parks

The recreation movement is usually dominated by youth-oriented sports and programming. However, examples of teens working to create parks that are comfortable places for them and their peers—places where they have a sense of ownership and involvement—are rarer. When it happens, though, communities discover that youth involvement can dramatically improve the perception of and activity in a park that is not recreation-oriented. Find out about teen programs and initiatives that work to build park use and community activity, including restoration work and school program partners. Presenters include young people from Prospect Park's cutting-edge Youth Council and Central Park's Youth Leadership Programs.

WALKING WORKSHOPS

Woodland Management in Prospect Park

In a companion tour to Monday's "Into the Woods" workshop on woodland management, this walking workshop will showcase the magnificent forest restoration of the Prospect Park Ravine and what it took to get there. Local ecosystem management, watercourse restoration and native planting issues will also be explored as participants enjoy this quiet, rugged terrain at the heart of Prospect Park.