Memphis has a blooming park system
Who We Are
Bloom’s core mission is to empower people in every neighborhood to create and maintain great parks and public spaces. We envision our neighborhood parks filled with people and families enjoying themselves in a safe and inspiring environment – and a lot of that is due to the neighbors who invest time and energy into them.
We work to support park Friends groups who are committed to equitable park access and enhancing the park experiences all. Successful Park Friends groups engage with residents, community organizations, and external partners to achieve their goals and serve as the “community voice” for the park.
How We Can Help
We are a parks advocacy organization created to help people in these park groups come together and organize, turning that passion into purposeful action. There’s power in numbers, pride in ownership and strength in strategy!
What We Do
Empower
Empower you to make the park changes you seek by working with you to form a Park Friends Group and develop good sense strategies that work for your neighborhood. We will help you to successfully navigate the city system, which can sometimes be complex or confusing. We will work with you to answer: How do we form a Friends Group? How do we recruit members to our group? How does the process work with city government? How do we collaborate with the Division of Parks & Neighborhoods? And most importantly, how do we do more with less?
Connect
Broker information so community organizers can connect to government agencies and lawmakers and become key decision-makers in building, improving and maintaining Memphis public parks. While Bloom doesn’t provide grants, we will build and support an equitable peer-to-peer network of park advocates, allowing park advocates to seamlessly connect with one another to compare notes, share contacts and learn from each other’s wins, setbacks and challenges.
Why We Do It
Transformation is the ultimate goal. Like our neighbors, we want to see our parks restored – beautifully landscaped, vibrant, safe and full of life and designed to celebrate the character of a neighborhood.
Building a network of park friends for Memphis
Establishing community-based volunteer groups like Park Friends is the first step in gaining official recognition as a community organization. As a member of your Park Friends group, you are the voice of your community, touching residents and kindling relationships with local businesses that have a vested interest in positive change in your neighborhood.
