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Do you have news about your park you want to share? email Wendy@providenceparks.org

Thank you to our Corporate Volunteers brought to us by our partners at Serve Rhode Island and Save the Bay:
Whole Foods for the great work at Blackstone Woods, Fidelity for their work at the Wild Place, and GlazoSmithKline for helping at Peace & Plenty Park

The Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Conservancy Fall Fest
October 27, 11-3:30 at the Botanical Center at Roger Williams Park. Children will use a variety of natural materials (such as twigs, seeds, grasses, acorns, and leaves) to create critters, mosaics, rubbings and more. There will be a scavenger hunt for items placed in the Conservatory flower beds. There will be a competition for kids who choose to "Dress a Winter Squash"  and there will be a Storybook corner. For more information, go to RWPBC on Facebook or contact office@bccrwp.org.
7th Annual Fiends of Brown Street Park Halloween Event
Angels and devils, villains and superheroes -- all are welcome at the
7th Annual Fiends of Brown Street Park Children’s Halloween Party and Parade
Thursday, October 31st, from 4p – 5:30p.   Kids can join in on the ghoulish games, creepy crafts and demented decorating projects, while filling up on pizza and healthy snacks.  At 5p, jump in as one of our favorite local bands honks, blasts and bangs their way along a neighborhood parade route.  Consider it a wholesome warm-up to the night’s main event.  Please contact wendy@friendsofbrownstreetpark.org if you have scary skills you’d like to volunteer.
Sponsored by “Fiends” of Brown Street Park, Parks + Recreation, East Side/Mt Hope YMCA, Crossfit Providence, Whole Foods University Heights, The Wheeler School, The Gordon School, Southside Community Landtrust, and Providence Athenaeum.
Visit www.friendsofbrownstreetpark.org for more details. Free, but donations are always nice!
There will be a workshop on Oral Histories at Brown University 10.8. If you would like to attend, please let Wendy know as there are scholarships available for Park groups and registration is required.
Eager to start doing oral history? This workshop will help launch a community history project. Facilitator Anne Valk will provide an informative overview to the field of oral history from initial idea through finished product. The workshop will guide participants through project planning, technology, interviewing methods, writing questions, release forms, and making interviews accessible.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
9am-12pm: 
John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities & Cultural Heritage
357 Benefit Street (rear entrance)
Providence RI 02903
Playful Providence Weekend 2013
Pics from Playful Providence 2013: kick-off at Providence Children's Museum with Mayor Angel Taveras, Hummerflutter Puppetry at Viscolosi Park, The Imagination Center at Burnside Park, Sandcastles and Sandmonsters at Joslin Park, Scavenger Hunt at the Wild Place, Pop up play at Fargnoli, Rhody Ropers at Neutaconkanut, and Y on the Move at Peace & Plenty

Thanks to all of the parks that hosted an event. You really helped to bring our parks to life and our communities together. More pictures can be found on Facebook. Thank you to Mayor Angel Taveras, Providence Parks Department, Office of Sustainability, Art, Culture + Tourism, Kidoinfo, The RISD Store, and the YMCA as well as the many community partners and playmakers that made it such a huge success! Harriet and Sayles event is rescheduled to October 19th from 1-3pm.

The Ultimate Gift
Thank you to artist Camomile Hixon and Helene Miller for the wonderful Park-let, The Gift of Play. We were thrilled to be one of over 30 Park-lets in Providence on Friday, September 20th. Check out more here!

Providence Athenaeum Salon
Friday October 18, 5-7pm, SALON, co-presented with the Providence Preservation Society: Partnership for Providence Parks (Partnership) Director Wendy Nilsson along  with several Partnership partners, on “Strengthening and Connecting Communities through Parks and Play,” part of the 2013 PPS Symposium, “Not Always Easy: Building the New Urban Experience.” More on the Partnership: http://providenceparks.org/; more on PPS: ppsri.org. Sponsor: James Brayton Hall.


We are recruiting volunteers for the Playful Providence 2013 finale, the Color Run 5K to benefit the Partnership on Sunday, October 20. We need many volunteers for Friday night the 18th through the end of the event on Sunday the 20th. Check it out!
Volunteer to support our parks by signing up for one the most unique volunteer jobs in the WORLD!
There are a variety of responsibilities depending on how you like to have fun. No matter what you're assigned to, we promise it will be a day to remember!
Please let Wendy@providenceparks.org know if you are interested in volunteering on behalf of the Partnership and what your availability is, or register directly with Serve Rhode Island. Volunteer times and locations will be sent as the event gets closer!
If you have a large group that would like to volunteer together, email volunteer@thecolorrun.com and mention that you are volunteering on behalf of the Partnership for Providence Parks.


KaBOOM! 2013 Playful City USA Leaders' Summit
Wendy Nilsson (Partnership), Cliff Wood (Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy), Megan Fischer and Janice O'Donnell (Providence Children's Museum) and Ellen Cynar (Mayor's Office of Healthy Communities), represented Providence at the KaBOOM! Playful City USA Leaders' Summit in Baltimore 9/23-24. Wendy Nilsson participated in a panel on Playspace Innovations and the team presented at the Synthesizing the Summit Session on what it takes to create a movement for play in a city.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Urban Academy
Beth Charlebois, Director Neighborhood Parks & Recreation Services, and Janis Nepshinsky, RI National Wildlife Refuge Complex, spoke at the first ever US Fish and Wildlife Service Urban Academy held at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia, 9/23-25.  Beth & Janis presented on the City of Providence, Parks & Recreation, the Roger Williams Park Zoo and the Partnership for Providence Parks and our plans for implementation of an Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership Grant awarded to us for education and awareness of nature and wildlife in our urban surroundings.  The US Fish & Wildlife Service is working on an initiative to bring their resources and expertise into urban America to help teach about nature and wildlife and bring the message of conservation to our inner cities.  Providence is considered a leader in this initiative and the Academy was excited to hear about our partners and the great work we are already doing.  There will be a formal announcement and more details about this exciting project in the coming months.


In lieu of a November Friends and Community Partners Meeting, we will be celebrating your work in parks and treescapes. The Providence Department of Parks + Recreation, in collaboration with the Partnership for Providence Parks, Trees 2020, the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program, and other partners, is planning a celebration to honor the work that your organization has done to improve our parks, green places and tree canopy. Please SAVE THE DATE for Thursday, November 14 from 6-8pm at the Roger Williams Botanical Center. Look for your invitation in early October. We promise fun, food, trivia session, “Taste of Providence” munchies, lots of mixing with other groups, short speaking program, and more. Children are welcome (but the event is geared more to our volunteers). Bring your team. Bring a date! Make it a fun evening out. RSVP here. Please let Wendy@providenceparks.org know if you have any questions.

Positions available for Parks and Trees
Partnership for Providence Parks Urban Initiative Conservation Program Coordinator position is posted through the Parks Department. Click here for job description and application process. Also, available through Groundworks is a part-time position for Director of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program. Click here for job description and application process.

Partnership Office is Open
The Partnership office is open at 11 West Drive. If you need meeting space, a place to archive your group's materials, a copier, or would like to borrow some pop-up play materials, contact Wendy at wendy@providenceparks.org.

Google Groups
Our tech Guru, Geoff Meek has set up a Google group so that we can chat directly with each other. Our discussion groups are here.
 You will need:
- An account with Google (Gmail, etc.)
- To request membership to the Partnership for Providence Parks group.
Once your membership is accepted (takes about 1/2 day), simply respond to one of the existing topics, or click the "New Topic" button at the top of the screen.
Using groups is just like using email, with the benefit that all members can view and respond to your messages. The group is also searchable, so you can find out what has been discussed in the past.
If you haven't signed up yet, or are having trouble with it, let Wendy know.

Facebook
Keep sending us your events and pics so we can post them. Oh..please LIKE and FRIEND us. There are some great pics up now of park events and stories in the news. http://www.facebook.com/PartnershipForProvidenceParks

Grants Available
New England Grass Roots Environmental Fund
If you have or haven't applied for a grant through the New England Grass Roots Fund (NEGEF) www.grassrootfund.org you may want to check them out. They are a great first grant to apply for. I am happy to walk anyone through this process. Seed grants are available for new groups and Grow grants for more established groups who may have already received funding from NEGEF. Go for it!

The Partnership
The Partnership for Providence Parks is a new initiative of the Providence Department of Parks and Recreation. The Partnership is a city-wide public/private non-profit 501(C)3 geared toward helping residents and community partners help our parks be active, vibrant, healthy, playful and unique places.
To learn more about the Partnership, please visit www.Providenceparks.org.

 
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