Inner West Council’s Post

Funding parks and recreation 🟰 Funding a bright future for your community 🌟 Janet Bartnik, Deputy Director Prince William County Parks and Recreation, shares her journey into the field, and the impacts and future of parks and recreation. Watch the full video and others: https://bit.ly/43M6tUF Park and recreation professionals wear many hats, they're community builders, advocates, mentors- to name a few. We've found the stories they have to tell incredibly powerful. That’s why we started the video-storytelling project, Park and Recreation Stories. Through uplifting voices in the field we aim to highlight the power of parks, as well as significant events experienced by our members, partners and advocates. We’re excited to continue sharing these stories with you throughout 2024 and into 2025 as we begin celebrating our 60th anniversary. #ParkAndRecStories #NRPA60 #PowerOfParks #WhereYouBelong #ParkAndRecMonth

For more than 50 years, Earth Day has signified a time for people to come together to invest in the health of the environment both locally and globally.🌎 As one of the largest groups of land managers and community service providers, park and recreation professionals and their agencies are essential to these environmental efforts. Several agencies shared their Earth Day and Month initiatives with us in the April issue of Parks & Recreation magazine. Read the full article to... 🌎Learn how Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation in North Carolina is promoting nature and agriculture as one of their main missions year-round. 🌎Explore what parks and recreation in Wichita, Kansas is doing to remind folks how important it is to take care of our environment. 🌎Discover the 2024 Annual Bike to Earth Day event held by the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation in Indiana. 🌎Hear from Douglasville, Georgia Parks and Recreation on replenishing the tree canopy in a recently renovated park, which suffered a loss of trees during construction. 🌎Get a taste of the fun events and volunteer efforts put on by the Forest Preserves in Cook County, Illinois that allow people to give back to the natural world. 🌎Find out how the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department in Cary, North Carolina is getting community members involved in climate actions and stewardship strategies through dozens of programs. Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4cI0dRV #PowerOfParks #NRPAEarthMonth #EarthDay #EarthMonth #Conservation #WhereYouBelong #ClimateHero #Parks #Recreation #Environment #Sustainability #Nature

Struggling to work out how to satisfy CSR obligations? Finding it hard to allocate team building activities that hit your #triplebottomline and engage your workforce? Look no further. Contact UEARTH® 2050 or Chris Desai for further details. It will be one of the most rewarding things you can do. #sustainability #csr

🌿 Restoring Bushlands & Building Inclusion 🌿 Meet Bushlink a social enterprise by Northside that’s regenerating bushland in Sydney’s Northern Beaches while creating meaningful work opportunities for people with disabilities. 💚 Here’s how they’re making an impact: 🔹 Restoring natural habitats and creating vibrant outdoor spaces. 🔹 Partnering with schools to teach students bush regeneration skills and environmental care. 🌳 🔹 Hosting corporate volunteer days to connect businesses with nature and inclusion. With passionate leaders like Abi Byrne and dedicated team members like Tarek Lazhar, Bushlink is transforming both the environment and lives. 📖 Read more about this inspiring initiative in the Landcare in Focus online Magazine: https://lnkd.in/gWDNsKfS 👉 Click here to subscribe to our newsletter so you’ll never miss another issue: https://lnkd.in/g25hSF9

Not all national parks are untouched nature reserves. Some have people living and working in them. Some, if not all, have diverse and intricate ecosystems vital to us as human beings, vital to addressing climate change. Even with people living and working in them. All rely on volunteers, public funding and tourism to support ongoing conservation efforts... to sustain the nature, but also culture and heritage embedded in these beautiful landscapes. They rely on us caring about these spaces — understanding them, being connected to them and connecting with one another through them — and making sure there's better access to them, for all. The countryside is for everyone. There's a lot we can do to protect and interact with our national parks here in the UK, and it starts by rediscovering what they are and why they matter. A collection of film shorts we worked on with the South Downs National Park Authority goes some way to answering this. Your National Park invites people to see their national park through the eyes of its champions, to look beyond the picture-postcard of iconic rolling hills and white cliffs, and rediscover the nature and culture on their doorsteps — and maybe even find their place in it. We've been tuned into the debate on whether a new national park is to be designated in north Wales. There are good arguments for and against, but the issue raises wider concerns about our existing national parks in the UK, which have had their budgets slashed considerably in the past decade. It's an issue close to our heart, especially given some of us live in these spaces and see what's required to keep them alive — in the heart of rural Powys and on the edge of the South Downs National Park. The protected status of the latter, we believe, has been a good thing... and hopefully will continue to be. Read Kelly Smith's post on the project... and watch and find out more from here: https://lnkd.in/ezMuCjw6 #SouthDowns #YourNationalPark #nationalparks #habitats #conservation #sustainability #volunteering

Seems like possibly a good aspirational example for Long Island Sound watersheds. https://lnkd.in/eaCbG58a, https://sustainablect.org https://ctfarmland.org https://grassrootsfund.org, For starters

Old Habits Die Hard The Hippo Roller is revolutionizing access to better water sources, particularly in rural communities around the world, by offering a practical and sustainable solution. This innovative device, designed to alleviate the burden of water transportation, enables users to more efficiently collect and transport up to 90 liters of water—five times the typical amount carried by traditional methods. Its durable design, featuring a robust cylindrical container and a convenient handle, allows it to be rolled across various terrains, significantly reducing physical strain and reducing the time and effort required to fetch water. This enables children to attend school and women to engage in economic activities, fostering community development and resilience as the burden of this task usually falls on their shoulders, though some may still try to balance the Hippo Roller on their heads, only to realize it's better rolled than lifted! 😂 As we continue to seek sustainable solutions for global challenges, the Hippo Roller stands out as a testament to human ingenuity and compassion, providing a simple yet powerful tool to improve water access for those who need it most. https://lnkd.in/deucUpE5

The teachings from this 2023 gathering and the follow up conversation keep on giving: ❤️ Expand the teachings, rather than simply repeating what and how they were given to us. ❤️ Protect and nurture endangered experiences, beyond endangered species. ❤️ Listen to the human and non-human elders. ❤️ Leverage collective power; row together. ❤️ Be accountable for impact. ❤️ Make room for wholeness. ❤️ Bring gifts and gratitude. ❤️ Lead with gentleness. ❤️ Practice forgiveness. ❤️ Remember to rest. https://lnkd.in/eDsZhpc6

Influencer initiatives are definitely not limited to the selling of products. Creators and organisations are constantly exploring new ways to make positives impacts! Here is one latest example #influencermarketing #unesco

Join our next webinar and hear how parks are preserving natural areas in their communities. These are critical nature based solutions to ensure communities are environmentally resilient and healthy! Learn from leaders in the field how they are advancing these efforts and how you can too.