The lack of a healthy common space, like a working public park, leads to the deterioration of a sense of community. When people felt locked inside their homes, parks were perceived as something a neighborhood would not want. In the search for building green space in Newark, citizens are really seeking to carve out public spaces, and we see how this is being done in a variety of ways.

Creating More Park Space (01:05)

We meet Joanne Miller of the South Ward, who works with children in a newly-renovated park called Mildred Helms Park. A few years back, the park was a place to avoid, even though it backs up against an elementary school. When Joanne and the Mildred Helms Park Resurrection Committee eventually connected with the Trust for Public Land and its Parks for People – Newark program, their plans to find the resources to take back the park as a safe public space were enhanced. Carl Haefner, director of the program, talks about how the organization looks to local leaders when it embarks upon such projects. We see how the rebirth of a green space like Mildred Helms Park, however small, can then lead to an increase in “social capital,” where neighbors come together over a park and then extend that shared responsibility into other areas, like starting after-school programs or block associations.