If your backyard were a national park, what would you do?

Throughout America's National Parks, Friends groups work to ensure lands are preserved, rivers are cleaned, and wildlife is protected. For Friends groups serving parks situated in urban locales, the moral imperative differs. Historically, Anacostia Park has been impacted by racial and economic inequities--from the establishment of segregated recreation areas and sewage infrastructure that polluted the river, to interstate construction that cut off access to nearby neighborhoods. Today, Friends of Anacostia Park partners with the National Park Service to restore the natural and built environment of this beloved national park. With improvement projects such as litter and invasive vegetation removal, tree mulching and planting, picnic table assembly and trash can replacement, we envision a clean Anacostia Park that supports a vibrant ecosystem.

The revitalization of urban parks is an opportunity to connect residents of underserved communities with meaningful work opportunities and transferable skills. We hire Ward 7 & 8 residents to lead in-park programming, preserve the land and water, maintain the facilities and welcome visitors with a smile. The Friends Corps manages the logistics for all Friends of Anacostia Park events and programs. Let's give a voice to those who breathe in the Park day-in and day-out. Your help ensures that one of D.C.'s largest and most storied green spaces is safe, flourishing, and well-maintained for deserving community members and visitors alike.

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Check out some of the stories below to learn more about our Corps.

What is one of your favorite memories of being in the park?

"Helping families. To be able to walk up to an individual and ask them if they need help when they might not know they need help. What I mean is, they might not know that they wanna skate. But once I introduce it to them, it puts a smile on their face. They might not know that I can provide them with a skateboard or a game. And when I do, it brightens up their day and they end up staying. Their goal was to just come to the park and do whatever the parent wanted to do. You just want to let the child run wild! But once you realize that I'm here and the team is here, we can provide activities for the kids. Smile on the parents face. She's happy. The kids are happy. They be back tomorrow."

-Phyllis

What are your hopes for Anacostia Park?

"I would like to collectively work on a timeline for Anacostia. I get chills even thinking about this. Everybody starts researching Anacostia in the 1600s, and when you come to the Park, we will bark at each other about what we learned. I did this with my students years ago when black history month came.

I said, This is what I want you to do, because everything is so generic, everything is on Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King. I said, Go back to the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s. Who was the MLK before MLK was alive?

Why do you think I would tell them to take out the 1800s and 1900s? Because thats going to make them go to the library and do some research! They are going to have to find something that nobody is talking about.

I want the same thing to happen at Anacostia Park. I want people to understand the nature of the Park and how it came to be. Everyone is talking about whats happening now, but before now happened there was a past. We got folks in DC that don't know the history. I want to talk about our great-great-great-great grandfathers and grandmothers because they shouldn't be forgotten. Thats going to make us do our homework. I don't care how you get the information. GET IT, bring it back here, and we can put everything together."

-Bruce

"I retired as a social service worker. My specialty was employment development, so I worked in that field for 30 something years. Everything from housing to employment, education, elderly services, day care you name it, I did it."

Do you think those experiences translate to what you're doing here?

"Of course! I call them transferable skills. For a long time, I worked in various shelters around the District of Columbia. I worked for Jobs for Homeless People (JHP), I worked for Coalition for the Homeless, and I oversaw the day shelter out in Kensington, MD. I worked at the 2nd St Shelter, the Mitch Snyder Shelter and wanted to see the needs of people, I wanted to fit in and help best that I could."

So that same mentality is with you now?

"Absolutely, yeah. That service mentality is what keeps me motivated. Its what keeps me going because I'm able to provide for the people here at the Park. If you're in this business for anything other than serving, you're in the wrong business. This is the greatest place in the world to come and be a service provider. Yeah. That's what keeps me going. That's what keeps my tik, toking."

-Bobby