Are you a park volunteer in Queens? Make connections with other community members caring for their local parks and learn about the amazing work park groups are doing across Queens. You will learn how to spruce up your neighborhood park, get funding, and work with NYC Parks staff in your borough. Dinner provided.

Topics Include:

• An overview of how NYC Parks are built
• The NYC Parks resources available to you
• How to work with your local NYC council member
• Updates from other active community leaders in Queens

Featured Speakers:

• Vincent Cirrito, Queens team leader, NYC Parks Capital Projects
  Vincent Cirrito is a registered landscape architect and team leader for NYC Parks Capital Projects for the borough of Queens. Vincent manages a team of sixty NYC Parks employees including directors, landscape architects, and resident engineers that oversee all capital investment to parks in Queens.
• Niki Kokkinos, Director of Land Use & Scheduling, Council Member Constantinides
  Niki is a lifelong Astoria resident and has worked in the office of City Council Member Costa Constantinides for the last four years. Her responsibilities include overseeing matters related to land use and zoning, coordinating communications between city agencies and constituents, and maintaining the council member’s schedule. Niki holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from NYU Wagner and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Queens College.
• Stephanie Joseph, Recreation Supervisor, NYC Parks
  As a recreation supervisor, Stephanie Joseph monitors four afterschool camps and four summer camps in the borough of Queens. Stephanie develops and plans a diverse array of recreational activities for camp participants, furthering the mission of NYC Parks’ Public Programs Recreation Division to enable all New Yorkers to lead physically active and intellectually stimulating lives through sports, fitness, outdoor adventure, technology, education, and the arts.
• Alexa Weitzman & Cynthia Ribadeniera, group leaders, Yellowstone Park Alliance
  Yellowstone Park Alliance was first established in January 2016 with the help of group leader, Alexa Weitzman. Their first priority was successfully advocating to Council Member Karen Koslowitz for safer gates for their playground, the plans for which are currently underway. Advocacy quickly grew into further community engagement through “It’s My Park” beautification projects, and special events including a winter nature event, an Earth Day festival, and a basketball tournament. Most notably, Yellowstone Park Alliance acquired three years of Parks Equity Initiative funding totaling $50,000. Alexa and co-leader Cynthia Ribadeniera are passionate about building community around their local green space, Yellowstone Park.
• Gretha Suarez, Shah Tariq, Sara Baral, Queens Outreach Coordinators, Partnerships for Parks
  Gretha, Shah, and Sara are the Partnerships for Parks Outreach Coordinators for Queens, acting as the first point of contact for park groups and volunteers in their respective districts. They work to support and sustain existing community park groups, and to guide new groups that are just starting out by helping them find the appropriate people and resources to transform their green spaces.

For more information or questions, please email relzinga@cityparksfoundation.org.