Successful Partnerships

Partnerships and Public Benefits

Our partners offer a wide range of reduced-cost programs, volunteer service events, scholarships, and more to community members, especially those belonging to underrepresented groups. Our Tennis Centers, the Woodland Park Lawn Bowling ClubThistle Theater, Seattle Chinese Garden and others help us bridge the gap in providing park activation, increased access, and additional services to the community. 

Learn more about public benefit requirements by reviewing the Public Benefit Report. Public Benefit reporting gives organizations that receive reduced rent in City of Seattle properties the opportunity to report the value of public benefti they provide to the Seattle community. 

Read about some of our partners and their public benefits

Some of Our Successful Partnerships

We could not do what we do at Seattle Parks and Recreation without the active support of our partners. Here are a few key organizations that support our mission through partnerships:

Associated Recreation Council

ARC and its 37 volunteer Advisory Councils partner with SPR to create spaces where children, teens, families and adults can come together to learn, create and achieve their best through athletics, arts, education, environmental stewardship and community events. In 2013, ARC brought in more than $12 million in revenue. Visit the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) website to learn more.

Seattle Parks Foundation

The Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving and expanding Seattle's parks and green spaces. Seattle Parks Foundation makes it easy to provide direct support for the health and beauty of Seattle's parks and green spaces.

Green Seattle Partnership

This is a unique public/private partnership between the City of Seattle (SPR, Office of Sustainability and Environment, and Public Utilities) and Forterra. Its goal is to restore 2,500 forested acres of parkland by the year 2025. The Green Seattle Partnership includes thousands of community volunteers, who, with the support of businesses and other nonprofits, actively work to restore and maintain Seattle's forested parklands. The GSP has inspired the creation of similar partnerships in five other Puget Sound-area cities. Now, at the halfway point of the effort, we have more than 1,000 acres of Seattle's forested parkland in active restoration and long-term management, spread across 80 parks throughout the city. Our progress is in large part thanks to more than 700,000 hours of work by our amazing volunteers, in addition to the dedication of our hard-working staff and field crews. We have done a LOT in the past 10 years! But we still have a lot of work to do. In 2015, a 10-year strategic plan update process will include community input from our staff, leadership, volunteers, and the public. The City has hired HBB Landscape Architecture to assist in this process. With their understanding of the issues and proven ability to facilitate the public involvement process, they will help ensure the final 10-year strategic plan update is a success by creating a clear, balanced and accurate document.

Magnuson Leases

The Mountaineers is one of several partners who have a long-term lease agreement with Parks. Terms of the agreement include capital investment in the building and the construction of a rock climbing plaza that is open to the public to provide a partial offset of rent payments.

Other Magnuson partnerships include one with Civic Light Opera (to improve and manage the theater in Magnuson Community Center), with Sand Point Tennis Center (to build and operate 10 courts), Arena Sports (to build and operate a multi-use indoor recreation facility), and Building 11 LLC (to renovate the building to house recreation-oriented mixed uses). The Friends of Seattle Public Library holds two major book sales every year at Magnuson Park, Hangar in Building 30.

Read examples of Magnuson Park partnership benefits here.

City Year Seattle/King County

Parks partners with City Year to support out-of-school programs and provide resources for promoting environmental awareness and community service.

Volunteers

Whether it's spending a Saturday morning pulling invasive species like English Ivy or Himalayan Blackberry from our precious urban forests or dedicating hours after work to help at-risk teens achieve goals that improve self-esteem and create opportunities for the future, our volunteers are a vital part of our success. Learn more about how you can volunteer and help us! 

Public Benefits provided by Seattle Parks and Recreation tenants and partners

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) leases public spaces to tenants and community partners who help us expand public access to services and further our mission of supporting healthy people, a healthy environment, and strong communities. Click on the providers below to learn more about how these organizations help us bridge the gap in providing park activation, increased access, and additional services to the community. Our partners offer a wide range of reduced-cost programs, volunteer service events, scholarships, and more to community members, especially those belonging to underrepresented groups.

See a summary of the public benefits provided by Seattle Parks and Recreation's tenants and partners here.

Parks and Recreation

AP Diaz, Superintendent
Mailing Address: 100 Dexter Ave N, Seattle, WA, 98109
Phone: (206) 684-4075
Fax: (206) 615-1813
pks_info@seattle.gov

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