Understanding and Strengthening Connecticut’s Urban Parks
The Connecticut Green Bank is supporting park system assessments across Connecticut to better understand access, equity, and investment needs in urban parks. Through partnerships and local engagement, this work helps identify where strategic investment can support stronger, more accessible parks for all residents.
Why This Work Matters
High-quality parks are critical environmental infrastructure. They support climate resilience, improve community health, and provide equitable access to green space.
As part of its expanded mission, the Connecticut Green Bank is working to better understand:
- Where park access gaps exist
- How investment is distributed across communities
- Which improvements can deliver the greatest impact
These insights help guide future financing, partnerships, and infrastructure development.
Park System Assessment Framework
The Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore index is the national gold standard for comparing park systems across the 100 most populous cities in the U.S.
It evaluates cities based on five key categories:
- access
- equity
- investment
- acreage
- amenities
Connecticut Park System Assessments
Because no Connecticut cities are included in the Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore rankings of the 100 most populous U.S. cities, the Green Bank and its partners developed a Connecticut-specific approach to park system assessment.
A Different Approach: Community-Led Assessments
In Hartford and, now in Bridgeport, the Green Bank supported this research and helped to develop a new methodology for the work.
We’ve incorporated a strong community lens into the process that includes:
- finding a community-based organization to partner with (which we did in Hartford and more recently in Bridgeport with PT Partners)
- developing an advisory committee of local leaders in parks to support the report development
- creating opportunities for local residents to lead in the work
This approach builds community ownership of the report findings and creates space for residents to help shape the future of their parks. It ensures that this isn’t just an analysis effort, but the start of a conversation with residents first.
Over the past few years, assessments have been completed for:
*Partnered with the Connecticut Green Bank