Providence City News: Beth Charlebois, Neighborhood Park Services Director for Providence

From the series of City News interviews...

My City: Neighborhood Parks Services Director Beth Charlebois: “Neighbors should feel ownership, a sense of belonging and community, and happiness”

As the sun makes its way into town, more and more people are spending time outdoors. At lunch hour, downtown becomes a sprawling outdoor cafeteria where workers and tourists alike are enjoying the gifts that nature offers this time of year. For Beth Charlebois, the City’s director of neighborhood park services, it’s sights similar to these of neighbors enjoying the one hundred and twelve neighborhood parks all over Providence that inspire her work.

She meets up with City News at the Korean War Memorial on South Main Street and talks to us about why she believes park spaces help to bring people together.

What do you do as the director of neighborhood park services? What does your department do?

I’m in charge of the 112 neighborhood parks in the City of Providence, all the parks except for Roger Williams Park. I oversee an average of fifty-plus employees in the summertime. We also oversee the North Burial Ground for regular maintenance and special projects.

I also work with neighborhood groups, the Mayor’s office, and other city departments in trying to get constituents involved in neighborhood parks.

I’ve been in this position for three years. After a reorganization of the Parks Department took place, this position was created with that reorganization.

Our department deals a lot with groups. It’s very interesting because the issues are never the same. But it’s rewarding as we are doing more in-house projects throughout the neighborhoods.

Since you’ve been in the position, what changes have you seen or made in the last 3 years?

Part of the reorganization involved the crews. We have a crew that handles small parks, which are parks that are an acre and under, which then enables other crews to concentrate on bigger parks. Just by doing this, it has enabled the rotation of services to increase. It has helped to up the services, allowed us to respond more often, and the maintenance of parks has improved.

Projects that may have gone out to bid in the past are being handled in house, like planting bed work, as well as work on the playgrounds. It saves the city money and it gives us a chance to do something that makes a difference in how the space looks. That makes our parks workers feel good about it after and feel proud of what they’ve done. It gives workers a chance to do work outside of their ordinary scope.

What do you want neighbors and visitors to experience when they come to one of our neighborhood parks? What information would you like them to have that they might not know about?

I think park spaces are really important parts of the city, not only visually but also as community-building opportunities. I want neighbors to feel comfortable to utilize it, to feel safe, and to respect their spaces as part of their own. That’s what we try to build more with neighborhood groups.

What do you I want them to experience? To feel more ownership, a sense of belonging and community, and a good feeling, a sense of happiness. I want the parks to be places they can visit anytime and feel a part of.

Even though we maintain and clean the parks, it’s really for the neighbors. We try to work with them all the time. It doesn’t make sense to me to do something that the neighbors aren’t going to want.

Where do you see the future of the neighborhood parks going?

I see community building. I see the community coming back into these spaces more often – for example, through activities like the Arts, Culture and Tourism department scheduling concerts, functions, and special events in the neighborhood parks that bring people out.

We encourage neighborhood groups to be involved. Be our stewards – which could involve anything from calling us to inform us of graffiti, or organizing a neighborhood park clean up.

There was a time when people didn’t spend time in their neighborhood parks, but that’s turning around and shifting where people are meeting with each other in those parks. I see the parks becoming again a vital part of the community.

As the interview wraps up, I ask her if she knows which neighborhood park is the City’s oldest. She places a call to her colleague at the Parks Department, Bob McMahon, to confirm that downtown is the home to the oldest neighborhood park in Providence. Abbott Park, which predates Roger Williams Park completed in 1938, is nestled on the grounds of the Johnson & Wales campus. The newest neighborhood park, Clements Park, was completed in 2004 and is located on the corner of Clements and Dudley in South Providence. By the fall of next year, a nine-acre park on Alleppo Street in Olneyville will be completed.