This story is part of Equity in Our Parks, a series highlighting the people and organizations advancing equity through Southeast Michigan’s parks and related programming. It is supported by Oakland County Parks and Recreation, Wayne County Parks and Recreation, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, City of Detroit, and Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.
Metro Detroit's parks systems have sought to better reach underserved communities in recent years through a variety of equity-related programming such as
supplemental school science lessons,
hiking and camping trips, and
offerings for park users with disabilities. But in addition to these external offerings, parks systems are making internal changes to bake equity into how they operate as organizations.
"If you want to practice equity externally, you have to do it internally," says Artina Carter, chief of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for the
Huron-Clinton Metroparks. "Your employees need to understand and see it happening for them."
The Metroparks formed a DEI department in 2018 and have since implemented a variety of internal changes, including regular DEI training sessions for employees and efforts to make the parks system's hiring process more accessible to diverse candidates. Carter says the Metroparks have taken a thorough and challenging path with DEI, compared to many organizations who make a simple DEI statement and leave it at that.
"They don't take the time to build that foundation and walk with staff," she says. "And it's a very hard thing. DEI is difficult."
However, Carter emphasizes, no one treats everyone they interact with the exact same way, whether or not they've had DEI training. Therefore, equity is a value most people already understand and practice, regardless of how foreign it may feel.
"It's very straightforward, and most of us do it every single day anyway," she says. "Everybody can do it. It's a big deal, but it's not that big."
Detroit's parks equity metric: "It really is transformational"
At
Detroit Parks and Recreation, a new internal equity metric is helping staff identify areas of the city that are most in need of parks-related investment. The metric was introduced publicly in the department's
2022 strategic plan, and was developed for nearly two years before that.
The metric assesses Detroit parks' level of need based on the surrounding neighborhoods' density of total population, youth, seniors, low-income households, and people of color; their number of residents within a 10-minute walking distance; their physical activity and mental health levels; and their air quality and high heat risk. Each of these factors is assigned a score between one and five, then added up to create a final score out of 50. Higher-scoring parks are prioritized for investment.
![]()
Doug CoombeJuliana Fulton.
"We have over 300 parks, and we know they all need some level of improvement, but we can't improve them all at once," says Juliana Fulton, the city's deputy chief parks planner. "So what we can do is make sure that the investment and the fundraising the city is doing is equitable."
For some Detroit parks, Fulton says the need for investment is great.
"Some of them have not been improved since the '60s or '70s," she says. "You're going in where all the equipment's been removed for safety reasons, and so it just kind of looks almost like a vacant lot."
![]()
Doug CoombeA new basketball court at Detroit's Greenview-Wadsworth Park.
Such was the case at Greenview-Wadsworth Park in Detroit's Cody Rouge neighborhood, which Fulton says has benefited from the department's new practices around equity-related investments. Kenyetta Campbell, executive director of the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance, says the park was "just big, open, vacant land" after the defunct elementary school on the site was demolished in 2015.
"There was nothing in that area," she says. "There was no place for kids to play, no place for people to gather."
![]()
Doug CoombeKenyetta Campbell at Greenview-Wadsworth Park.
Campbell and other neighborhood activists advocated to improve the park, and the city, identifying the park as a high-need location, contributed $553,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the effort. New facilities including a basketball court, a picnic shelter, a playground, and a walking loop opened this summer.
![]()
Doug CoombeA new picnic shelter at Detroit's Greenview-Wadsworth Park.
Fulton says the improvements have made the park "the heart of the neighborhood again," and Campbell agrees. She notes that
Motor City Grounds Crew has begun offering recreational programming at Greenview-Wadsworth, and she anticipates that the park will bring new investments to the neighborhood.
![]()
Doug CoombeJuliana Fulton, Mary Marsh, and Kenyetta Campbell at Greenview-Wadsworth Park in Detroit.
"It kind of provided the residents and the local businesses a place to actually gather, bringing people together," Campbell says. "... I think it definitely has really sparked a lot of interest, a lot of positivity, for the area."
Fulton says the city will continuously update its equity metric to improve more parks like Greenview-Wadsworth.
"The neighborhood parks maybe don't get as much press, but it really is transformational for those communities," she says. "If you're next to a vacant school or a park that's not looking so good, that really can have an impact on the community."
Huron-Clinton Metroparks: Meeting people where they're at
At the Huron-Clinton Metroparks, internal DEI policies have resulted in regular workshops for staff on a broad range of topics. Although Carter says many staffers initially felt "freaked out" by the prospect, they've leaned into having what once felt like uncomfortable conversations.
![]()
Huron-Clinton MetroparksArtina Carter.
"We've talked about racism, sexism, ableism," Carter says. "We've talked about equity versus equality. We've talked about [the Americans with Disabilities Act] a lot. We talked about every hot-button issue you could think of. We talked about it, and we're all still here. We had these conversations. We're not gonna die."
Carter says many staffers now reach out to her directly, seeking training on various topics. Park interpretive staff, who present the parks system's educational programs, often seek training on cultural competency so they can communicate more effectively with the diverse groups they serve. Carter says she's happy that staffers feel they can ask tough questions that are important to doing their jobs.
"They know they won't get in trouble for that, and they know nobody's gonna fire them," she says. "We've come a long way."
Jill Martin, the Metroparks' community outreach interpretive services supervisor, says Carter and her department have been extremely helpful in preparing Martin and her staff to serve diverse populations.
"You might not have that experience, besides maybe just living it, depending on who you are and where you went to school and your community and that kind of thing," Martin says. "But to really lift [cultural competency] up and emphasize that, it's important. I really appreciate that."
Carter's work also inculdes diversifying the Metroparks' staff itself. She says the system's staff was 98% white when she joined the system in 2019; now, it's 94%. That shift has entailed casting a wider net in the system's recruiting practices so that new job opportunities reach a broader audience, and moving the system beyond the common practice of hiring internally by default. Martin says she's glad that Carter and her staff are helping the Metroparks live up to their mission statement of bringing parks and recreation to "All the people. All their lives."
"If it's for all the people, then it's our responsibility to meet people where they're at," Martin says.
Carter emphasizes that the Metroparks' DEI work will continue to evolve. The system released its first DEI plan in 2020 and its second last year. The new plan will run through 2026.
"We work really hard to build the foundation and keep growing the foundation," Carter says. "So we build ourselves another layer every year."
Patrick Dunn is the lead writer for the Equity in Our Parks series. He's also the managing editor of Concentrate and an Ypsilanti-based freelance writer and editor.
Greenview-Wadsworth Park photos by Doug Coombe. Artina Carter photo courtesy of Artina Carter.