Centering Wonder with Parks & People

Image from the Parks & People website

In 2024, Museum Questions Consulting was hired to facilitate strategic planning for the Baltimore-based environmental organization Parks & People.

Our challenge: to help the organization find a way to articulate its impact in park design and youth programs in a coherant way. Stakeholder surveys showed that, while these areas of work were both essential to the organization, people who loved the organization for their parks had no idea about their programs, and vice versa. In addition, it was time for a rethinking of impact, in particular within youth programs, which focused on summer camps that predated city school-run camps. How could we help the organization articulate impact and connection?

Working with staff, board, and co-consultant Miriam Avins, a specialist in environmental work, we created a plan that knit the organization together by placing wonder at the center of everything the organization does.

We did this through careful listening, challenging conversations, and leveraging the strengths of participants. By the end of the project, we successfully achieved:

• Delivery of a strategic plan that articulated the impact of the organization as a whole.

• A clear path for building wonder and innovation into work across the organization.

• Research on wonder that supported the organization in its new mission.

You can see the Parks & People 2025-2029 Strategic Plan here.