American Students Begin Study of Ealing Borough's Parks

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Will be interviewing residents to find out how they use local green spaces

L-R Quentin Collins, Bryce Kennedy, Maddie Donahue, Daisy Connors, Alex Moreira

March 23, 2023

A group of American students have begun research into the use of parks across the borough of Ealing.

Five students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will be working with the Ealing Parks Foundation (EPF) to carry out research into how residents benefit from green spaces in the area. The students from Worcester - approximately 50 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts in the USA - will be carrying out anonymous surveys over the next six weeks to help EPF understand how and why parks across Ealing are used and why others in the community just don’t use them.

The students are doing this as part of their degree course and are hoping that members of the Ealing community will be willing to take five minutes to answer a few questions about whether they use parks or not. Surveys will be carried out in-person survey or via online platforms (these will shortly be on the EPF website and available on social media).

Sonja Garsvo, Chair of the Ealing Parks Foundation commented, “WPI has run a programme of student research in the UK for the past 17 years and the Trustees of EPF are delighted to have had their research project chosen as part of this year’s programme.

“We hope that if you are approached by the students that you'll take part in the short survey, as well as making them welcome as they carry out this very useful research.”

There are 140 parks and green spaces across the borough twenty-three of which have Green Flags awards.

Ealing Parks Foundation (EPF) is a charitable organisation set up in January 2020. It was initially sponsored by the Parks Department of Ealing Council, who conducted the search for Trustees. Now, it is an independent organisation with all of its Trustees from the local community.

The Foundation was formed in answer to the diminishing amount of public funding available for the enhancement of parks.

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