Philadelphia’s 10,200 acres of parks and natural areas require year-round care in order to flourish and offer the best environmental and social benefits to residents. Fairmount Park Conservancy not only partners with the City of Philadelphia in this work, but also engages  community members who volunteer their time and energy to maintain and restore these spaces.

To maximize our impact, Fairmount Park Conservancy has developed a Volunteer Leader program that trains dedicated park supporters to take on leadership roles in the parks where we operate, supporting projects like habitat restoration, native plantings, and park cleanups. Volunteer Leaders, as the name suggests, are able to lead other volunteers, expanding our impact as a small organization. They demonstrate best practices in planting and vegetation management, help with project logistics, and are there to answer volunteers’ questions. 

Becoming a volunteer leader requires completion of a six-week workshop series and 20 hours of park service. Since launching the program in 2021, the Conservancy has trained over 40 volunteer leaders! 

Meet Lucas Brannen, an 18-year-old Volunteer Leader who has worked with the Conservancy and his community to protect Philadelphia’s parks. His love for the outdoors first motivated him to seek out volunteer opportunities with the Conservancy.

Lucas is driven by a love of the outdoors, and a concern for common challenges in local ecology.

“I really love nature and just being outside, more than anything. So I specifically wanted to do…stuff outside, whether it be a community garden, habitat restoration, native plantings,” Lucas explains. “I’ve also spent a lot of my childhood running around in the wooded areas around my house, where it wasn’t a pristine forest. It’s full of weeds—and I didn’t used to know what they were, but invasive Japanese knotweed, all that stuff. And obviously full of trash, too. So coming up, playing in those areas, swimming in the creeks around my house that were probably less than quality water, has made me want to be interested in protecting those areas.”

Lucas also cited the importance of urban access to green spaces as his motivation for caring for public parks that everyone can use.

“In an area like this where it’s very high population density and a lot of people live, it’s important that they have access to forests, parks, stuff like that—and that we keep it clean, keep invasives out, keep the trash out,” he advocates.

Lucas Brannen planting native species at the Cobbs Creek Johnny Sample Recreation Center.

Lucas says the Conservancy’s Volunteer Leader program has played a significant role in shaping who he is. Becoming a Volunteer Leader has reinforced values he already held, including helping others and working closely with his community. 

The program has also strengthened his confidence by making him practice public speaking.

“You’re not just doing the work now—you have to be talking to people, explaining stuff,” Lucas says. “It helped me that way, because I really was shy and I had to talk to people. And you’re talking to them about something you care about, so it gets easier to talk about it.”

Lucas Brannen teaching volunteers how to properly put in new plantings in the soil.

Lucas encourages other Philadelphians to get involved with the Conservancy’s Volunteer Leader program.

“Whether you’re interested in native plants, you just see what’s happening to our forest environment and want to help out, or you’re just somebody in the community and you look around and see trash and you don’t like that and you want to help clean that up, all of those aspects are involved in being a Volunteer Leader,” Lucas says. 

“And if you already volunteer, that’s great. But if you become a Volunteer Leader, you’re going to take it to another level. You’re going to be a little more involved in getting the community together and working on these projects, so I think it’s a natural course of action… And the training is pretty simple—it doesn’t require too much of you and what you get out of it…is greater than what it initially requires. You get a lot out of it.”

Lucas Brannen planting and mulching a newly planted tree.

You can learn more about the Conservancy’s Volunteer Leader program and other ways to get involved on our website. Please reach out to eduenas@myphillypark.org with any questions.