The Josephine “Joey” Pope Fund For Parks Leadership
““I’m honored by the establishment of a parks leadership fund in my name. Parks are essential to our health and well-being.
I hope this fund can make a difference in people’s lives by leveraging new acts of leadership to keep improving Portland’s parks system.””
Guided by her belief that parks and the outdoors are for everyone and an essential part of Oregon life, Joey Pope has devoted over four decades of her life to activism, philanthropy, and leadership in making Portland’s parks system more accessible to all.
Now, in partnership with Joey and her family, the Portland Parks Foundation is establishing the Joey Pope Fund for Parks Leadership, With this fund, each year we will invest in emerging leaders and organizations who are advancing access, quality, and programs for Portland’s system of parks and open spaces. Learn more about the award’s first nominees in 2022!
Echoing the goals that drove Joey’s own work over the decades, the Pope Fund will reward:
• Innovations in parks programming in recreation and the arts, with special emphasis on proposals that connect to those without access
• New approaches to horticulture and habitat creation to advance beauty and nature in a changing climate
• Advancements of equity, accessibility and cultural understanding of parks and parks programs for historically disadvantaged groups
• New coalitions and partnerships to expand Portland’s system of parks, trails, open spaces, and playgrounds
Joey Pope’s Legacy
Few private citizens have had more impact on Portland’s parks system than Joey Pope, both as a philanthropist and a super-volunteer. Among her many contributions, the most far-reaching are:
Holly Farm Park: working with close friend, Joyce Furman, and others, Joey developed Holly Farm in a parks-deficient, ethnically diverse swath of outer southwest Portland —one of the few privately initiated parks in Portland history
Hoyt Arboretum Visitor’s Center and the accessible paved Bristlecone Pine Trail for Arboretum visitors
Vision 2020: chaired the community task force to create a 20-year blueprint for Portland’s parks system
Inaugural chair of the Portland Parks Foundation
Leach Botanical Garden: Joey helped it to become the “Hoyt Arboretum” for outer-East Portland launching the soon-to-completed multi-million capital campaign for expansion
“Joey was ahead of what we now call ‘equity,’” according to Zari Santner, for Portland Parks & Recreation Director and Emeritus Board Member of Portland Parks Foundation. “For her, it was a matter of economically disadvantaged people of all races or color having access to parks and all recreation.”
Questions about this fund? Contact Wendy Mitchell: wmitchell@portlandpf.org or 503-445-0994.