We’re proud to spotlight our amazing nonprofit partner, Legacy Park. This 77-acre gem in Decatur is more than green space, it’s a bold vision for community, conservation, and connection.
Legacy Park is redefining what it means to build a thriving, inclusive city. With affordable housing underway, restored woodlands and wetlands, vibrant arts programming, and a home to 17 nonprofit partners, they’re proving that environmental stewardship and community-building go hand in hand. Legacy Park isn’t just preserving history, they’re creating a future where everyone belongs. Volunteer with Legacy Park here!
Learn more about Legacy Park in our interview with Madeleine Henner below!
Tell us about your organization – what’s your mission, and what does it mean to the our community?
Legacy Decatur is the nonprofit steward of Legacy Park, a 77-acre property dedicated to environmental preservation and education, recreation, affordable housing, and inclusive community building. These goals are sometimes perceived as contradictory, but Legacy Decatur works to show that we can stitch together opportunities that strengthen relationships between neighbors who work together to be better stewards of the natural environment. From 1873 until 2017, the Legacy Park property served as the United Methodist Children’s Home for foster youth. Thousands of Georgia’s most vulnerable children came to this site, where they found safe housing, quiet natural space, recreation to heal through play, and a community that cared for them. As data began to show that children have better outcomes in home settings as compared to institutions, the Children’s Home decided to sell 500 South Columbia Drive. The City of Decatur purchased the land with the promise that the property could continue to be a source of good in the community. Rather than assume community desires, the City of Decatur underwent an extensive civic engagement process that sought the feedback of thousands of our neighbors. The residents’ feedback crafted a Master Plan that reflects the needs and desires of our community and ensures that Legacy Park will be a welcoming and engaging space for all.
Can you share some impact stats or comments about the work being done by your organization?
Legacy Park includes 25 buildings and a 22-acre conservation area with a pond, wetlands, nature trails, woodlands, and meadows. As an urban greenspace, Legacy Park provides vital habitat for wildlife and improves water and air quality. The conservation initiatives encourage community resilience and stewardship of shared resources.
In 2024, Legacy Park began construction on 132 affordable housing units through the Decatur Housing Authority; opened the Creative Village artist studios; planted 450 native plants; removed invasive plants and 4,139 pounds of garbage; constructed a track and field; installed restrooms; increased environmental programming; and hosted 31,900 visitors at Legacy Park.
As a community space, we repurpose the historic buildings for inclusive events and office space for our 17 nonprofit partners, whose expertise and programming further the mission and make Legacy welcoming and engaging for all people.
Global Growers operates a two-acre community garden for refugee growers at Legacy Park as one of their 10 growing sites across the Atlanta Metro.
Refugee Women's Network offers social and economic adjustment services for refugee families, including a newly opened commercial kitchen at Legacy Park for their Chefs Club entrepreneurial catering program.
Trellis Horticultural Therapy Alliance operates an Ability Garden for veterans and those with physical disabilities.
L’Arche Atlanta has two homes for adults with and without developmental disabilities in Decatur and hosts inclusive events at Legacy Park.
Paint Love offers trauma-informed, intergenerational art programming.
Decatur Arts Alliance operates seven artist studios, as well as art classes and gallery space.
Frank Hamilton School hosts bluegrass and old-time music classes and performances.
Global Spokes fixes donated bikes to donate to low-income folks, especially refugees.
Grief House weaves grief into life with art, nature, and group gatherings.
Wild Nest Bird Rehab cares for approximately 1,500 injured and orphaned birds each year, releasing many at Legacy Park.
Compassionate Atlanta promotes compassion to self, community, and systems through their work in inter-faith, LGBTQIA, immigration, sustainability, and health.
Decatur Book Festival hosts a renowned book festival that promotes creative expression and literacy.
Decatur Education Foundation supports students and their families with food, curriculum support, mental health services, and teacher grants.
Decatur Land Trust works to address the city’s loss of affordable homes and low-to-moderate-income residents in the City of Decatur.
Georgia Arborist Association offers arborist education and safety training.
Tai Chi 4 LIFE Cooperative provides classes for all levels based on traditions thousands of years old and taking in modern teaching methods learn to combine your mind, body, and spirit to find harmony and balance.
Wylde Center operates five greenspaces around East Atlanta and offers environmental education field trips, classes, camps, and programming for folks of all ages.
What’s the history of your organization? How and why did it get started?
Decatur’s success is in large part due to the community's long standing spirit of interdependence. When our residents see an issue, they dive in to become the solution. Legacy Decatur started in 2014 to serve as the fiscal agent for all of these grassroots organizations doing good work around the city. When the Legacy Park Master Plan identified a need for a nonprofit organization to manage the Park, Legacy Decatur’s history of collaboration and grassroots problem solving made us the ideal fit to implement the Master Plan.
What kind of programming do you offer to the community?
Legacy Park offers a space for people to come together to be in community. Legacy Park is a highly used space, with 31,900 unique visitors in 2024. Our volunteer-built all natural surface 5k cross country course is used by Decatur High School teams, runners of all speeds, dog walkers, and birders who come to see the 172 species of birds found at Legacy. Many folks come regularly to explore the park, picnic on the lawn, or play on the inclusive playground. We also have folks that come specifically for events like our food vendor picnic series Truckin’ Tuesdays in May and September or our annual Community Day, coming on April 26, celebrating the community-serving work of Legacy Park’s 17 nonprofit tenants. In addition to Legacy Decatur events, each of our nonprofits activate their spaces to welcome specific groups of people, and our affordable venues are also available for private gatherings.
What problem is your organization trying to solve, and can you tell us more about the issue?
Listening to the community, Legacy Park works to preserve our environment, provide recreational spaces to build healthy habits, increase affordable housing availability, and offer opportunities for inclusive community building. 2024 was a year where news of natural disasters became a frequent reminder of both the value and vulnerability of the natural assets in our communities. In the extreme heat of the summer, Legacy Park’s woodland canopy provided shade and absorbed heat. The plants’ leaves and roots filtered pollutants from the air and water. During Hurricane Helene, its wetlands absorbed the overflowing water after the dams burst and prevented the flooding of our downhill neighbors. This urban oasis fed and sheltered pollinators, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals.
It is no secret that Decatur, like much of the country, lacks enough affordable housing. The Decatur Housing Authority broke ground on the 132 apartments serving low and middle income residents. These apartments will allow teachers, firefighters, and local business employees to live in the community that they serve. In a time where Health and Human Services has identified isolation and loneliness as an epidemic, Legacy invested in inclusive community. The state of the art track and field for open community use, City Schools of Decatur students, and Parks and Recreation programming will invite folks to engage in healthy activity together. The installation of public restrooms available during open Park hours will allow folks to share time outdoors for longer than their bladder. The Creative Village seven affordable art studios, gallery space, and art classes introduce people to new hobbies and new friends thanks to the partnership of the Decatur Arts Alliance. Legacy now hosts seventeen nonprofits, whose partnerships, expertise, and programs make Decatur a better place. Legacy welcomed thousands of people to the Park at events, the inclusive playground, and the peaceful trails.
How do volunteers support your mission? What impact do they have on your work? What difference do they make?
In 2024, over 150 people volunteered with Legacy Decatur to pull invasives, reintroduce wetland plants, refinish the chapel hardwood floors, paint our biggest community event space, and mulch trees to protect their roots and improve soil health.
What’s your biggest highlight or success from the past year?
The transformation of the wetland was a major highlight last year. With volunteer support, we removed over 4,000 pounds of garbage, pulled piles of invasive privet and English ivy, and planted 300 native grasses, ferns, and shrubs. This space is so much healthier without the plastic leaching into the water and the invasives choking out any biodiversity. The addition of native plants filter out pollutants, prevent erosion, and provide a sustainable food source to the 180 bird species found at Legacy Park.
How many volunteers do you need every month, and can you describe the experience of serving with your organization for the volunteer? What do they do? What’s a day in the life as a volunteer with your organization?
With a staff of two, Legacy Decatur relies on volunteers to make things happen. For example, this past Tuesday, the Atlanta Braves staff joined us to Pitch in for the Planet. Once they had their project-specific tools, they got to work. The front garden had become so overgrown that it had to be mowed to maintain vehicle sightline. Some of our native plants returned, as did many weeds. The volunteers carefully combed through the garden to pull invasive grasses to make room for 19 new native pollinator-friendly plants and terracotta pots that will provide continuous irrigation for the new plants. This garden is at the heart of the Park and greets every visitor that comes through the main drive. Revitalizing the pollinator garden announces our commitment to sustainability while also creating a beautiful and welcoming aesthetic.
What types of projects do you offer? What are your biggest projects available, and needs from volunteers? Tell us about a few different offerings.
With 77-acres and 25 buildings, Legacy Park offers a wide range of volunteer opportunities. Our largest volunteer need is removing invasive plants from the 22-acre conservation area. Because we limit the chemical treatment, hand-pulling invasive plants becomes the main way that we can restore the woodlands. Mulching the many trees is another great opportunity for large volunteer groups. With many events at Legacy, the tree roots become exposed, endangering the health of the trees. Mulching each tree protects the trees and prolongs the shade and wildlife habitat they provide.
Volunteer groups may also build picnic tables, install bike racks, and pick up trash around the park. As we repair the historic buildings around Legacy, we repurpose them for nonprofit organizations. Once a building has had the capital repairs to receive a certificate of occupancy, volunteers can help to clean, paint, and prepare the building for the incoming nonprofit.
Who is your volunteer manager, and what’s their favorite thing about working for your organization?
Leaving my office, I walk past the L’Arche offices as they plan their upcoming Legacy potluck for adults with and without developmental disabilities. Downstairs, cumin, coriander, and cardamom drift out of the commercial kitchen, busy with refugee women building their catering businesses, many earning their own income for the first time. Once outside the administration building, the melody from the Frank Hamilton bluegrass jam intermingles with joyous shrieks from the kids playing on the inclusive playground and those playing on the track and field. The watercolor class paints the flowering broccoli in the Trellis Ability Garden, where veterans with PTSD and folks using wheelchairs after brain or spinal cord injuries have used the accessible slate path and raised garden beds to tend to the plants and reap the benefits of having time with your hands in the dirt. Once on the nature trails, I pass by birders with top of the line cameras trying to capture a Ruby Crowned Kinglet alongside families and dog walkers trying to expel some energy before dinner. The bees and butterflies flock to the pollinator garden in the Global Growers Garden, where 33 immigrant families grow culturally-significant food for themselves and their neighbors. Legacy is a unique and beautiful ecosystem of community, and I love to be a part of it.
What do volunteers love about working with your organization?
Because Legacy Park is a relatively new public space, volunteers love to learn about the property that many have driven past countless times without knowing that they can come explore. In the conservation area, volunteers are introduced to the trail system as they pull invasives and plant native flora. They see and hear the many birds that will eat the berries and nest in the branches of the newly planted shrubs. They see the turtles, salamanders, and other aquatic creatures whose habitat will be less polluted because of the grasses that filter out toxins before they enter the wetlands. They can build community with their fellow volunteers and those walking on the trails to continue the work of earth stewardship.
What’s going to be happening with your organization in 2025 that you’re really excited about?
In 2025, we are so excited to increase programming. At the end of March, we opened a beautiful track and field that is attracting tons of new visitors to Legacy. This space welcomes a new constituency to fall in love with this space. To invite them to get involved further, we’re expanding programming to get folks plugged into our environmental preservation and education work and inclusive community building.
Let’s leave our readers with a list of ways they can jump in and get involved. Tell us how we can support you!
We would love for you to join us in making our community more green, more attainable, and more connected! If you’ve never been to Legacy, go for a walk on the trails, hit a new PR on our track, or attend an event on the front lawn. Once you’ve experienced the Legacy magic, tell a friend about us. To keep the space clean and beautiful, join us for a volunteer day and donate to provide the resources to sustain the work we do. See you soon!
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