The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park (FVCP) was founded in 1992 in response to dramatic cuts in the City's Parks and Recreation budget that created a growing need for community stewardship and private sector funding. FVCP works to provide ongoing high-quality education and stewardship programs along with identifying community needs and working with residents to improve park conditions.

The Friends have grown to become Van Cortlandt Parks' primary educational organization-- developing educational and stewardship programs for over 2,500 children and adults each year. This past year, the Friends have had several accomplishments: we planted 725 trees and shrubs in the park with the help of 426 volunteers, trained 155 teachers on how to use the park to teach about the environment, had 106 children participate in our out of school time programming and had 1,600 students attend our school programs.