Walk with Your Neighbor

Imagine moving to a new city, eager to explore and belong, only to find that the green spaces around you feel like they weren’t made for you. Trail signs in a language you’re still learning. Programs that don’t reflect your culture. Paths that weren’t designed with your body in mind. For many residents of Red Bank, an enclave of Chattanooga with a growing immigrant and refugee community, this isn’t hypothetical. It’s everyday life.

At Trust for Public Land, we believe green spaces are the sum of all their parts—not only parks and trails, but the people, stories, and sense of belonging that make everyone feel seen, welcomed, and included.

Through our Walk with Your Neighbor program, a path through the woods becomes a foundation for cultivating local leaders. Five community members are being trained as Nature Walk Instructors through a seven-month program that equips them to partner with immigrant organizations, engage their neighbors, and foster real confidence in outdoor spaces. Because in order for neighbors to see themselves in a place, they need to see people they recognize and trust.

Together with their community, they’re shaping every part of this work. Survey responses and direct feedback from neighbors are informing the design of the 600-foot Godsey Ridge Trail, a new pathway intentionally built for physical and cultural accessibility. Interactive signage with clear language and welcoming graphics will invite visitors to connect with nature and each other.

Adjoining the existing Tom Weather Park and located across from Red Bank’s only community center, this trail will be within walking distance of the local high school and accessible to more than 1,000 residents within a 10-minute walk. Students, teachers, longtime neighbors, and newcomers will all find a place here.

A beginner-friendly Nature Walk section ensures that first-time users feel at home from their very first step. Because when we remove barriers like language, culture, accessibility and replace them with trust and genuine belonging, we don’t just open up the outdoors. We open up possibility.

This is a model for what equitable nature access can look like: cities, nonprofits, and local leaders working together, grounded in listening, and building something that lasts.