The Urban Agenda, which coincides with the NPS’s centennial celebration, is all about building relationships, forging partnerships and identifying resources that help connect local, state and national parks to the next generation of park visitors and supporters. In receiving the model city designation, Jacksonville joins Boston, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond (Virginia), Richmond (California), St. Louis, Tucson and Washington, D.C.

The job of engaging potential partners, seeking funding and expertise, and connecting to a new generation of park patrons belongs to the Urban Fellows assigned to each model city. Nathan Souder, an NPS park ranger, is the Urban Fellow devoted to Jacksonville.

A native Midwesterner, Nathan Souder enjoyed lots of family vacations in Florida as a child but he had never visited Jacksonville.

"When this opportunity became available, I really knew nothing about Jacksonville. I think I had heard the name but only because of the (Jacksonville) Jaguars, to be honest," Souder said. "Once I started looking into (JaxParks) and learned that it was the largest urban parks system in the country, I thought, ‘Why have I never heard of Jacksonville?’"

However, in preparing for his assignment, the more he learned about our community, the more he saw big potential.

"I took this job because the opportunity was so great," Souder said. "Now, it’s a matter of finding the right opportunities and finding the right people who can move things forward."

Those opportunities include not only resources in the form of local, state and federal park sites like the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, but also in the form of partners focused on youth development, culture, historic preservation and the environment. Additionally, NPS has more than 40 programs, including funding and consulting resources, designed to help local communities.

Souder said it’s critical to create relationships and initiatives "built on rock, not sand" so that progress continues beyond his initial two-year assignment.

However, Souder added that it’s also important to stay open to new trends. A great example is the Pokémon Go craze that’s drawing many first-time visitors to parks and other public places.

"We weren’t relevant to part of society until the game came out and people came to the park to play it. Because Fort Caroline is a public, free park with exhibits, it has become a popular place to capture creatures using the app. We are now relevant to this new group of visitors," Souder said. "To me, that’s exactly what we’re talking about. If visitors are outside and they’re moving and there’s an opportunity to engage a new population in a mode and a medium that’s comfortable to them, that’s what we have to do."

For Souder, the Park Service’s goal to act as "One National Park Service" is a collaborative approach that fits perfectly with Mayor Lenny Curry’s vision for "One City. One Jacksonville."

"The National Park Service is more than the sum of its parks," Souder explained. "We want to be part of the community."