KaBOOM! – Empowering Neighborhoods and Restoring Play

in Environmental Justice

Peter Gray is a research professor of psychology at Boston College. He has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental, and educational psychology; published articles on innovative teaching methods and alternative approaches to education; and is author of Psychology (Worth Publishers), an introductory college textbook now in its 5th edition.

Peter Gray

In Empowering Neighborhoods and Restoring Play, Psychology Today columnist Peter Gray asked his readers to help him develop a proposal to build a neighborhood play and learning center “that could serve as a model that communities everywhere might emulate”. I said I’d help, and after putting in a few hours, recommended that he check out KaBOOM!, a nonprofit founded by Darell Hammond, who studied under John Kretzmann, Director of the Assets Based Community Development Institute (ABCD Insitute) at Northwestern University.

A 2008 study authored by Deborah Puntenney found that “when implemented appropriately, the KaBOOM! Community-Build process creates a lasting impact on the communities it partners with, both in terms of building capacity, enhancing community pride and cultivating leadership, as well as enhancing the play experience of neighborhood children.” Dr. Puntenney’s researchers conducted site visits and telephone interviews with 110 playspace builders, and reported that:

  • Nearly 100% believe that their KaBOOM! playground positively impacted the quality and quantity of children’s play
  • 94% believe that their playground project helped strengthen relationships among neighborhood residents and among community partners
  • 91% said that the KaBOOM! Community Build model and tools work

The KaBOOM! model (Road Map) comprises eight steps:

  1. KaBOOM! Road MapResearch – Why play matters, the “community-build model,” benefits of a community build model, play equipment appropriate for specific ages, abilities, and types of play, playground safety hazards in old equipment, make the case for a new, community-built playground.
  2. Conceive – Create a project vision and mission statement, form a planning committee, choose a playground site, choose a surfacing and equipment vendor, estimate the project budget, establish a project timeline, create a fundraising strategy.
  3. Organize – Organize and hold the first playspace meeting, start fundraising, finalize planning committee teams, determine the necessary site preparation, create a project website.
  4. Design – Holding a Design Day, working with an equipment vendor to select a design, press materials and media involvement, accelerating youth involvement through the Design Day and service learning projects.
  5. Coordinate – Recruiting Build Day volunteers and captains, creating a contingency plan for bad weather and emergencies, mapping the build site and the Build Day “matrix,” creating a maintenance plan with the landowner and staff, leveling the site and removing old equipment.
  6. Energize – Planning final fundraisers, writing and sending out a media advisory to notify local newspapers, radio, and TV stations, ordering side project materials, confirming delivery schedule for equipment and surfacing, training build day captains.
  7. Build – Equipment and surfacing delivery, organizing materials one to two days before the Build Day, motivating volunteers, rehearsing the ribbon cutting ceremony, taking pictures of the site and securing the area.
  8. Maintain – Sending official thanks you’s, starting your maintenance program, hosting a final planning meeting, supervising, playing and enjoying, RALLY!-ing for play.

The website’s toolkit provides resources (including samples) for every step on the map, including pre-planning, community involvement, volunteer recruitment, fundraising,  construction, and maintenance.

KaBOOM! also provides free online training, and a Project Planner: a free website that aims to help you plan each step of your project, communicate with your team, recruit local volunteers, raise money, get free advice from the professional playground builders at KaBOOM!, and connect you to a community of people like you who are building playspaces around the country.

KaBOOM! Project PlannerClick here to read news articles on KaBOOM!

Making Community Happen Here, and other stories

in Environmental Justice

Making Community Happen Here

Richmond Times Dispatch – David T. Anderson – What if we brought together a disparate group of people who serve wide-ranging needs through a variety of institutions, and the families they serve, and worked together to build community? An expanding group of local people is doing just that, and last Sunday many of them gathered at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Grove Avenue to celebrate the work they are doing in partnership with one another.

‘Heartwarming’ turnout for event

Williamsport Sun-Gazette – David Thompson – L-3 Communications employees washed windows at Hope Enterprises Inc., Susquehanna Health workers painted the dining room and office at St. Anthony’s Center, Lycoming College students mulched around trees at Brandon Park, the Young Professionals trimmed trees, loaded brush and leveled tombstones at the Oval Cemetery, and Pennsylvania College of Technology students performed work at the Children’s Discovery Workshop. Elsewhere, volunteers cut grass, painted, cleaned, organized, repaired, landscaped – anything that was needed to help the organizations.

Valley Mission volunteers brighten up the place

Staunton News Leader – Cindy Corell – Beneath the cross-shaped sign that says, “Jesus saves,” the folks among us who need the most help are being welcomed, nurtured and given a chance to grow. But it is a program that offers a hand up, not a handout, Reed says. To make it work, the guests must look for work, save their money, help with cleaning, cooking and serving others.

A well-spent $8

Suffolk News-Herald – Tim Reeves – Marlow is nothing more than a 4-way stop in central Baldwin County, but during heavy rains, floods, hurricanes and fires, this department provided quick and dependable emergency service to those of us living along Fish River. The members of that department had other jobs, but aside from their family and their faith, they had no bigger calling. For the men and women who volunteer in these area departments, their instincts to go into a burning home at the risk of their own lives is something all to rare in our society. They do so without call for fame or riches, but for the chance to serve their community and protect their neighbors. Saturday’s fish fry was an effort by the department to raise needed funds to help augment its force with new equipment and pay for upgrades to current equipment, while reducing the burden on Suffolk taxpayers. The $8 plate was well worth the investment.

Nixon embraces idea of church-state disaster relief partnership

St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Tim Townsend – White has persuaded two governors — one a Republican and the other a Democrat — to follow his advice and organize religious groups in partnership with government to prepare for calamity. In doing so, White has helped Missouri emerge as a model for states hoping to forge partnerships between church and government for disasters. He has done so despite long-standing concerns about the separation of church and state, especially when it comes to government funding.

‘Friends and Neighbors, Not Just Houses’

in Environmental Justice

“We’re always thinking of ways to draw the community together the way neighborhoods were 70 years ago,” Waters said. The aim is to be “a community of friends and neighbors, not just houses — and have fun along the way.”

The glue that holds everything together now is an active Listserv. “Even people who have very busy lives and aren’t able to participate in social activities are still able to be connected,” she said.

Have extra day lilies to give away? Lose a dog? Have an extra ticket to the Nats? Just need an extra hand for an afternoon? Assistance is just a few keystrokes away.

Rather than organizing holiday parties when everyone is busy, the civic association sponsors other events to help residents feel connected, drawing on the talents of those who aren’t usually involved in traditional ways.

Newcomers are welcomed with a green fabric tote bag bearing the Luxmanor logo and including an association directory, a copy of the latest newsletter and some munchies. Once a year, new residents are honored at a cocktail buffet hosted by veterans of the community.

In the late summer and early fall, residents round up school supplies to be distributed to social workers for the foster children in their networks.

A “books and brunch” exchange offers residents a free, fun way to clear out their bookshelves and find new tomes. Waters tells residents, “Bring as many books as you can, take as many as you want. No one’s counting.”

The annual Sunday afternoon event lasts four or five hours as residents munch on finger food, peruse selections and catch up with each other. “We don’t have a community center, so people volunteer by opening their homes,” Stolsworth said.

In spring, Luxmanor hosted its first art show. Varda Avnisan, a 15-year resident and glass sculptor, said, “We discovered a whole community of artists here.”

Luxmanor’s spring garden tours reveal hidden backyard gems. Carefully sculpted rock gardens, poolside settings, and an Oriental-style garden with statuary and a moon gate are often-mentioned highlights.

It was the community’s propensity for children to put up lemonade stands that spawned an additional event last year — a charitable tie-in with the garden tour. She encouraged children to set up lemonade stands and donate the proceeds to their favorite charities. “There was no bureaucracy. I just trusted them to send off their money, and they did,” she said.

During the anniversary’s progressive dinner, in which appetizers and desserts were each hosted by a different family, and dinner was held at eight other houses, Waters researched foods popular in the 1930s. One couple hosted swing dance lessons.

excerpts from Md.’s Luxmanor Uses Ways of the Past and Present to Maintain the Ties That Bind – washingtonpost.com

Superbia! : 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods

in Environmental Justice

click here for an updated version of this post: we added links to resources cited in the book

Easy Steps

  • Sponsor community dinners.
  • Establish a community newsletter, bulletin board, and community roster.
  • Establish a neighborhood watch program.
  • Start neighborhood investment clubs, community sports activities and restoration projects.
  • Form weekly discussion groups.
  • Establish neighborhood baby-sitting coop.
  • Form an organic food co-op.
  • Create car or van pools for commuting to and from work.
  • Create a neighborhood work-share program.
  • Create a mission statement.
  • Create an asset inventory.

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Bolder Steps

  • Tear down fences: opening back yards to create communal play space and a space for neighbors to mingle and a community garden.
  • Plant a community garden and orchard.
  • Establish a neighborhood composting and recycling facility.
  • Plant shade trees and windbreaks to create a more favorable microclimate.
  • Replace asphalt and concrete with porous pavers and greenery.
  • Establish a more edible landscape—incrementally remove grass in front lawns and replace with vegetables and fruit trees.
  • Start a community-supported agriculture program in which neighbors “subscribe” to local organic farm’s produce.
  • Create a car-share program–purchasing a van or truck for rent to community members.
  • Begin community-wide retrofitting of homes and yards for energy and water efficiency.
  • Solarize your homes.

Boldest Steps

  • Create a community energy system.
  • Establish alternative water and wastewater systems.
  • Establish a more environmentally friendly transportation strategy.
  • Create a common house.
  • Create a community-shared office.
  • Establish weekly entertainment for the community.
  • Narrow or eliminate streets, converting more space to park and edible landscape, walkways and picnic areas.
  • Retrofit garages and rooms in your homes into apartments or add granny flats to house students or others in need of housing.
  • Establish a mixed-use neighborhood by opening a coffee shop, convenience store, and garden market.
  • Promote a more diverse neighborhood.

From Dan Chiras & Dave Wann (2003). Superbia!: 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society. This list courtesy of Terrain.org, a journal of the built and natural environments. Visit Dave Wann’s website.

Click here for more idea lists

“Built Environmental Justice” is the joke of the day…

in Environmental Justice

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Ask Richard Layman of Citizens Planning Coalition, Washington DC, who recently sent us an inspiring e-mail (we hope you don’t mind us sharing this on our site):

Community building isn’t just about organizing, it’s about vision and having some sense of what are the components of “livability,” what makes a great neighborhood and a great city.  In other words, it’s hard to organize and build community when you don’t know what you want.  (Hence my joke since 2002 that I work on “built environmental justice.”)  This comes down to urban design, the quality of civic assets (parks, libraries, schools, recreation centers, etc.) that serve citizens, transportation, housing, viable commercial districts, etc.

At Our Blocks, we are humble in our efforts to provide the best known resources available and are very grateful for the insight that Richard has brought our attention to. Please take a look at the list below for valuable links/books that Richard highly recommends (I included a short caption for each link). Enjoy:

1. Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (a greatly influential book on the subject of urban planning in the 20th century)

2. Cities: Back from the Edge by Roberta Gratz and Mintz (a book about downtown revitalization)

3. The Living City by Frank Wright (an innovative book of Wright’s Architecture career focused upon the nine basic building types found in the living city)

4. Cities in Full by Steve Belmont (a book that offers possible remedies to revitalize urban areas)

5. City: Rediscovering the Center by William Whyte (currently out of print; book provides an engaging look at the variety of human interactions which make downtown vibrant)

6. Deepening Democracy by Wright and Fung (book that brings together cases of what the authors call ‘empowered participatory governance’, in which popular political participation becomes a vehicle for equity and efficiency)

7. Project for Public Spaces (a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public places that build communities; PPS also offers training courses available online). PPS offers a workbook, How to Turn a Place Around, which is a must have for every urban designer and landscape architect.

8. Neighborhood Planning (web site that provides neighborhood planning resources)

9. Urban Places and Spaces (Richard’s blog that offers over 2,000 links on various subjects concerned with urban revitalization)

Personally, I think PPS is a wonderful organization and I am looking forward to read, “How to Turn a Place Around.” Thanks again, Richard, for a dose of your great knowledge!