Youngsters help shape San Francisco’s newest nature park
US-based play inequalities champion KABOOM! has used the input of local youngsters to create a nature exploration area in San Francisco.
KABOOM!, a non-profit body which helps provide black children with better access to play facilities, has teamed up with San Francisco Recreation and Parks, healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente, and playground builders Bienenstock for the innovative space.
Located at the city’s Heron’s Head Park, the park will encourage kids to balance on logs, play in mud, and use natural materials to build dens, castles, and towers.
KABOOM! says that ‘by combining natural challenges with movable parts, the exploration area will offer the benefits of play — promoting physical activity, stimulating creativity, and encouraging teamwork and risk negotiation among kids — all while cultivating an appreciation for nature’.
‘End playspace inequity for good’
And it was the input from local children that really helped shape the park’s construction during a ‘Design Jam’ event hosted by the city council.
It’s just one of the latest examples of KABOOM!‘s work in aiming to end playspace inequalities in areas with high black populations which disproportionately have less access to play facilities. KABOOM! works with communities across the USA to build play areas that are truly child-oriented and, crucially, done so with youngsters’ input.
Set up over 25 years ago, it has now built or helped improve more than 17,000 playspaces, worked with around 1.5 million members of local communities and, in doing so, helped over 11 million children.
Click here for more information about the Heron’s Head project.
