During the Family Fun Day at Russian Jack Springs Park, we did our best to include children from the neighborhood in fun and creative activities that asked for responses to the question, “What does your dream park look like?”. We engaged children in the process of building models that were nothing short of exceptional, and depicted fantastic environments that were a result of their imagination and experimentation. In all, approximately 35 kids participated in our craft activities, and produced somewhere between 20 and 30 models.
The process of working with children on their models allowed for an exchange of ideas and getting to hear first-hand their desires for what they thought would be great additions to the park. Some stayed busy crafting for just twenty minutes, while others worked on models for over an hour – illustrating how if you provide the pieces and parts for kids, they’ll find out how to entertain themselves and stay engaged with minimal prodding.
We also asked youth and children to vote on the types of play environments that they enjoy or would like to see integrated into the park. During this voting, youth and children alike were excited about the possibility of potential play environments, and this was confirmed also as an interest of the parents (who in their own voting overwhelming selected a destination playground as the their most desired addition to the park). The images that children voted on are shown below ranked by high, medium and low number of votes, with the number of votes shown in the lower left hand corner of each image.The event was a great exercise in turning a space into a place - generating lots of enthusiasm, dialogue, and interaction between neighbors and interested individuals from the community at large.
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This is a regional park with existing community parks already circling it, and your focus on promoting the use of the park as a playground is one excellent reason why the process is so flawed as to be of almost no value.
ReplyDeleteYou are not conducting "research" you are engaged in sales for your client, and that is unfortunate. Your "sample" is simply not representative and your process, while perhaps a hoot for those engaged, offers little in the way of viable data.
No, the community is not opposed to playgrounds. It is opposed to squandering resources without adequate regional planning and park planning.
And by the way, what did you find out from Agnew Beck when you undoubtedly inquired as to what they found out about the public's view of P&R and APF before their project was terminated?