As Dave Harvey retires from his co-leadership position at Park People, he reflects on the incredible journey since founding the organization in 2011.
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How a temporary plaza in Montreal’s Parc Marcelin-Wilson was created to offer a gathering space for youth, with design improvements informed by Metalude’s insights through direct observations and youth engagement.
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According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, children and youth in grades 6 to 10 report playing outdoors for just 15 minutes per day on average.
This has serious consequences for their health and wellbeing: children spending less time outdoors has been linked to decreased appreciation of the environment, health problems including obesity and vitamin D deficiency, attention difficulties, and higher rates of emotional illnesses like anxiety and depression.
Moving youth programming outdoors to a park is a wonderful opportunity to connect kids with nature, foster creativity, and encourage physical activity. So, how can we encourage young people to leave the couch and reconnect with nature?
We spoke with Shakeera Solomon from Vision of Hope Resource Centre in Brampton—who received a TD Park People Grant in 2019—about what they learned when they brought their monthly Youth Council programming outdoors into the park.
Here are Shakeera’s tips for moving your indoor programming outside.
First up, observe your local park to see which aspects could be appealing for youth and suitable for your programs. Check for amenities like restrooms, shaded areas, picnic tables, and open spaces. Identify any potential safety hazards (such as bodies of water or uneven ground) that might require extra supervision for youth participants.
Next, take note of the surrounding area: are you near a school, convenience store, or other location that youth are already drawn to? If so, this could make your park a great spot for outreach!
When Vision of Hope chose to move their monthly Youth Council meetings from the east Brampton Resource Centre, they picked Anne Nash Park—a small, local park with just a modest play area because of its prime location beside an elementary school. This way, the Youth Council caught the attention of kids from the elementary school and those passing by on their way home from school. Their new visibility helped the Youth Council attract many more members who now regularly attend meetings and events.
Tips:
Hosting a gathering in a park is a great way to deepen relationships in your community. By involving parents, park staff, and other partner organizations in your outdoor programming, you can help create stronger community bounds.
As Shakeera explains, when youth-focused programs happened indoors, parents would wait on the sidelines and kill time on their own. But when programming moved into the park, parents interacted in a whole new way. In the small park, it became awkward for parents not to talk, and so they started chatting and getting to know one another. When parents connect, there are many benefits, particularly in an underserved community. Parents who know one another are much more likely to support each other and build resilience in times of need.
Adapting indoor activities to the outdoor environment offers incredible opportunities to get creative. For example, storytelling can become a nature scavenger hunt, and art projects can use natural materials. Think about how you’ll use the unique character of your park to inspire your youth participants, and how you might encourage them to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the space.
Shakeera told us bringing programming to the park helped the youth feel that the space was truly theirs. She was even surprised when her group eagerly suggested organizing a park clean-up. That’s when she realized the park had really become “their place.”
“They were so proud of what they accomplished for their park.”
Shakeera Solomon, Vision of Hope Resource Centre
She observed their pride when they posed for a team photo with gloves and garbage bags.
Tips
This case study is part of the 2024 Canadian City Parks Report, showcasing Inspiring projects, people, and policies from across Canada that offer tangible solutions to the most pressing challenges facing city parks.
A typical neighbourhood park often contains slides and swings for younger kids and benches for adults to gather, but what about teenagers? What does play look like for them and what park designs are needed to support that?
This is something that Stephanie Watt thinks a lot about. Watt is a co-founder and co-director, along with Margaret Fraser, of Metalude–a public space consulting firm that specializes in engaging with youth up to age 18 to promote public participation, playable public spaces, and child-friendly cities.
Youth are very aware of their “minority” status in public spaces, Watt said, and aren’t often invited to participate in conversations about park design. They sometimes feel like they fall into a gap in public spaces where playgrounds may be designed for younger kids and other park amenities are designed with adults in mind. It’s not about designing literal play structures and objects, but about instilling a sense of playfulness in the space itself, she said.
Take the example of a plaza built in Parc Marcelin-Wilson in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal. The park is situated near two large high schools and a public survey and conversations with the schools revealed a need to have a “meeting place for young people,” David Sauvé, Development Officer for the Department of Culture, Sports, Recreation, and Social Development in Anhuntsic-Cartierville said. So the borough decided to test a temporary “plaza” structure in the park, also near a bus stop, meant to be a hang-out spot for youth. The structure included multiple seating areas to accommodate flexible socializing.
Metalude was brought in to better understand the use of the structure. They did this through direct observation of plaza use, semi-structured interviews with youth at the plaza as well as in other parts of the park and even at a shopping mall across the street where youth sometimes go to eat lunch. In the end they ended up collecting observational data from about 500 users and interviewed approximately 50 youth about their experiences.
Engaging with youth requires a different approach, Watt said. That means switching up what you may view as a “professional” engagement. For example, Watt said sometimes they listen to music with youth during their engagements–something that likely wouldn’t fly at a traditional town hall. You have to either keep things really fun or you have to make them really short, she said because youth often have lots of other demands on their time, from caring for siblings to sports practice to homework. It’s about learning how to “build 10 or 15 minute engagement moments that are rich,” Watt said.
The engagement was a learning moment for borough staff as well.
“They brought us back to what it was like to be a teenager in public space. Things we tend to forget when we become adults.”
David Sauvé, Development Officer for the Department of Culture, Sports, Recreation, and Social Development in Anhuntsic-Cartierville
The observational nature of the study allowed for the natural uses of the plaza to be uncovered, leading to potential design decisions about a permanent structure. For example, the importance of the social design of the seating, which was arranged in such a way that four to six people could sit and socialize in a circle rather than the typical park bench design, which forces everyone to face the same way in “a long line of strangers,” Watt said.
“The furniture allows for face-to-face [interactions] and the furniture that isn’t face-to-face was mostly used for waiting by people who were alone taking the bus.”
Stephanie Watt, Co-founder and co-director of Metalude
Another finding was how the use of one particular structure–a net installed on the plaza–was quite gendered. While boys called it a trampoline and jumped on it, girls called it a hammock. Watt said a design recommendation could be to create two different amenities, one that can accommodate jumping and one for relaxing.
You can plan for something, but it’s really important to get out there and see how people are using it. And then accommodate those usages–there isn’t a right or wrong usage.”