McKinley: Celebremos

“Our mission is to provide a nurturing, supportive, and actively engaging environment for students and families,” reads the mission statement of William Mckinley Elementary. The environment at the June 3rd Celebremos Our Community Our Ideas event, was nothing short of this school’s mission.

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While this is the third schoolyard community event since October 2014, Wednesday’s event marks the largest and most diverse. Attendance for the event reached over 250 as students were released at noon, parents and staff came together to celebrate and delve into the schematic design for their schoolyard. While the event was centered around the unveiling of the results of the engagement survey, community members filled the schoolyard with basketball, baseball, and chalk art stations while local restaurants filled the menu with pretzels, fresh veggies, and authentic Puerto Rican food.

“ The event went great! Everyone thought it was wonderful, parents were overwhelmed with the project and the food, and everyone kept asking how soon the project could happen. There wasn’t one negative comment. ” Gladys Malave, McKinley Parent Coordinator

A longstanding mission of The Big SandBox also materialized at Wednesday’s event: our commitment to couple traditional community outreach with digital communications. Thanks to our partners at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Textizen, the Mckinley community was able to submit schoolyard surveys via mobile phones. This low-spec engagement tool allowed community members to voice their visions and, in turn, pave the road toward reviving this eastern North Philly schoolyard into a place of pride.

“ We would like to see swings and also water foundations so the kids can drink water. The kids come home very thirsty so the water fountains would be great!! ” Said one parent on the Textizen survey.

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Empowering communities through the use of digital tools will continue to direct the TBS design and engagement process as we launch four more community engagement events in the fall. This event, and those to come, could not have been possible without our partners at LISC, APM, William McKinley School, Norris Square Community Alliance, Philadelphia Water Department, Village Square Community Alliance, Urban Ecoforms, North Square Neighborhood Project, Philadelphia Green Schools Alliance, and the Community Design Collaborative.

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