Planning for Nature Play is Best Done in Community
The CAPN is excited about participating in the planning and construction of a natural play area for Castlewood Park in Lexington, KY. This project has so many great things going for it.
First and foremost the project has great community support from diverse partners. It grew out of a grant submitted to the Knight Foundation by the North Limestone Community Development Corporation. Through the efforts of the NoLiCDC a team of advocates that includes children, early childcare teachers, community volunteers, Arlington elementary school, and local businesses are all collaborating to see that this project supports everyone in the community.
Castlewood Park is a public park managed by Lexington Parks and Recreation. This is a great example of how a public/private collaboration increases capacity to see that more natural play environments become available to all citizens.
Landscape design for the project is being handled by Gresham Smith and Partners. Their team hosted the first design charrette for the project on January 22nd. They did a great job of finding an inclusive way to incorporate everyone’s hopes for the play environment.
The Children at Play Network is supporting the project in a number of ways. In addition to providing general design assistance we will also provide teacher training, assistance in creating a team of free play facilitators and in helping build greater relevance for this model project over time.
You can follow the project through periodic updates on the CAPN blog.
