Imagine growing up without a neighborhood park – a place to run and play and dream. For too many children, that’s a reality. Streets and vacant lots – not the safest places – become the next best thing.
At the The Trust for Public Land (TPL), we want to make sure that everyone – in particular, every child – is within walking distance of a park. Children without access to places to play suffer higher levels of obesity, diabetes, asthma, anxiety and depression. Our Parks for People program hopes to fix that.
A great example of our work is San Francisco’s Hayes Valley Playground, a quarter-acre site in a diverse and dynamic neighborhood with a strong sense of community. Generous donors, including the Levi Strauss Foundation, helped pay for the renovation of this park – and two others – as part of our San Francisco Initiative.
TPL worked directly with the community to find out what they wanted their park to be. One of the most important things? That it be as sustainable as possible. When the new park opens, there will be a living roof on the clubhouse, drought-tolerant plants, solar heating…and recycled denim insulation.
The denim insulation is the result of a new grant program sponsored by Levi Strauss & Co. The grants are open to a variety of non-profit organizations and cover the cost difference between conventional insulation and recycled denim.
We love the fact that the residents of Hayes Valley are so invested in this project that they pushed for a “green” park and clubhouse. And we also love that we can partner with Levi Strauss & Co., as well as with the Levi Strauss Foundation, which donated $1 million to launch the San Francisco Initiative. Both the company and its foundation are clearly committed to communities and sustainability. And that commitment helped build this amazing place – where children can run and play…and dream.
See our work at the Hayes Valley park in this video:
