What Are Our Playful Partners Up To? - Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy was recently awarded a $235,000 grant from the Edith L. Trees Charitable Trust to plan, design and conduct community engagement for an outdoor sensory classroom at the Frick Environmental Center (FEC).
The Edith L. Trees Charitable Trust provides financial support for organizations and projects that serve children and people with intellectual and physical disabilities, with an emphasis on Allegheny County.
The project’s ultimate goal is to repurpose and enhance the existing Nature Play area and Woodland loop trail behind the Environmental Center with thoughtfully designed improvements to support playful learning and multi-sensory exploration. We are excited to kick off the project by engaging with focus groups of Pittsburgh educators, caregivers, disability advocates, and community members. Additionally, we are assembling an Advisory Committee to ensure the design of the sensory classroom responds to the needs of educators, learners with exceptionalities, and other park users.
Playful outdoor environments provide opportunities for growth and learning, affecting all areas of development. Currently, few options exist in Pittsburgh that are purpose-built for learners with exceptionalities and their families, and even fewer are free. Moreover, there are a limited number of green spaces designed with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles for architecture and programming, which are intended to support learners of all abilities and change the design of the environment rather than changing the learner.
At the Frick Environmental Center, our education staff strives to facilitate diverse and authentic experiences that deepen and inspire personal connection to nature and foster a sense of identity as part of the natural community. We know children connect and learn through play. We have worked hard to incorporate play into our programming and have looked at ways to make the physical environment playful.
Over the past few years, we have developed a nature play area at the base of South Clayton Trail using the natural materials found in the park. The space is designed to invite park users to connect with nature playfully. This new project will build on that work to create an inviting and accessible play area.
Focus groups, listening sessions, surveys and public meetings will continue throughout the various phases of the project, and community feedback will be incorporated as the plan progresses. It is our hope that these meetings themselves can be accessible, employ multiple modes of engagement and playfulness. Design of the outdoor sensory classroom is projected for completion in the summer of 2023.
To learn more about the outdoor sensory classroom project, please visit pittsburghparks.org/park-projects/frick-environmental-center-sensory-classroom/
About Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy:
Recently celebrating its 25th year, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy was founded in December 1996 by a group of citizens concerned with the deteriorating conditions of Pittsburgh’s historic city parks. A non-profit organization, the Parks Conservancy works closely with the City of Pittsburgh under an official public-private partnership agreement to restore and improve the city’s park system to its full potential. To date, the Parks Conservancy has raised more than $130 million and completed more than 22 major park improvement projects. The Parks Conservancy works with thousands of volunteers, hosts hundreds of events, and provides programming for more than 7,500 children annually.
