New Playground Designed By Local Kids Fills Vacant Lot On The West Side

The new playground at the Kidz Express Boys and Girls Club in Austin will provide a place for young people to play. Photo Credit: Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago
The new playground at the Kidz Express Boys and Girls Club in Austin will provide a place for young people to play. Photo Credit: Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago

New Playground Designed By Local Kids Fills Vacant Lot On The West Side

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

A group of 200 volunteers from Wells Fargo and Kidz Express, a nonprofit organization that focuses on west side youth, recently joined KaBOOM! in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood to build a new play area in a once empty lot located on 5226 W. Harrison St. right next to the Kidz Express Boys and Girls Club.

Kidz Express is a nonprofit organization that operates the Kidz Express Boys and Girls Club community center, at 5221 S. Congress Pkwy, in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago to provide west side youth with a safe space to receive mentorship and participate in impactful programming.

“Kidz Express actually sought us out and partnering with them fit into our strategic plan because we really wanted a strong presence in Austin,” said Mimi LeClair, chief executive officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago. “The reason why we sought out Austin specifically is because of the alarming statistics that go along with that community. There is a high poverty rate and unemployment rate, it’s a food desert, and they have underperforming schools and children and families who suffer from trauma.”

Prior to the new playground being constructed, the Kidz Express Boys and Girls Club had an empty lot on their campus where an old swing set once stood and when the opportunity came to partner with KaBOOM! they knew a safe outdoor play area would be a valuable asset to the community.

KaBOOM! is a national non-profit that works to bring playgrounds to communities that are the most in need to make sure that all children receive the balanced and active play they need to thrive, according to the KaBOOM! website.

KaBOOM! also works to solicit corporate sponsors to fund playground equipment in underserved communities and for this project specifically, they enlisted the financial support of Wells Fargo bank who has already been investing in the Austin community for quite some time, according to a press release from Wells Fargo regarding the playground construction.

In the early stages of planning for the new playground, Kidz Express and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago went straight to the young people in Austin who participate in the programs they provide and asked them what they would want to see in their new outdoor play space.

“We have a vision that the Kidz Express Club will become just really like the Taj Mahal of Boys and Girls Clubs in the city,” said LeClair. “We asked the kids what they would like to see on a playground and then the KaBOOM! people got to work and made sure they made as many accommodations as they could. It was really fun for the young people to have a voice and we do try to give them a voice in as many of those types of decisions as possible.”

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