Turning schoolyards into places where communities connect
What can a schoolyard do for a community?
Belonging Colorado partner Trust for Public Land, an organization dedicated to connecting everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors, is putting that question into practice through four new schoolyard projects in Salida, Leadville, Hotchkiss, and Aurora. Working alongside students, families, schools, and community members, the projects will reimagine school grounds as welcoming public spaces shaped by the people who use them.
For Trust for Public Land, the work is about more than access to outdoor spaces. It’s an opportunity to bring people together, give communities a meaningful role in shaping shared places, and create spaces where more people feel they belong.
We spoke with the Trust for Public Land about the four communities, what they hope to learn, and how the process of activating a schoolyard can strengthen connections along the way.
What can you tell us about the Schoolyard project?
Our program is an effort to help people connect, participate, and collaborate across differences. We are supporting organizations that are using schoolyards as places where people from different backgrounds can come together and build stronger community ties.
Deep community engagement with residents creates multiple opportunities for families and community members to participate and get to know each other, fostering interaction, collaboration, and relationship-building among participants who wouldn’t otherwise interact. The projects will implement intentional strategies that help people connect across differences such as age, race/ethnicity, income, language, etc., and build trust with each other.
How did TPL come up with that idea, and what are you hoping to achieve?
Belonging is more than simply feeling included. It is about feeling welcomed, valued, connected, and able to participate in shaping community life. Research from the Colorado Health Institute’s 2024 Colorado Belonging Barometer found that fewer than half of Coloradans feel a sense of belonging at their child’s school.
One in three people in the United States, or 100 million people, don’t have access to a park within a 10-minute walk of home. That includes 28 million children. In communities that lack these spaces, schoolyards are a solution that is hiding in plain sight. They can help fill these gaps in both belonging and access by creating safe, welcoming places where children, families and neighbors can gather, play and connect. Opening our schoolyards to the public during non-school hours would put a park within a 10-minute walk of nearly 80 million people.
How were the four communities selected?
Trust for Public Land implemented a statewide application process, which included intentional outreach to a diverse array of local organizations, community leaders, and school leaders. We were looking for opportunities to represent both urban and rural communities across Colorado. The application process was competitive, as we received high-quality proposals. We are really excited to work with the four communities that were selected.
How will community residents and students shape the projects?
Community is at the center of each of these four projects. Through stewardship, volunteerism, and schoolyard activations, students and residents will feel more connected to these spaces and each other. These projects encourage families and community members to care for and improve the schoolyard together through programming and events. Community residents and students will not only shape the projects, but they are also an integral part of the project.
What is TPL learning about belonging through the process, and what could other organizations apply to their own work?
In 2023, Trust for Public Land published research on how parks can function as civic infrastructure. The research, grounded in peer-reviewed evidence and the lived experience of field organizers leading community engagement across the country points to a powerful connection: When people have meaningful opportunities to connect with one another in shared spaces, those relationships strengthen a sense of community and belonging and create a foundation for deeper civic engagement.
One of our biggest learnings is that belonging does not happen simply because a public space is accessible. It is shaped by what happens in that space and how people are invited to participate. A schoolyard can become a setting for connection when people have opportunities to build relationships, share experiences, and contribute to something together.
We’re learning alongside our partners in Colorado about what practices bring people together in their communities, from relatively simple strategies like icebreakers and shared meals to more involved approaches that give residents meaningful opportunities to shape spaces. The goal is not simply to create more welcoming spaces, but to understand the conditions and practices that help those schoolyards become places of belonging.
