Teens add their personalities to play areas
Young residents of apartments help to design activity spaces
When Franchesca Addison looks around her north Houston apartment complex, she sees bits of herself.
She picked the motivational quote printed on the sidewalk and helped design some new play equipment, making Addison, 16, feel even more a part of her home than before.
“When you wake up and see something happening in your community, it makes you feel happy about yourself,” she said.
Internship helps out
Addison and four other teenagers at Oxford Place, an affordable housing complex, helped design the play areas through an internship with the Community Design Resource Center, a University of Houston program that revitalizes low-income communities. The center received $20,000 through the Play Anywhere Challenge, a national program funded by Target, Kaboom and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
On Saturday afternoon, residents gathered to ad- mire the play areas, which are expected to be used by the 500 children who live in the complex. On one sidewalk, glow-in-the-dark chalks show the planets in the solar system. Inspiring quotes from Michael Jordan and Malcolm X line other sidewalks in white chalk. Children bounced on blocks with designs created by teen residents and UH students
The UH group visited eight apartment complex- es, looking for one where they could implement the new play space. After the tours and talking with the president of the Houston Housing Authority, Tory Gunsolley, they picked Oxford Place.
“We wanted to engage youth and teenagers in what it meant to create play … so that it could also be for everyone,” said Susan Rogers, director of the Community Design Resource Center. “It’s not just for little kids; it’s about teenagers and their parents.”
Carrie Schneider, a local artist who worked on the project, said they brought in postcards with snapshots of different areas around the complex on which the residents could draw or write, which gave them a chance to provide feedback.
Ready for tipoff
Treveon Hunt, 17, who also helped, said the younger kids always wanted their own basketball court.
Based on that, residents created a mini-basketball court with tiny hoops tied around trees. The kids were playing on it Saturday
Hunt enjoys seeing his designs, including his chosen quote “Not every superhero needs a cape,” around the complex.
Phyllis Wilson, Resident Council president who has lived in Oxford Place for 16 years, has seen the affordable housing unit change and grow, including a major 2006 remodel.
“These kids need more play areas and more activities,” Wilson said. “If they have areas where they can go and play, they will be less apt to do other things.”