Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 55.06
Liaison Michael Amadori
Submission Date Feb. 27, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Hobart and William Smith Colleges
IN-24: Innovation A

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Tarah Rowse
Former Sustainability Director
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name or title of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome:
Geneva Gardens Play Park and Community Gardens

A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome that outlines how credit criteria are met and any positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:

The Geneva Gardens Play Park and Community Gardens on Pulteney St is a unique public engagement collaboration between various offices, departments, classes, and other entities at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a local apartment complex (Geneva Gardens), and neighborhood organizations. With the support of HWS administration, faculty, staff, and students have worked together with residents of Geneva Gardens to imagine, design and create a successful, sustainable play park and garden.

Before launching the project, Geneva Gardens had been seeking a safe and creative outdoor space for its approximately 55 youth residents, who previously were limited to playing alongside streets and throughout a parking lot. The apartments are located in an area of Geneva that does not have immediate access to a play area or healthy affordable food.

The sustainable play space project is innovative, in part, because it has leveraged curricular, co-curricular, service-learning, and other aspects of an HWS education for public engagement. In an anthropology and sociology seminar, students completed a feasibility study for the park, interviewing and soliciting input from the Geneva Garden residents, managers and nearby neighbors. A second curricular piece of the project to date has been completed by the HWS Department of Art and Architecture. Students taking a class on sculptures built and installed – with the help of the HWS Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning (CCESL) volunteers – a wooden bridge that spans across a small stream in the Play Park. CCESL has continued support of the Play Park throughout its development by recruiting volunteers and including the project in community-service opportunities through their office. Additionally, in the fall 2015 semester, several faculty members incorporated the Play Park into the project portion of their course. Faculty leaders on the project are Assistant Professor of Art and Architecture Gabriella D’Angelo, Professor of Art and Architecture Ted Aub, and Professor Emeritus of Economics Christopher Gunn. Professor D’Angelo and her interns provided detailed planning for the facility, and built much of its play equipment.

Other innovations include:
• The park does not contain traditional manufactured components of a “playground,” but rather uses natural elements to create natural spaces for children to have fun. The park is designed to emphasize creation of play objects sourced from clearing existing dead and damaged trees on the site to create a “natural play space” in which children can experience an outdoor environment while getting exercise. Its attractions include logs and stumps on which to climb, a path or trail through the park for children and adults to walk, and a series of logs set in a circle for a community meeting place.
• An area with raised garden beds has been included to help address Geneva Garden residents’ limited access to healthy, affordable food and to provide a means by which to educate Geneva Garden residents about gardening and healthy eating. The community garden is being created through a democratic, community decision-making model. The chair of the Growing Geneva Together Community Garden Project is a member of the park planning committee.
• HWS owns the property where the Play Park is located. HWS has agreed to lease the land to Geneva Gardens for $1 per year. Geneva Gardens has agreed to extend its liability insurance to cover users of the park.
• Both HWS and Geneva Gardens have agreed to be jointly responsible for the maintenance and policing of the play park.

The space continues to evolve with the implementation of new creative ideas, but children already have a safe place to explore the natural world in an urban area, as well as learn more about how to grow and eat healthy food.


Which of the following impact areas does the innovation most closely relate to? (select up to three):
Curriculum
Campus Engagement
Public Engagement

A letter of affirmation from an individual with relevant expertise or a press release or publication featuring the innovation :
The website URL where information about the innovation is available :
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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