Two Sessions, One Vision

Every step we take towards the park is done with the community in mind. Our Community Visioning Session brought indescribable joy. Under the facilitation of Dawn Hicks, Owner-Community Designer at DesignCyphers, a large number of mostly 7th and 8th-grade students used pictures to communicate what they felt would be a safe space for them at Foot Soldiers Park and Education Center. Dawn helped the youth create vision boards from photos that represent peace and tranquility as they see it. The younger children present also participated by drawing pictures of their dream playground. 

In addition to the work, cheerleaders from Clark Elementary received a copy of My Civil Rights Roadtrip, a book authored by FSP&EC Board Member, Rev Dr. Michael Waters. It was an amazing day and an encouraging experience for all! 

All of the pieces connect!

We took the creative pieces from the youth-inspired Community Visioning Session to the Design Partners Retreat. At the retreat, all of the designers including Foot Soldiers Park Design Team (Selma, Alabama), MASS Design Group (Boston, Massachusetts), Hood Design Studio, Inc. (Oakland, California), Harper’s Playground (Portland, Oregon), DesignCyphers. (Los Angeles, California), Bone Collective Studio (New England), and Nwankpa Design (Los Angeles, California) came together under one roof. Led by August Fluker, AIA, LEED-AP, of Fluker Consulting and Shelley Freed of (re)start smart, the group worked through the program and design of built spaces with the energy and inspiration from the youth’s visioning session. Out of this deeply creative think tank, the plans for building, preconstruction, timeline, and budget are all underway!