Lexington Parks and Recreation

Lexington Parks & Recreation offers as many as 18 summer camps each year that cater to a range of specific needs, interests, and communities. However, such specialization among programs led to isolated participation around particular identities, which unintentionally limited experiences with those outside of one’s own group.

To change this, Lexington Parks sought to connect three summer programs, representing three distinct communities, to one another: Teen Retreat, which gives Lexington teens daily activities during the summer; Therapeutic Recreation, which serves adults with mental and physical disabilities; and Box2Box, a non-profit organization supporting immigrant and refugee youth through academics and soccer.

Throughout the summer, the three programs came together for activities that celebrated distinct aspects of Lexington: a salsa dancing class, outdoor recreation day, bookstore visit, and civics day. In the end, staff saw teens not only grow more comfortable with the adults with disabilities but also become more empathetic of those who have different life experiences.

One Box2Box teen said that at first, they were worried about participating in events with people with disabilities and were concerned that they were fragile. But later in the summer, that same teen shared that they’d learned that those with disabilities “can do anything.” By giving teens the opportunity to engage with those with a physical or mental disability, they saw what connected, rather than divided, them. Judgments and stereotypes were broken down, and belief systems shifted, all because of the shared experiences that Lexington Parks facilitated in readily accessible public spaces.