Minnesota Community Schoolyards

Everyone should have access to a quality park or outdoor space, yet many people across Minnesota don’t have a great outdoor space within a 10-minute walk of home. The solution to our state’s park equity gap and a tool for community resilience to climate change is sitting in plain sight: community schoolyards. 

By redesigning schoolyards—and making them publicly accessible outside of school hours—we can connect entire neighborhoods to the benefits of a nearby green space. Since 1972, Trust for Public Land has worked with communities nationwide, collaborating with thousands of students, parents, schools, and neighborhoods to create hundreds of nature-rich schoolyards designed to address climate, health, and educational inequities.  

Across the state, each school has the potential to improve health, address climate change, and create more equitable communities. The land on which these schools sit accounts for tens of thousands of acres—the majority publicly owned—and conventional schoolyard design leaves a significant amount of this potential untapped.  

Through our Community Schoolyards® program, we’re working to reimagine and transform our state’s schoolyard spaces to make Minnesota a greener, healthier, safer place for everyone.