Minnesota Community Schoolyards

Minnesota

What We’re Doing
Transforming schoolyards into community hubs and quality green spaces where everyone is welcome even after school hours.  

Our Goal
Provide close-to-home community spaces where residents can play, connect, and experience the benefits of the outdoors.  

Reimagining schoolyards. Redefining communities.
A group of children playing on a slide.
Watch Play
A group of young girls playing hopscotch on a sidewalk.
Chiloquin Schoolyard
What Is a Community Schoolyard?

A community schoolyard is an outdoor school space reimagined to address health, equity, and climate issues, designed through a place-based community-led participatory design process, and open and welcoming to the public. Community schoolyards are:

Parklike Places
Community schoolyards function like parks. They are packed with trees, landscaping, play structures, gathering spaces, athletic facilities, public art, and green infrastructure.

Designed by the Community
Community schoolyards are designed by the community, for the community, through a dynamic participatory design process.

Designed with Intention
Community schoolyards are designed in a manner that improves health, combats inequities, and mitigates the impacts of climate change.

Welcoming to Everyone
Community schoolyards are shared spaces that are open and welcoming to the public.

A little girl sits on a rope in a playground.
Dig into Our Expertise
How TPL Can Help

Trust for Public Land is committed to supporting communities in their efforts to reimagine, renovate, and revitalize schoolyards. Our staff includes people from various disciplines and backgrounds, and we’re accustomed to playing multiple roles and helping fill program needs. Our services include:

  • Convener
  • Facilitator
  • Project Manager
  • Researcher
  • Technical Assistance Provider
  • Community Engagement Manager
  • Fundraiser
Explore New Opportunities

Through an analysis of every school in the state, we’ve mapped out which Minnesota communities would benefit most from parklike, accessible, and welcoming schoolyard spaces. You can use the tool to better understand the need to address health, equity, climate change, and education at our schools and within our communities. Ready to dig deeper? Explore our interactive maps, school data, and more.

 

Get in Touch with Our Minnesota Team

 

Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).

Additional funding is provided by the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.

 

St. Paul Office

2610 University Avenue
Suite 300
St. Paul, MN, 55114
(651) 760-0179
minnesota@tpl.org