Above: Photos from previous Kaboom! builds in South Florida

For the third Saturday in a row an under-utilized patch of land in South Florida is set to be transformed.

Kaboom! is building a new playground at the Church of the Open Door in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood this Saturday. The April 6 effort will be the third playground in the past three weeks that Kaboom!, a national nonprofit, will build in the Miami area with the support of the Knight Foundation. Related Link and infographic

Report: Kaboom! Playgrounds that build communities

The initiative seeks to empower and build a belief within a community that solutions to any public challenge can be designed and implemented. To do it, construction of a playground is used as a tool to focus community attention and inspire action. Residents are required to model and construct the playground with guidance and support from Kaboom! managers.

Ultimately, the hope is that the experience will stir further action, and build residents’ confidence, to tackle other community issues. At the same time, a specific challenge is addressed: kids spending less time playing outside than any previous generation. Across the country, only 1-in-5 children live within walking distance of a park or playground.

Two weeks ago, Kaboom! turned a square parcel at the center of Homestead’s Verde Gardens housing complex into a playground. The 145 unit development is home to formerly homeless residents. And last week a long-ignored green space next to the Annie Coleman public housing facility in Liberty City was revitalized with the addition of a playground.

In both Verde Gardens and at Annie Coleman, hundreds of residents helped design the playground and came out to build it. Indeed, the playground builds in each case amounted to daylong community celebrations as residents picked up hammers and shovels to help erect the new play structure.

Continuing the momentum, on Saturday, more than 200 volunteers are expected to congregate at 6001 NW 8th Avenue to build a playground at the Church of the Open Door. The design of the new playground is based on drawings by neighborhood children. 

The playground build will start with a kickoff ceremony at 8:30 a.m. ET Saturday. Work is to be completed by 2:30 p.m., when a ribbon cutting and dedication of the new play area will be held.

Across the country, Kaboom! is leading more than 150 playground builds in 2013.

By Matt Haggman, program director/Miami at Knight Foundation