The San Diego Gathering Place Program began in 2012 with the goal of restoring and expanding access to underutilized outdoor spaces considered to be a blight on the communities of San Diego County. ARTS (A Reason To Survive), a San Diego-based non-profit that runs arts-based programs with youth who face adversity, teamed up with The Pomegranate Center, a Washington-based non-profit specializing in creating community-built gathering spaces, to become their San Diego affiliate and lead future Gathering Place Projects.

 

In early 2013, The Pomegranate Center trained ARTS, along with 25 of San Diego’s community leaders, artists and designers in an expeditious, community facilitation process with the goal of creating Gathering Place “fellows” to lead community work in San Diego. Through a competitive selection process, Butterfly Park in National City and Manzanita Canyon in City Heights were chosen as the first community-build demonstrations in San Diego County for 2013.

 

On a construction and materials budget of  $20,000 and a rapid 4-6 month time frame, these degraded sites, enabling unwanted activities, are transformed into unique, culturally rich spaces treasured by the community. What is amazing about these projects is not just the final outcome, but the process and the impact they have on the community. Through a participatory design process, the communities are involved in every step of the transformation. A steering group of community leaders, policy makers, local business owners, youth programs, artists, and designers, assembled to help guide the process. Local artists opened up their studios and invited the community to participate with them, many people come in and out during the day of art-making workshops. However, it is the students that really latched on to the process. The students do everything from install mosaics, to plant native plants, paint murals, dig holes, etc. and with the help of numerous volunteers, donations from local business and contractors, wonderful city staff, and a dedicated community these Places are built. No longer these spaces are blight on the community. Instead, it became places for them to gather, a safe passage for the children to travel to school and to hang out, and a source of pride for the community.

We do not always need a ton of money or a state-of-the-art playground to improve our communities. This is a powerful and effective process to empower and improve neighborhoods, transforming the daily lives of our children and the places they live.