Savoring Summer ‘21 - The P3 Post!
your resource for summer happenings at P3
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Produce in the Park returned for a successful summer season at Cabral and Mount Pleasant Parks! This season registered over 200 shareholders, and in total from the beginning of July through the middle of August, we helped to distribute over 1,400 shares of produce to families across Providence. We’re excited to continue Produce in the Park for a Fall 2021 season in partnership with Family Service of Rhode Island, Providence City Council including Councilman John Goncalves and Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan, and the City of Providence’s Departments of Parks and Recreation, among others. We’re accepting rolling sign-ups for the Fall program, so please click here for more information and to sign up!
Produce in the Park staff preparing for the market!
TECHNICAL TRAINING & SUPPORT
These past few months saw us apply and secure funding for a variety of beautification and clean-up projects. In particular, we were awarded funding and selected to participate in volunteer projects and after-school programs that went towards beautification projects at General St. Park (through the National Environmental Education Foundation), Bucklin Park (through Enterprise Holdings), and West End Recreation Center (through DownCity Design). Playful, artful activities included revamping community garden spaces, removing graffiti from beloved park structures, and designing and installing colorful wayfinding banners in an effort to create more welcoming and accessible spaces for all.
Volunteers from Enterprise Holdings repaint a Little Free Library at West End Recreation Center!
PLAY & ART MAKING
With city recreation centers reopened this spring, P3’s summer clubs at the centers could resume! Our variety of summer club offerings included Fit Club (youth get moving with activities like jump rope), Art Club (creativity and masterpieces abound), Building Club (youth mix and match plastic shapes to make their favorite objects come alive), Blender Bike Madness and Spin Art (youth spin their way to healthy smoothies and unique art), and Giant Games/Race Tracks (youth play oversized versions of their favorite games and race each other). P3 Summer staff facilitated each club in partnership with staff from the City of Providence’s Recreation Department. Youth were so excited to return this summer, and we’re extra proud to announce that having been able to resume at parks and recreation centers, the Blender Bike Madness program reached its goal of 10,000 smoothies blended!
Youth enjoying Fit Club!
EDUCATION & CONSERVATION
A highlight of the summer was the Super Fun Art Friday (SFAF) series, a creative, educational, art-centric program that P3 co-led in partnership with the Providence Foundation to address COVID-related learning losses among youth. Specifically, the program ran at Burnside Park on Fridays throughout the summer, with each SFAF featuring programming from different playful organizations (summer partners included the Empowerment Factory, Providence ¡CityArts! For Youth, the RISD Museum and Circus Dynamics). On each ‘Super Fun Art’ Friday, the partner organization for that day would facilitate an artful, educational program, book-ended by periods of free time that youth could use to create or play as they saw fit. Participants described the program as “fun”, “exciting”, “super”, “cool”, and “progressive”. A special thanks to playful P3 partner Vanessa O. who facilitated the wildly successful series!
Youth bring their creations to life with Super Fun Art Friday!
STEWARDSHIP
A favorite among youth at parks and recreation centers across Providence, Garden Club was able to take place at 7 different recreation centers this summer. This season of Garden Club was particularly exciting because it was chock-full of both seed planting and harvesting. In particular, youth loved harvesting strawberries and experimenting with ‘seed bombs’, which are small clusters of soil packed with wildflower seeds that quickly beautify an area when planted. Many thanks to P3 team member Matthew for all of his work bringing Garden Club to life over the past few months!
Fun with 'seed-bombing' at Garden Club!
Finally, many thanks to these partner organizations who helped make this summer a success!
