The Playground Collective

We see an opportunity to strengthen communities, working together to keep playgrounds fun and safe for kids, while also building broader community ties by working with neighborhood organizations helping people impacted by addiction and other issues.

The Playground Collective empowers parents and caregivers to be the change they want to see in their community through four tools: 

• Connect  
  • Connect with parents and caregivers using a playground
  • Receive alerts from other parents / caregivers when there are problems (i.e.  hard drug equipment found) in your playground 
  • Get support to enable your playground collective to organize events (fun activities, a playground clean etc) 
  • Guidance on how to report playground issues to the right local authorities
• Advocate
  • We help parents and caregivers find the right elected officials
  • We have prepared  a list of pre-written non-political requests that parents and caregivers can make on various playground issues 
  • The Playground Collective can add weight to advocacy work, connect with media, and help hold elected officials accountable for actions they commit to 
• Build awareness on issues 
  • For our first campaign we have:: 
    • Created visual assets to share on what hard drug equipment looks like and what to do, and FAQs
    • Built awareness responsibly with schools, daycares, parent groups, pediatricians, and other community organizations
    • Partnered with local addiction groups on outreach to their clients to raise awareness of the risks of leaving drug paraphernalia in playgrounds
• Emergency preparedness 
  • Connect parents and caregivers with training and resources so that they can act in the unlikely event of emergencies (naloxone for overdoses).

Actions 
Obtain fiscal sponsorship - March

Gain initial product feedback by rolling it out in 3 Bed Stuy playgrounds - March

Build target list of advisors - March

Improve design of the website - March

Produce awareness campaign visual assets - March / April

Community outreach - March / April

Marketing campaign for awareness visual assets - April / May

Playgrounds are a vital driver for social mobility, enabling children to meet all the kids in their neighbourhood while getting exercise and fresh air. For parents and caregivers, playgrounds offer a space to connect with each other and build local support networks.

The Playground Collective empowers parents and caregivers to keep playgrounds fun and safe for kids by connecting them with each other, creating powerful micro communities. Unlike the outdated low-tech ‘friends of’ group model, The Playground Collective is scaled to support these communities as they campaign to address common challenges playgrounds face (for example, discarded hard drug equipment), helping them meaningfully advocate for resources, support and activities from local governments, non profits, and others. 

The first campaign of The Playground Collective will be tackling hard drug equipment in Brooklyn playgrounds. 

The Playground Collective was founded in October 2023 following numerous findings of hard drug paraphernalia in Brooklyn’s playgrounds.

In a two-week exercise, 120 small but potentially dangerous hard drug containers, known as 'trash cans' were found in a single Brooklyn playground, and many more were reported in other neighboring playgrounds. 

‘Trash cans’ found in playgrounds are used for multiple drugs, including heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine. Fentanyl, and increasingly Xylazine are almost always now added to these drugs to cheaply increase potency.

It is highly unlikely that empty trash cans will harm people. But due to the tiny amount of fentanyl needed to kill, there is still a risk.

Many parents and caregivers did not know what drug containers look like, what to do if they find them, who to ask for help, and felt powerless for anything to get better. But because parents collected evidence of an issue, they were able to effectively advocate for improvements to playground safety, connect with each other, and with organizations in their community working to support those impacted by addiction.