Pratt House Playground
Our Pratt Street Transitional Housing Program is located in the Mount Claire neighborhood of Baltimore City and home to nearly 100 formerly homeless children from across Northern Maryland. These children and their families have household incomes falling below the poverty line and more than 80% of the “Pratt House” Families have single mothers as head of household.
Our children face a myriad of social and environmental challenges including a lack of play space. As a major urban city, Baltimore lacks green space for children to play, in fact the area surrounding Pratt House is littered with abandoned buildings and concrete lots.
As part of our mission to care for these children we must provide them with a safe and healthy place to play. For the past 3 years we haven’t been able to fulfill that obligation, until now!
Thanks in part to a “Let’s Play” grant from KaBoom!™ and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group™ , we will be renovating the inadequate existing play area to extend our capacity to care for these children.
In April, the Mount Claire Community will gather for the construction of the new playground which will serve 3 key goals:
- Bringing the community together
- Creating tangible change in Baltimore City
- Providing a safe & healthy space for children and families to gather together
Already, a well known Baltimore City architect, Donald Kann of Kann Partners, has agreed to help with the design of the new playground pro bono. We are thrilled to welcome this firm and their expertise to assist us in creating a marquee play and community space.
Design Day
The children at Pratt House, joined by former Baltimore Raven, Jason Murphy, each designed their dream playground and had the chance to consult with architect Donald Kann who will help turn their designs into reality!
For more questions about volunteering, contact Rhonda Nelson, Volunteer Coordinator at RNelson@VOAches.org
-
Thank you to X-Prop Sports for partnering with us and connecting us to former Raven Jason Murphy!
-
On October 10, 2012 imagination met paper as the children drew their dream playground
-
There were slides, swings and sand boxes
-
The children collaborated with volunteers and staff...
-
as well as Jason Murphy of the Baltimore Ravens
-
Here's Jason and his dream playground
-
The Baltimore Ravens sand box was a favorite among the group
-
Everyone was excited to share their designs
-
Jason provided expert Play 60 consultation
-
some of the children even wanted a full football filed in their dream playground!
-
Here's Jason consulting on just how big a football field really is...
-
Trees, swings and "play houses" were also favorites among volunteers and children
-
Of course snacks were in order as well!
-
After all the designs were finished, our Board Member and Baltimore architect Donald Kann met with his "consultant" to go over the plans
-
They discussed logistics, colors and even materials to use.
-
Here's Donald reviewing some of the children's blueprints.
-
Those were some intense negotiations...
-
in the end both architect and designer were satisfied and ready to set a build date!
-
After the consultations were over VP of Development James Wynn and Jason looked over the current space to map out logistics for the build day
-
Donald joined them and the guys began to talk about making the dream playground a reality
-
Special Thank You's to EVERYONE who attended our Pratt House build day including one of our favorite Ravens!
-
In just a few weeks this space will be transformed into a real life dream come true! To find out how you can help answer the Call to Care visit www.voachesapeake.org
