Community Corner

Playground for Homeless Tampa Children Being Built at Metropolitan Ministries

Volunteers are needed on Thursday, May 9 to prepare for the project, which is Saturday, May 11 from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. at 2002 N. Florida Avenue. The playground is a partnership between Metropolitan Ministries, Bank of America and KaBOOM!

To ensure that homeless children have a safe place to play, hundreds of volunteers and officials from Metropolitan Ministries, Bank of America and KaBOOM! are gathering on Saturday, May 11 to build a new playground for them as part of the Metropolitan Ministries' MiracePlace housing expansion.

The playground, which was designed using drawings from children who live at Metropolitan Ministries, will also serve as the backyard of the children who reside on the campus of MiraclePlace, transitional apartments for families at 2002 N. Florida Avenue.

MiraclePlace came about after the number of families seeking housing assistance from Metropolitan Ministries increased drastically during the past five years, said Autumn Barthelemy, senior development representative at Metropolitan Ministries.

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MiraclePlace will add 50 new transitional residential rooms, expand the dining capacity, increase early childhood education capacity to 170 infant and pre-school aged children and increase the capacity of the K-5 Partnership School to 170 students, Barthelemy said. The opening of MiraclePlace is scheduled for the end of the summer, with 100 families living on the campus beginning in 2014, Barthelemy said.

"At any given time, there will be 150 children in the PromiseLand early childcare education center that will use this 2,500 square-foot playground as a fun, safe place to play each day," said Barthelemy.

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Planning for the playground at MiraclePlace began at a Design Day event in March. That day, local children and community leaders met with organizers from KaBOOM! - a nonprofit organization that helps facilitate the creation of playgrounds across the country - Bank of America and Metropolitan Ministries to design a dream playground.

Volunteers are needed for playground preparation on Thursday, May 9 in the afternoon, and can contact Christina Mitchell at 813-209-1067 for more information or to sign up.

The playground is one of 10 built by KaBOOM!  and Bank of America. Officials say it is one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2013 in an effort to ensure a safe place to play within walking distance of every child in America.

The playground build marks the second time in recent months that KaBOOM! has helped create playground space in the central Tampa area.

Barthelemy said many children who come to Metropolitan Ministries lived in the family car for weeks, or bounced from one relatives home to another. Building a playground helps foster social skills that may not be developed after living in transition for long periods of time, Barthelemy said.

"The new KaBOOM! playground will encourage levels of play that these children most likely have not enjoyed during the family’s time of struggle."


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