April 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 20

Who, What, Where & how Around the Parks

INCLUSION

Shane's Inspiration Celebrates a Decade
of Transforming Play in Los Angeles
Public-Private Partnerships and the Mission of Inclusion
By Jack Klobucar

ust two months
after the Massie family moved
to Los A ngeles
in 1998 their son
Cole was diagnosed with
cerebral palsy. Stunned
by the turn of events, Michelle Massie and her
husband turned their attention from their newly
acquired fixer-upper to
their son. They soon became aware that every
right enjoyed by typically able children is not
guaranteed to children
with disabilities. In 2000,
Michelle Massie began taking Cole to
Griffith Park, which was located on the
eastern flanks of the Santa Monica Mountains in the City of Los Angeles. What
she found there surprised her: an enormous playground that enthralled all children, including those with disabilities. A
park, she says, that was not only close to
home-but " that enabled Cole to play just
like any other kid. "
What Massie had discovered was
Shane's Inspiration-the first universally accessible playground in the western
U.S.-named in honor of Shane Williams,
a boy who died of Spinal Muscular Atrophy in 1998. That playground, launched
and donated to the city with the goal of
giving children with disabilities a place
to play, sparked a movement in the City
of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. It is a movement that
has influenced playground design ever

Parks & Recreation A P R I L

If you're building
playgrounds for
children with
disabilities, you're
missing the entire
point. You must
design the
playground for
children of all
abilities to have
success.
-Tiffany Harris,
Co-Founder,
Shane's Inspiration
since. And one that Catherine Curry Williams and Tiffany Harris, the founders of
Shane's Inspiration, never expected.

Realizing What Cities Are Up Against
" When the [Shane's Inspiration] playground was still in development, " says
Harris, " we began getting calls from community leaders and parents saying, 'We
really need an accessible playground in
our district, too. Could you help us out?'
As we became more educated about the
process, we realized what the cities are up
against with dwindling budgets. "
Williams and Harris thought that
Shane's Inspiration could be a good partner for the city-one that could bring the
design expertise, funding and community support necessary to make big projects
like Shane's Inspiration a reality. Moreover, the two founders had developed
a strong relationship with Landscape

2 0 1 2 w w w . N R P A . O R G

Structures, a Minnesota-based commercial playground equipment manufacturer with a strong interest in inclusive play.
" Shortly after we opened our first playground, there was a family on the west
side that read an article about Shane's Inspiration, " says Harris. " They had a child
with multiple disabilities and wanted to
build an accessible playground closer
to their home on the west side. We partnered with them on our second project,
and from there it just snowballed. The
Recreation and Parks Department, the
L.A. Unified School District and the Los
Angeles City Council were so supportive that they propelled our work from one
project to the next. "

Dissolving Bias through Inclusive
Play Programming
Following the successful construction of
the playgrounds, Shane's Inspiration went

April 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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