Alain Locke School

Trust for Public Land believes in the power of a close-to-home park, but in denser urban areas, creating new green space can be challenging. Our community schoolyards in Philadelphia are changing that. We’re utilizing existing asphalt playgrounds and transforming them into vibrant, green spaces that help improve test scores, reduce stress, encourage play and creativity, and boost health outcomes of students and the community—and our work at Alain Locke School was no exception.

Alain Locke School believes in empowering students to be strong academic learners who are ready to promote social and cultural change in the world around them, but their schoolyard didn’t live up to this impressive standard. It used to be a barren, cracked asphalt lot with dilapidated play equipment that did little to spark imagination among the 446 kindergarten through eighth grade students nor within the surrounding community. Especially when the school has one of the highest concentrations of students in Philadelphia living in public or temporary housing, these students deserved a place that is welcoming, colorful, and a safe space to play.

With our partners at the City of Philadelphia, the School District of Philadelphia, and Drexel University, we helped create a new green oasis that brings the benefits of a great park to those who need it most. We listened to students and local residents on what they wanted in a local green space and worked to make this dream a reality.

Now complete, the Alain Locke Community Schoolyard is a vibrant community hub with trees, a basketball court, running track, turf field, and new play equipment. Open to the public after school hours, hundreds of students and nearly 6,200 people who live within a 10-minute walk now enjoy this awesome green space.