Herrin Families Get a Say in Inclusive Playground Design
Parents and kids are weighing in as the city shapes plans for a playground built with every child in mind
By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
HERRIN, Ill. — For most families, a trip to the park is simple: kids scatter across the equipment while parents watch from a bench. According to the Southern Illinoisan, that's the starting point for a new push in Herrin, where families are being asked to help shape plans for a playground meant to work for every child, not just some of them.
The Southern Illinoisan reports Herrin has been gathering that input directly from families as the city works out what an inclusive playground should look like. No final design or price tag has been reported yet.
That's the right order to do things in. Too many towns build the playground first and hear from families afterward, usually after a parent's standing at the edge of the mulch holding a child who can't get to what the other kids are on. Herrin is asking the people who live that gap every day what the equipment should actually do, before the concrete gets poured.
This bureau will keep watching as plans firm up. A playground that works for every kid in town is a small thing to build, and it still says something about who a town decides to build for.
filed from the courthouse steps, where the ghosts take good notes.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.
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