Magical Bridge Foundation

Palo Alto, California (February-June 2024)

Project Goal

Magical Bridge Foundation creates innovative award-winning playgrounds, parks and programs for more multigenerational communities, designed to ensure that guests of all abilities can experience the magic of play. This project aimed to improve existing Magical Bridge Foundation designs and playgrounds by analyzing the facilitators and barriers to play at the Palo Alto Magical Bridge Foundation. Additionally, it aimed to improve access to the site of the next Magical Bridge playground, located in Hillside Park in Daly City, by analyzing the facilitators and barriers to walking and biking to Hillside Park in Daly City. 

Guiding Question 

  • Walk audit to Palo Alto Magical Bridge: What makes it easy or hard to play at this playground?
  • Walk audit to Hillside Park: What makes it easy or hard to walk or bike to Hillside Park?

Project Description

The Our Voice team engaged an 8th grade leadership class at Thomas R. Pollicita middle school in two in class modules as well as two walk audits. The in-class curriculum included discussion about inclusive design and accessibility led by the Magical Bridge Foundation team, and about social determinants of health and health equity from the Our Voice team. From this shared understanding of the importance of accessibility and health equity, a walk audit was conducted at the Magical Bridge playground in Palo Alto, investigating what features of the park were inclusive and which could be improved. Following this walk audit, students then went to Hillside Park, a future Magical Bridge playground location and explored the facilitators and barriers to accessing the park. Following these walk audits, the student citizen scientists presented their findings to the Daly City City Council and the Daly City Mayor.  

Insights

Strengths Identified

  • Palo Alto Magical Bridge Playground: 
    • Accessible
    • Fun for everyone
    • Many different ways to engage with the park (acoustics, sensory)
    • Easy to play with friends
  • Hillside Park:
    • There was a crossing guard

Identified Areas for Improvement

  • Palo Alto Magical Bridge Playground:
    • Some students found that the rolling slide was uncomfortable to use
    • Some equipment is too small for people of all ages to use
    • The bathrooms were far away from the park
  • Hillside Park:
    • “No parking” signs in the middle of the sidewalks prevented strollers/wheelchairs from passing through
    • Inconsistent curb ramps on the sidewalks → could be more smooth and uniform
    • At the site, uneven terrain
    • Construction getting in the way of walking

 

Activities and Outcomes

The continued collaboration between a leadership class and a special education class led to increased social ties between diverse students within the student body. These social ties were furthered via a buddy system which allowed those who may not be able to use the Discovery Tool app on their own to generate and share insight. Additionally, collaborating with a leadership class meant that these community members were already highly motivated to mobilize for change. Lastly, facilitating walk audits in multiple locations allowed citizen scientists to compare a range of play spaces and ideate past typical playgrounds.

 

 

 

Solutions Identified by Citizen Scientists

Dozens of solutions were posited by the citizen scientists. Some key, actionable ideas are as follows:

  • Hillside Park:
    • Sidewalk repairs and remodeling (such as the inclusion of more sidewalk curb ramps and moving parking signs out of the sidewalk) to further accessibility
    • Make sure plants are maintained such that they do not grow into the sidewalk
    • Add barriers around the existing park and level the park’s terrain.

 

People and Collaborators

Project Lead(s):
  • Thomas R. Pollicita Middle School
    • Shelley Crisan
    • Susan Robboy
    • Sasha Saibi
  • Stanford University
    • Sofia Portillo
    • Vignesh Kumar
  • Magical Bridge Foundation
    • Elaine Captain
    • Kris Loew
    • Olenka Villareal
  • San Mateo County Office of Education Safe Routes to School
    • Theresa Vallez-Kelly
    • Lena Yasui
    • Kaili Hutchins
Collaborating Organization(s) / Institutional Partner(s):
  • Thomas R. Pollicita Middle School
  • Safe Routes to School
  • San Mateo County Health Department: Public Health, Policy, and Planning
  • San Mateo County Office of Education 
  • The Magical Bridge Foundation

Our Voice Impact

"This experience has changed my life.  I see inadequacies everywhere I go as it relates to pedestrian access and safety.  I even stop [at] construction sites to remind them to be considerate of the handicapped in our community.  Thank you all so much for this awareness and empowerment to require change."

~ Pam Jiner, GirlTrek Advocacy Leader, Denver CO