Rejuvenating Neighborhoods and Communities Through Parks—A Guide To Success www.NRPA.org National Recreation and Park Association © 2011 All Rights Reserved 43 Marvin Gaye Park Amphitheater Try to imagine ‘Needle Park’ filled with syringes, overgrown with weeds and scrub trees, and filled with old tires and plenty of other trash It was within this situation that Marvin Gaye Park Amphitheater had its start The creation of the Marvin Gaye Amphitheater is one that reflects the ways in which WPP builds upon a neighborhood’s assets and captures the attention, imagination, and the involvement of the community simultaneously WPP placed a sign in the ground at the park that read “Marvin Gaye Park Amphitheater” This action certainly captured the attention of people who when looking at this grossly overgrown and heavily littered hillside where the sign had been placed were likely intrigued, but most certainly puzzled The sign aroused both attention and interest of the neighborhood leading to a significant volunteer involvement to clean-up of the hillside The rejuvenated open space formed the basis for the amphitheater The Saturday Night Talent Show How can a community go about making use of such an area? At this point, the amphitheater was a cleaned-up hillside with no budget for concerts Recall two of the WPP strategies – building upon assets and using existing resources – and both of these strategies were used to launch the amphitheater As Steve Coleman likes to say “wherever you have an open mike and plenty of children living nearby,” it’s a talent show just waiting to happen The magic and miraculous talent show also captured the attention of the media as well, via a news article that followed in the Washington Post Taking the Dream to Others Armed with a 10 Point Action Plan, a map of the neighborhood’s assets done in watercolors, and a petition with 2,000 signatures, the neighbors of Marvin Gaye Park took their memories, dreams, and plans to the local decisionmakers ensuring the fate of a renovated Marvin Gaye Park and the beginnings of a revitalized community The support of these decision-makers led to the outreach to other potential partners including the National Recreation and Park Association that played a key role in securing play equipment from national vendors
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