Youth approach wellness in South Nashville
By Kayla Anderson, Research Fellow
5 min read For four weeks, the Nashville Youth Design Team met at Belmont University where they learned more about the built environment and how it impacts youth wellness. After identifying South Nashville as their focus for the summer, the Team got to work learning more about the built environment and the communities that call South Nashville home. Local leaders voted on the winning tactical urbanism installation. Read on to learn more!
Nashville Youth Design Team 2022 Cohort during their Summer intensive
The Nashville Youth Design Team (NYDT) is a group of 13 high school students from across the city who share a common goal of striving to make Nashville a better place for young people to live. For over two years the Team has been working together to answer the question: What do young people need to be healthy and well? Using an action research approach, the NYDT has interviewed and surveyed over 200 of their peers to understand how the built environment impacts youth wellness. After mapping the data that they gathered from their peers, the Team used their Youth Wellness Map to identify spaces within the city that promote or take away from youth wellness. From there, they worked to develop design interventions targeted at improving young people’s health and wellbeing. Click here to view the NYDT’s Youth Wellness Map.
To learn more about the NYDT and the great work that they have done, take a look at some of our previous blog posts!
Summer 2022: A Focus on South Nashville
At the end of July, the NYDT wrapped up their second successful year of summer programming. For four weeks, the Team met at Belmont University where they learned more about the built environment and how it impacts youth wellness. This year the Team focused their attention on South Nashville. They chose this area of the city for two reasons:
It is home to many Team members
The Youth Wellness map identified South Nashville as having areas within the built environment that could be elevated to improve youth wellness.
Students brainstorm key themes, stakeholders, and South Nashville opportunities
After identifying their focus for the summer, the Team got to work learning more about the built environment and the communities that call South Nashville home. To do this they conducted research on the built environment and met with adult stakeholders who live and/or work in the South Nashville area.
Knowing that they wanted input from their peers, the Team created a focus group protocol to ask young people in South Nashville what they thought could be improved within their neighborhoods. Team members then used the protocol to lead focus groups with middle schoolers at Coleman Park Community Center. Through analyzing the focus group data the Team identified three themes that would inform their final design projects:
Accessible transportation
Youth-oriented spaces
Safety
After wrapping up their research, the Team split up into three groups where they worked on creating design interventions that could help improve youth wellness in South Nashville. The groups started by developing problem statements and grounding them in the research they had conducted. They then outlined goals for their project, which informed their design projects. Along with sketching out their designs, each group identified a potential location for installation, determined cost of materials, identified potential partnerships, brainstormed community outreach efforts, and outlined evaluation strategies. The groups presented their final design interventions at their end-of-summer Youth Voice Exhibition, where community members and stakeholders attended and voted on which design intervention they wanted to see implemented. This year the winning design was the Mini Soccer Pitch at Antioch Park developed by Arjun, Cydney, Grace, and Joseph. Click here to view the entire Youth Voice Exhibition presentation!
Mini Soccer Pitch at Antioch Park
(Winning Design)
Arjun, Cydney, Grace, & Joseph
Joseph, Cydney, Arjun, and Grace
Cost: $2,000
Materials: Field Paint, Goal Posts, Safety Nets, Flags
Design: The mini soccer pitch will be located in an unactivated field in Antioch Park near the Antioch Community Center and across the street from Antioch Middle School. In addition to the soccer pitch, community members will decorate flags, which will then be placed around the pitch. They hope to use the flags to help integrate the community’s identities into the design.
After learning from the focus groups and the Youth Wellness Map that young people in South Nashville wanted more places to hang out, Arjun, Cydney, Grace, and Joseph designed a mini soccer pitch intended to be installed at Antioch Park. Cydney and Grace both live in the Antioch area and shared that they feel like their neighborhoods don’t have spaces for teens and preteens to hang out. Cydney shared “At Antioch Park, I feel left out as a teen because there are more activities for kids and adults rather than teens and preteens. I feel if we added the soccer pitch, there would be more involvement in teens across South Nashville and more teens wanting to come out and play together within the community.”
Goals:
Activate accessible space
Reflect community identity
Design an intervention that gives a space for high schoolers and middle schoolers to have entertainment
“I live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have a space for teens and preteens and I know that a soccer spot like this would help generate more interaction. I thought about the difference in culture within this neighborhood, and even with language barriers sports bring people together, and promote a positive wellbeing overall.”
Soccer pitch sketch
Soccer pitch location
Partnerships and Permits: The group hopes to engage the community as much as possible in their design and implementation. They plan to work with students from Antioch Middle School as well as other neighbors. They also hope to partner with Nashville SC, Metro Parks Department and District 28 Council Member Tanaka Vercher. They would apply for a permit for the soccer pitch from the Metro Parks Department.
Installation: The Team will install the mini soccer pitch on a Saturday morning. The installation will include marking off the field using field paint and setting up the soccer goals and safety nets.
Arjun and Joseph work on their design
Outreach: To bring attention to the park and collect feedback from community members, the Team will host a 3-on-3 soccer tournament the morning of the installation.
Evaluation: During the 3-on-3 soccer tournament the Team will ask community members to complete surveys where they will be asked to assess the impact of the design intervention. The Team also plans to conduct a public life survey following the implementation to gauge how many people are using the soccer pitch.
Antioch Park Bike Rack
Chris, Eseosa, Oliver, & Uma
Cost: $500
Oliver, Uma, and Chris
Materials: Wood, Screws, Quickcrete, Cornstarch Paint, Waterproof Sealant for Wood
Design: The bike racks will include a simple design of wooden racks with bars on the side to be able to attach locks. The racks will sit on a large wooden platform held down with sandbags. A geometric mural will be painted on the ground in front of the racks.
Bike rack rendering
Chris, Eseosa, Oliver and Uma looked at transportation infrastructure throughout South Nashville before deciding to focus their design intervention on active transportation. The group found that the nearest bus stop to Antioch Park was over a mile away, which from there would be about a 45 minute walk to the park.
Additionally, they discovered that “much of this walk would include walking on roads without sidewalks,” threatening the safety of pedestrians. As a result the group decided to focus on a project that would “encourage more people in the area to bike to nearby spaces as well as connect a bike route from the Southeast Nashville Public Library and bus stops to Antioch Park.” Knowing that this was a big undertaking, the team decided to focus their initial step on creating bike racks so people could safely store their bikes while enjoying the park.
Goal: Connect a bike route from the Southeast Nashville Public Library and bus stops to Antioch Park
“Not being able to safely get to parks, schools, restaurants and bus stops affects the physical, recreational, and social wellness of youth in Antioch.”
Partnerships and Permits: The group plans to partner with Metro Parks Department and Antioch Middle School. They would apply for a permit for the bike rack from the Metro Parks Department.
Installation: The bike rack would be built and installed the same day as the Mini Soccer Pitch installation near the Antioch Community Center. By choosing this day and location, the group hopes it will encourage community members to take active forms of transportation to the event. The bike rack will remain up for one month.
Outreach: To gauge how community members feel about the bike racks, the group will install QR codes that link to a digital survey. This will allow people who visit the install to give feedback. This survey will help the group learn more about how youth feel about transportation options in Antioch.
Evaluation: In addition to the QR codes, the group will evaluate the effectiveness of the bike racks by hosting a digital survey about a month after the bike racks are installed. This will help the group to assess how helpful the bike rack was and if there is anything that could be added to the installation to make it more effective.
Eseosa and Oliver work on their designs
Eseosa sketches their group’s design
Movie Installation in Whitfield Park
Alex, Charlie, & Mia
Alex, Mia, and Charlie
Cost: $2,000
Materials: Projector Screen, Projector, Bistro lights, Light poles, License for movie
Design: The group’s plan is to hold occasional movie nights in Whitfield Park in order to bring more activity to the park. To do this the group will install a movie screen with outdoor seating to create an outdoor movie theater. They will also hang bistro lights across the seating area to add more light to the space.
Drawing from information gained through the focus groups and the Youth Wellness Map, Alex, Charlie, and Mia decided to activate Whitfield Park in South Nashville in order to create a safe space for young people to hang out. Mia shared, “By addressing this [creating activities for young people], we could keep youth from having to take long commutes to get to youth-friendly spaces and improve the physical, social, mental, environmental, and recreational wellness [of young people].” To do this the group decided to plan movie nights in the park, hoping that it would help foster a sense of community and provide a fun and safe activity for youth.
Goal: Make Whitfield Park more fun, lively, and safe.
Rendering of the Movie Night Activation
“The intention of our design is to bring an activity to the park for people to hang out. We decided to plan a movie night in hopes that youth will come and feel safe hanging out.”
Movie night installation location
Partnerships and Permits: The group identified that they will need to receive a permit from Metro Parks Department to host the movie nights and will also need to obtain licenses for the movies they plan to show.
Installation: The group will hold movie nights over 2-3 consecutive weekends in the Fall. The movie installation will be installed prior to each event and taken down after the event.
Outreach: The group plans to engage community members and the local council member in order to promote the event.
Evaluation: Following each movie night, the group will distribute digital and paper surveys to receive feedback on the event from attendees.
Design Assistant, Taylan Tekeli, works with Mia on her design
Alex works in a digital program to render their team’s design
All of the groups did a tremendous job developing and presenting their design interventions, however only one group could be crowned the winner. This year’s winning design was the Mini Soccer Pitch at Antioch Park. The NYDT plans to implement this design in October, so be on the lookout for more news about the mini soccer pitch. And congratulations to all the NYDT members for your great work!