Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/swarm-build/5019505/
Willow huts. Herb gardens. Sand pits. Sunflower houses. Tree tunnels. Stepping stones. You probably have a million ideas for ways to spice up your outdoor play space with new natural features. But how are you going to get all that work done? You can’t do it ALL yourself. So what can you do? Hand shovels to your staff? Give children pickaxes? It’s actually not that difficult. Ask for help! Since the beginning of time communities have come together to work on collective projects such as farming, barn raising, and cathedral-building. The tradition continues today in the form of ‘community-built’ projects. It’s happening all over: communities come together to build playgrounds, paint murals, create mosaics, and more. I love the community-built process so much because I’ve seen it work over and over again.Whether you are building an entirely new playscape or just adding a handful of new features, this process might work for you too. My latest favorite version of the community build is the ‘swarm build’ �" where a large group of volunteers descend on a playscape for an afternoon, get job assignments, grab tools, and ‘go for it’ to get the jobs done. I recently had the pleasure of ...