ABSTRACT
Chicago’s Latinx community of Little Village has struggled to gain access to needed park and recreation infrastructure over the previous decades. This chapter highlights the example of Little Village Latinx youth, who were able to advocate, plan, and design public outdoor natural environments with the help of a non-profit organization and community adults. In telling their story, this chapter focuses on a contaminated site, which was transformed into a community-based park. Specifically, the chapter discusses the context of this transformation, the key players involved in the development of this park, the funding mechanism for construction, the process behind the transformation, and the outcomes the participating youth experienced. What is notable about this example is that the community organizing occurred based on popular education, which intentionally tackled the structural inequities leading to the historic lack of access to park and recreation infrastructure in Little Village. Youth who were part of this movement experienced myriad ever-lasting benefits.
