Scranton, PA — located 100 miles north of Philadelphia — is home to over 77,000 residents. Approximately 34% of Scranton children under the age of six live in poverty. Scranton’s mayor and city staff envisioned their Bright Cities project as a way to enable all children to have access to safe and healthy play areas and programming.
"Our goal is to steward a clean and healthy environment for Scranton's children and their families,” said Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti. “Amidst the pandemic, this funding enabled us to robustly clean playground structures using non-toxic methods and encourage families to visit different City parks via our innovative Park Passport program. The Park Passport was a creative way for families to 'travel' to different parks during the pandemic and to help give our kids an opportunity for an active and safe summer."
What Happened?
City staff created a City Parks Passport Program to increase awareness of and track visits to the 23 city parks in Scranton. Users could pick up a free passport at multiple locations in the city and then track their progress by taking pictures and using them on social media with the hashtag #ScrantonParks2020.
“Reintroducing our City’s fabulous parks during the COVID 19 pandemic — through a combined effort of the Mayor’s Initiative, the Scranton Office of Economic and Community Development, and the City Staff — was the ultimate resolution of how to engage children and their families to remain active during a difficult time,” said Ann Marie Jason, Construction Coordinator for the Office of Economic and Community Development for the City of Scranton. “The City’s parks allowed for safe distancing, compliance with CDC guidelines and endless adventures at no cost to the community.”
The program was very successful in 2020 and 2021. Park passports were expanded with more information about parks and amenities, included stickers to mark visited parks and more visually appealing materials for young children.
Scranton staff wanted to ensure safety of the parks. To do so, they used grant funds to purchase and roll out use of a new parks cleaning and sanitation process that uses backpack sprayers equipped with non-toxic sanitizer to use on park and playground equipment.
Is your City interested in being part of Healthy Babies Bright Futures’ Bright Cities program? To discuss this and anything else, please contact Bright Cities Program Director, Kyra Naumoff Shields at knaumoff@hbbf.org.
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