Community Hub: Creating a free, accessible space for neighbours in need
More than just a park. This gathering space promises a brighter, healthier future for the community of Coronado.
Children from the community of Coronado, Puntarenas, Costa Rica.
Partners:
Development Association of Punta Mala (ADI de Punta Mala); The Committee of Women Entrepreneurs.
Location:
Coronado, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Causes:
Community Health
Start Date:
January, 2020 to May, 2021
Project Summary
Located in the province of Puntarenas, the town of Coronado is home to approximately 2,400 residents.
From the 1930s to the 1980s, Coronado was a thriving agricultural area dominated by banana plantations and the Chiquita Banana Company and United Fruit Company. In the late ‘80s, disputes over unionization and workers’ rights resulted in the company pulling out of the area altogether.
Since this time, there have been few new sources of employment, either within Coronado or its home province of Puntarenas. With the welcome exception of some agribusiness, tourism, and a few jobs created when a tax-free shopping zone was opened in Golfito, unemployment remains alarmingly high in the community, at around 50%. Most local employment opportunities are piecemeal, low wage, and informal, paying men $2 to $3 per hour for cutting grass or construction, and women as low as $80 per month working as nannies or maids. This is in a country with a cost of living that rivals North America’s.
For three decades, the community has largely been left on its own to survive under extremely challenging circumstances.
The future for residents of Coronado is fraught; many live in extreme poverty. This history has created some entrenched problems for Coronado’s youth, with no activities to keep them engaged and active. There is no cinema, public library, bookstore, organized afterschool recreation, public park, and little possibility of getting a part-time job. As a result of this lack of youth engagement, the community’s children are at a high risk of falling victim to the highly-prevalent threat of alcoholism, drug abuse, and perhaps most threatening: pressure from drug traffickers to join the booming drug trade.
The Committee of Women Entrepreneurs (CWI) is a dedicated group of mothers from Coronado with a dream to create a better life for their children by providing an alternative to drugs and alcohol through engagement in sports. They began in 2017 and successfully launched and completed a campaign to clean local roads and enhance local infrastructure, with the volunteered help of local youth, parents, families, the congregation from the local church, and a local environmental group.
CWI’s biggest goal, however, is to build a community park where youth can engage in sports, caregivers can sit and watch their kids, and adolescents can play on playground equipment. In their view, this park is the best way, perhaps the only way, for the community to protect the future of its youth, as there is currently nowhere except one local soccer field for youth and seniors alike to congregate, socialize and build community connections and relationships.
Research has repeatedly shown that local parks improve the health and wellness of a community. Access to parks and green space is directly linked to increased physical activity and improved mental health by encouraging people to congregate, play and connect. A gathering space like the one proposed for this project will directly promote the wellbeing – of mind and body – of Coronado’s residents. In turn, this should reduce the local youth crime and substance abuse rates.
The women’s group spearheaded the effort to construct Coronado Children’s Park in 2018 and have worked hard since then, raising money for the effort by selling food and holding raffles. They have seen some success and have built local partnerships to further this initiative.
This is an unofficial rendering of the proposed addition to the Coronado community park. More recreational park equipment will be added to the park in the future.
Horizons’ role in the proposed project is to build on the momentum started by CWI, by providing the resources and support needed to complete the Coronado Children’s Park. This park will provide youth in the community with an opportunity to build healthy bodies, strong futures, a spirit of leadership, community pride and development, and lead the way for future generations.
The park will provide a welcome, free, and accessible place for people of all ages and their families. It will also provide a meeting place for the whole community. No facilities of this sort are available in Coronado and surrounding communities. The development and construction of the park is well underway but requires financing to complete. The first phase of work is finished. Two phases of work remain.
Phase 2 – purchasing and installing all remaining playground equipment and a perimeter demarcation around the park for visitor safety and park management; and,
Phase 3 – building a bank of accessible bathrooms, a storage cellar with the capacity to house various cleaning supplies, equipment, and toys, and a central kiosk for indoor park activities and food sales.
Expected Achievements
This one-year project will directly benefit 870 at-risk adolescents and children from Coronado and the surrounding communities of Tres Rios, San Buenas, and Punta Mala by creating a local outlet for sport and social engagement, reducing the vulnerability of this group to alcohol and drug consumption and involvement in drug trafficking.
The project stands to similarly impact the entire population of these five communities indirectly by providing a social space and fostering positive values and a culture of health and wellbeing within the community.
