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3 <br />Youth Engagement <br />Pioneer Park: A Kids Art Project <br />After early discussions with City staff identified Little Canada youth as a key stakeholder group <br />to the Pioneer Park Master Plan, I (Cat Bruns) began development of a youth engagement plan. <br />Drawing on my experience as a curriculum designer and my research background in youth <br />advocacy, I proposed collecting youth feedback on Pioneer Park via an art project centered on <br />the question, “What is your dream Pioneer Park?” In its entirety, my youth engagement plan <br />aimed to accomplish the following goals: <br />1.Make contact with 120-150 K-8​1​ students across both public and private schools <br />2.Raise awareness of the development of a Pioneer Park Master Plan among youths, <br />parents, and school administrators <br />3.Gather artistic evidence of what a “dream” Pioneer Park looks like for youths, including: <br />a.Playground equipment <br />b.Field usage <br />c.Aesthetic design (i.e. pond, wildflower garden, etc.) <br />d.New park additions (i.e. splash pad) <br />4.Relay to youths how their feedback on Pioneer Park will be implemented and/or <br />incorporated into the park master plan <br />5.Empower youths to be engaged citizens and active contributors to community planning <br />and decision making <br />After receiving approval from City staff to pursue this plan, I contacted art teachers in four <br />elementary and middle schools in the Little Canada community: Little Canada Elementary <br />School (LCE), Roseville Area Middle School (RAMS), St. John’s Catholic School (SJ), and <br />AFSA Charter School. In early October, I connected with Sarah Wolfe, the sole K-6 art teacher <br />at LCE, who expressed willingness to incorporate my project in her curriculum for Distance <br />Learning Academy students. After discussing her needs and instructional constraints, I <br />developed a multi-part project that included three 7-8 minute videos about community parks, <br />cool park designs, and the importance of community engagement; a visual survey that collected <br />feedback on what students like to do at parks; and a free-range artistic representation of each <br />students’ dream Pioneer Park. Because LCE is a dual-language school, the video and survey <br />materials were made available in both English and Spanish through the use of translating <br />services provided by the University of Minnesota. <br />Initially, the project was launched to roughly 200 LCE Distance Learning Academy students. <br />However, when LCE switched to entirely online instruction in mid-November, the project was <br />re-launched to incorporate students who had previously been receiving in-person instruction, <br />which enabled the project to reach the entire population of LCE. Shortly after this re-launch, I <br />was able to connect with two teachers at other schools who were willing to trial the project: <br />1 This K-8 objective was later revised to K-6 after coordination with LCE increased the project’s overall <br />student reach <br />