Revitalizing a Park and Playground for South Sacramento Families

Children and families in South Sacramento will now have a renovated park and playground, thanks to the partnership and dedication of Kaiser Permanente and other community organizations like the Health Education Council, SMUD, City of Sacramento Parks and Recreation Department, Sacramento Tree Foundation, and City Councilmember Larry Carr.

Nielsen Park has been the source of play and laughter for children on Center Parkway since 1975. The park is a great place for children to get out and play, but with decades of use, it became apparent that updates were needed and safety was a major concern for residents.

After two years of much work, volunteer hours, community involvement, and enthusiasm, dozens gathered this past Saturday, Sept. 28, to plant more than 20 shade trees donated by the Sacramento Tree Foundation, and to celebrate the park’s two new play structures with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony.  (Pictured above cutting the ceremonial ribbon are SMUD Board Chair Dave Tamayo, Health Education Council Program Director Imani Lucas, and KP Greater Sacramento Community Benefit Manager Brian Heller de Leon.)

This celebration was years in the making. Kaiser Permanente became involved with this community project in 2017, supporting the Health Education Council with a community-wide listening campaign to determine the residents’ priorities, and to involve them in the transformation of this important neighborhood resource.  They conducted a walk audit of the park that revealed broken benches and play structures, junk dumping areas, lack of lighting, and cracked pavement on walking paths.

Kaiser Permanente provided the Health Education Council with two Community Benefit grants totaling $150,000 designed to improve and increase “active living” through access to public spaces.  This investment funded a shade structure on the toddler playground, repaired sidewalks, park clean up, and a planning process with Councilmember Carr’s office and the City of Sacramento’s Parks and Recreation Department.

The City of Sacramento funded the basketball and tennis court renovations, walking  paths, benches and replaced play structures. Kaiser Permanente played a small, but significant part in this million-dollar project and our support helped bring many groups together to bring the vision of the community to life.

“It is an honor to partner with the Health Education Council and the residents who took ownership of this amazing neighborhood resource to make the changes they wanted to see on behalf of their kids and families,” said Trish Rodriguez, RN, Senior Vice President and Area Manager, South Sacramento. “This kind of project is exactly what our local and regional Community Benefits programs are designed to support – meeting the ‘upstream’ health needs of the community by creating safe environments for children and families to thrive.   We know that when we invest in increasing access to healthy eating, active living opportunities, the health of the entire community improves.”