200 Volunteers Build Playground

More than 200 volunteers from MetLife, Youth Villages Georgia, AmeriCorps and community residents helped build a brand-new playground Saturday for children with emotional, behavioral and mental health issues receiving help at the Youth Villages- Campus in Douglasville.

The KaBOOM! playground, made possible by a grant from MetLife Foundation and philanthropists Ray McPhail, president of Atlanta-based H. Ray McPhail Co., and George Johnson, founding president of Metro Atlanta’s George H. Johnson Properties, was designed by a group of about 40 children receiving help on the campus who, weeks prior to the build day, drew pictures of the features they wanted their dream playground to have. Besides slides and other playground equipment, the new space also includes a chess area, a colorful entrance walkway, benches, trees and shrubbery and a sensory wall. 

“Play is very important to children, and it is highly therapeutic for the children in our program who have suffered abuse or neglect, or who have serious emotional, behavioral or mental health issues,” said Tanya Hill, director of the Youth Villages-Inner Harbour Campus. “We are thrilled that the children we help have a brand-new play space that is safe and fun. Our thanks go to KaBOOM!, MetLife, AmeriCorps and the many other wonderful volunteers who made this playground a reality.”  

The new play space was funded through a grant from MetLife Foundation, and is one of more than 200 play spaces KaBOOM! will build across the country in 2011 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.

Youth Villages, a private nonprofit organization dedicated to helping emotionally and behaviorally troubled children and their families live successfully, is one of the largest private providers of services to children and families in Georgia. The Youth Villages-Inner Harbour Campus in Douglasville has a long history of helping children in residential treatment, and in recent years, Youth Villages has opened an office in Atlanta to provide additional services to Georgia’s most vulnerable children and their families. Youth Villages’ intensive in-home services program helps troubled children and their families in their own homes. The organization’s transitional living program helps former foster youth make a successful transition into independent adulthood.

With offices in 11 states and Washington, D.C., Youth Villages this year will help more than 18,000 children and their families. Youth Villages’ focus on strengthening families consistently produces an 80 percent success rate of children living successfully at home two years after completing a Youth Villages program.

Named one of the Top 50 Nonprofits to Work For in 2010 and 2011, Youth Villages has been recognized by Harvard Business School and U.S. News & World Report, and was identified by The White House as one of the nation’s most promising results-oriented nonprofit organizations. For more information, go to www.youthvillages.org.