At Purpose Built Communities, we often talk about the importance of thoughtful spaces. Parks, sidewalks, community centers, local businesses, and other gathering places aren’t simply amenities. They create opportunities for relationships to form and neighbors to connect. But how those spaces are designed can determine who is able to experience that sense of connection and belonging.
In Orlando, Purpose Built Network Member LIFT Orlando offers one example of how accessibility can make third spaces more welcoming and inclusive. Working alongside neighborhood residents, Florida Citrus Sports, and the City of Orlando, LIFT Orlando helped transform Lake Lorna Doone Park into a gathering place designed with more neighbors in mind. The 12-acre park includes a barrier-free, ADA-accessible playground, along with a walking loop, fitness stations, splash pad, and other spaces for recreation and connection. LIFT Orlando describes it as the most accessible ADA park in the City of Orlando.
Accessibility also matters at home.
In Atlanta’s Historic South Atlanta neighborhood, Purpose Built Network Member Focused Community Strategies (FCS) helps longtime residents remain safely rooted in the community through its Legacy Home Preservation & Critical Repair Program. By addressing critical home repairs for seniors and longtime residents, the program helps neighbors remain safely in their homes and continue to be part of the community they’ve helped shape.
These examples look different, but both raise an important question: Are our neighborhoods designed so that more people can fully participate in the places they call home?
Accessibility can look like a playground where a child with a disability can play alongside friends and siblings. It can look like sidewalks and pathways that make moving through a neighborhood easier. Or it can mean repairs that help an older adult or neighbor with a disability continue living safely in the home and community they know.
Belonging isn’t created by the built environment alone. But the built environment can communicate something powerful about who has been considered in the way a neighborhood is designed.
When we create places where more people can participate, connect, and remain part of their communities, we’re not simply building more accessible neighborhoods. We’re helping build neighborhoods where more people can belong.
