Imagine your ideal playground. You would be inclined to include a wide variety of swings, slides, monkey bars and even rock climbing walls. Now draw it. This is what the children in Waltham's Prospect Hill community were instructed to do. Brandeis was just one group that helped compile their designs and, from there, organize the plans to bring their imaginative drawings to reality.
On Sept. 17, Brandeis will join with local organizations and institutions to build the playground in the Prospect Hill area. The University will work alongside Bentley University, the Waltham Housing Authority and KaBoom, a non-profit organization that strives to create playgrounds across the country that allow for children to have a safe place to play.
KaBoom used the children's creative ideas to plan out an innovative site and a safe environment inspired by their pictures. About 200 children in the area will be able to take advantage of the space, which will include a community garden and eventually an additional community center.
Volunteers who will be present on Sept. 17 include students from both universities as well as staff from the other organizations involved in the project. One of these volunteers is Lucas Malo, director of community service at Brandeis.
"One thing I always tell my students is that we never put ourselves into the community unless they tell us they want us," Malo said. "So the Waltham police officers and some of the folks from the city talked to some of the residents and said, 'Would you be interested in this?' and they all said yes."
Malo and Kate Hussey from the Waltham Housing Authority, determined to make these ideas a reality, went and knocked on every single door in the complex, reaching out to about 60 people.
Brandeis is responsible for raising 10 percent of the $85,000 it will take to create the playground. United Healthcare as well as the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation has donated the additional funding needed to build the playground.
The playground is designed to benefit the children of Prospect Hill, but Malo stresses the goal of facilitating interaction among the various local communities.
This is not the first time, though, that Malo is working with the community of Prospect Hill. The Waltham Group is the umbrella community service organization under which many service groups fall. One of those groups, called Waltham Kids' Club, runs an after-school program Monday through Thursday that is designed to mentor children in low-income communities in Waltham.
Malo noted that because of the number of children in the housing units who do not participate in the Kids Club program, "we wanted to do something extra." Bentley University, the city and Waltham Housing Authority also helped fundraise about $200,000.
The group, in addition to its efforts in completing the Prospect Hill playground, is planning on opening a childcare center on the bottom floor of an empty daycare in October. The building will provide after-school programming for elementary- and middle school-aged children.
"Prospect Hill is a community-there are 144 units and families live there-most of those units are single mother households with children and ... there are just about 40 different languages spoken among those families," Malo said. "A good percentage of the parents do not speak English at all. So the kids are used to being the English translators for the parents."
When these groups came across the KaBoom application to build a playground, Brandeis took the lead on writing the grant, but all groups contributed throughout the entire process.
KaBoom noted the potential of such a project and funded the grant proposal, which would also provide for two representatives from their home base in Washington, D.C. to train the volunteers and build all their playgrounds.
There are about 12 subcommittees involved in the project, which include teams that focus on youth engagement, fundraising, media and the tool-collecting team. Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong is also on the committee, as well as Prof. Laura Goldin (AMST), chair of the Environmental Sustainability Team committee.
"The most exciting thing is that we're working with the community and that's KaBoom's philosophy," Malo said. "We're building the playground together rather than bringing the playground to them."
The residents of Prospect Hill, in the process, are helping to create donations, knocking on doors and securing food for breakfast and lunch on the day of the build.
"I think we all assume we're part of the Brandeis family and then we go home and that might not be the community that we're living in, so I think it represents that we all come from different backgrounds," Malo said.
Malo stressed the more long-term benefits of creating the playground. "We're really trying to get rid of the stigma that's attached to Prospect Hill, especially how it's not safe," he said.
"We're all people and we're all trying to make ends meet and enjoy life." 

Corrections Appended: 
It was incorrectly stated that Brandeis signed the KaBoom playground grant. In fact, Bentley University was responsible for signing the grant, while Brandeis is one of the partners.