The HealthPark committee and the Grant Park Conservancy (GPC) seek your support to incorporate additional health and wellness features into the overwhelmingly successful Grant Park Skate Park - the most prominent urban skate park in the world. The GPC and the public collaborated to bring the Skate Park to Chicago, which upon its launch demonstrated the massive public desire for urban movement spaces. Now a committee comprised of local residents and the GPC are building upon the groundswell of momentum for outdoor movement spaces by incorporating additional features within the Skate Park area to ensure health, wellness, and movement remain at the core of this outdoor space. These additional HealthPark features will be integrated into the existing Grant Park Skate Park area in the southwest corner of Grant Park (Roosevelt St & Michigan Ave) creating an all-encompassing environment for using movement as a form of preventive medicine in the fight against obesity and chronic disease. The additional HealthPark components will be free and open to the public year-round.

IMMEDIATE ACTION PLAN

1) Sign the HealthPark Petition!

2) Your written statements are important to this exciting endeavor!  Let us know your thoughts and what your vision is for the HealthPark in the comments below. How would you use the HealthPark? Your input is a powerful, vital component to making the HealthPark a reality.

3) Share the petition via social media using #ChicagoParks and #HealthParkGrantPark hashtags and LIKE the HealthPark on Facebook here.

4) Let’s Make It Happen Together!

Learn more: https://www.grantparkconservancy.com/healthpark-grantpark

The Grant Park Skate Park, has proven to be a successful placemaking model that works and is in a constant state of evolution. The GPC created a collaborative society from the onset of the Grant Skate Park project. The Public, Skateboarders, BMXers, Artists, and many more were integral community members, participants and stakeholders. The Grant Skate Park grew organically through testing new ideas and monitoring outcomes and the park continues to evolve. The HealthPark will take a similar approach integrating the HealthPark into the Grant Skate Park as part of a healthy living public placemaking model.

You ask what will your HealthPark be?

- A public park that puts health, wellness and education at its center.

- An arboretum infused with healthy activities including a wide-variety of exercise - disciplines including yoga, calisthenics, parkour, meditation & much more.

- A home for free social events to build a healthy, all inclusive community.

- Public Art, plants, trees breathing life and wellness into the heart of Chicago.

Your HealthPark will be a public park that brings more green space and trees to Grant Park. Public parks have the power to preserve nature and make nature accessible to city dwellers to heal, renew, and restore mind and body. The HealthPark amplifies a park's natural traits by inviting people to move, be active, be purposeful and learn how to improve their health within a public, outdoor setting. By adding trees and creating more space for social interaction, the HealthPark will positively impact physical + mental health outcomes. The HealthPark will create and strengthen social ties while reducing isolation and depression.

How has outdoor exercise changed your life? Why is outdoor exercise important to you? Why does the world need more outdoor public health spaces?

Please comment and share your thoughts on this exciting endeavor! Let us know what you think, your vision, and how you would use the HealthPark.