{"id":403410,"date":"2026-08-11T09:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403410\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:46:31","slug":"new-ymca-playground-in-east-austin-is-open-to-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403410\/","title":{"rendered":"New YMCA playground in East Austin is open to everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new playscape at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinymca.org\/locations-east-communities\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">East Communities YMCA<\/a> (5315 Ed Bluestein Blvd.) is welcoming members of the entire surrounding community \u2014 whether they&#8217;re members at the Y or not \u2014 to play as of August 10. A press release emphasizes that the playground was designed by kids.<\/p>\n<p>The playscape was built through a partnership between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinymca.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Greater Austin YMCA<\/a>, equitable playspace nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/kaboom.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Kaboom!<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delta.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Delta Air Lines<\/a>, which provided nearly 100 volunteers for setup, the release says. Kaboom! helps communities design and fund spaces for all kids, especially when addressing existing inequity for communities of color. The organization has been active since 1996 and has worked on more than 17,000 playspaces.<\/p>\n<p>To find out what kids wanted from their playspace, the YMCA asked kids at the East Communities location and in Greater Austin YMCA\u2019s Austin Achieve afterschool program to draw their ideas, which it then incorporated into the final design. <\/p>\n<p>The resulting playground includes slides, swings, things to climb on, and &#8220;imaginative elements&#8221; that help kids think creatively and connect with each other. A large shade structure keeps the whole playscape out of the sun. The surrounding park space has also been updated to improve the experience for visiting families, including a &#8220;nature exploration&#8221; area with logs to balance on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"6c71a\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"c32be8805712d894be14779612e12236\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kaboom-playscape-and-nature-exploration-area-at-east-communities-ymca.jpg\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Kaboom! Playscape and Nature Exploration area at East Communities YMCA\"\/> This nature area offers a break from plastic and metal.Photo courtesy of the Greater Austin YMCA<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlayscapes provide a space where kids can build confidence, create friendships and simply be kids,\u201d said Greater Austin YMCA COO Shaq Brown in the release. \u201cAt the Y, our mission is to elevate the quality of life across Greater Austin by expanding access to opportunities like this, and we\u2019re incredibly grateful to KABOOM! and Delta Air Lines for helping bring a vision created by our community\u2019s children to life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Kaboom! Playscape and Nature Exploration area will be open daily from sunrise to sunset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new playscape at East Communities YMCA (5315 Ed Bluestein Blvd.) is welcoming members of the entire surrounding&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,670,2924,2038,988,10431,15081],"class_list":["post-403410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-children","tag-east-austin","tag-families","tag-kids","tag-playground","tag-ymca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}