The Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) announced it will award $2.5 million in inclusive playground and facility grant funding to seven organizations and communities across the state.

The purpose of the grant funding is to create more inclusive parks and playgrounds in communities across Tennessee. This will provide opportunities for children and adults with intellectual, developmental, or physical disabilities to experience the physical, social, and emotional benefits of playing alongside their peers without disabilities.

The Obed River Park in Crossville is one of those parks, receiving $102,700.50 to replace forty-year-old dilapidated equipment. The grant will provide the funding to order new ADA-accessible equipment such as new swings, a merry-go-round, and playground equipment such as ground-level play spaces and sensory-rich components.

Other parks in Tennessee receiving funds are:

• Hope Included (Chattanooga): $500,000 to transform the Riverview Park playground and facilities into an inclusive hub for the community, in partnership with the City of Chattanooga and Play & Park Structures Inc., a PlayCore Company. This project aims to transform the current space into an inclusive park that is an open and safe space carefully designed to promote play among children of differing abilities, ages, and communities.
• City of Germantown: $489,425.80 to rebuild the Germantown Municipal Park and Playground and expand its ADA accessibility offerings through an inclusively designed playground equipped with wheelchair-accessible pathways.
• City of Madisonville: $465,448 to develop an inclusive play area located within steps of an existing play area at Kefauver Park. The park is already ADA compliant, but in collaboration with Monroe County, the City of Madisonville plans to add more handicapped parking spaces to the parking lots and new inclusive play equipment.
• Carroll County Inclusion Park: $497,250 to develop land gifted by the town of Huntingdon to create the Carroll County Inclusion Park. The primary goal for the design of this playground is to provide a safe and accessible playground that inspires peer-to-peer inclusive play, which will include ADA-compliant bathroom facilities.

• Oneida Special School District: $425,284.16 awarded to the district to provide children and adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities a safe place that will promote parallel play and activities.
• Friends of Franklin Park: $19,881.54 for the not-for-profit organization to create the city of Franklin’s first inclusive park. The park will use a design approach that takes into account not only accessibility and mobility, but also potential sensory, cognitive, and emotional barriers.