SHADE sits at the intersection two public health trends. Teen mental health is falling while urban temperatures are rising.
SHADE A temporary outdoor cooling shelter for teens by teens.
📢 Matt CRLS ‘25, Samadhi CRLS ‘24, & Team 📢
We are SHADE
“We are an organization of youth creating a community for teens by teens. Our community is built around a temporary summer place we are creating at Donnelly Field. SHADE is a safe hangout spot for teens to come by, find friends, make new ones, and have a good time. SHADE is made possible through Cambridge’s Shade is Social Justice public art competition.
Why Shade
“We are trying to address the decline in teens’ mental health, and overall get teenagers outside in a cool 🧊 comfy place, doing things together. “Teens nowadays are faced with feeling unwanted, unwelcomed, and/or excluded. We can change that by solving our problems for ourselves. ”Adults are always the ones controlling the money where it goes, and how it’s used to solve our problems. We listen to adults. But decisions to fund our peers and our ideas are ultimately made by youth-consensus. At the end of the day, nobody knows teens better than teens.“
Who’s Helping
‣
Meet the Adult Team
The Site
Location: Donnelly Field, Cambridge, MA
📍🗺️ Google Maps link for Mobile 🗺️📍
Partners
- Cambridge Arts Department, public art grant recipient ($27,000)
- Cambridge Public Health Department, teen mental health grant Recipient ($2,000)
- Cambridge Housing Authority, Work Force Youth Work Site, ($500)
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health (CFDA# 93.959), support through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) of the Federal Government’s Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block grant ($5500)
- Cambridge Public School Department, Summer Co-Directors ($14,000)
- Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs, Mayors’ Summer Youth Employment coverage ($12,500)
‣
Design Reference & Explorations
‣
Bibliography
Connect
Jeff Goldenson | jeff@buildingways.com | 617.909.2917
‣