The Stronghold Society has partnered with Pyatt Studio, a public interest architecture and planning firm, to design an outdoor classroom at the WK4-Directions Skate Park on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation.
In 2011, the Stronghold Society built the Wounded Knee 4- Directions Skate Park to provide young people with a safe place to gather. The community of skaters using the park has grown tenfold since it opened, and the park has become an informal place for young people to interact with both peers and service providers involved in educational programs.
To build on this success, Stronghold has asked Pyatt Studio to help design a pavilion at the skate park that will serve as an outdoor classroom for arts education and other outreach activities.
Levi’s Skateboarding proudly presents: “Skateboarding In Pine Ridge“, a documentary directed by Greg Hunt chronicling the skatepark build at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
Pine Ridge is largely reported in the media as an impoverished community with a drug and alcohol epidemic and teen suicide rates seven to ten times greater than the National average.
When the Levi’s team visited the reservation, they saw a community transformed. They found a generation inspired – a group of people championing each other through their collective actions.