Rio Hondo Child Development Center

Funding for this project is provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, that funds TreePeople to oversee the design and construction of school greening initiatives at two Childcare Centers in the Greater Los Angeles area. This project marks TreePeople’s first partnership with early education centers to transform them into greener and more sustainable environments with outdoor educational opportunities.

TreePeople will partner with the faculty, staff, and parent communities to conduct planning, engagement, campus design, construction, establishment care, and educational programming. Each site will receive campus enchancements which include hardscape conversion, the creation of native and edible gardens, new spaces for outdoor learning, installation of low-impact stormwater capture features, cooling shade trees, and low-water irrigation. Overall, these projects will increase outdoor equity for hundreds of children under the age of 5.

At the Rio Hondo Community College Child Development Center, the school greening project will revitalize outdoor spaces to support essential childcare and preschool programming for children of college attendees to foster healthy play and outdoor learning. The school site will be transformed by replacing more than 18,000 square feet of high-water use lawn with low-water alternatives such as native plants and decomposed granite. Plans also include the planting of more than 30 trees and 650 native plants, spaces for outdoor learning and gathering, and natural play elements such as demonstration rain gardens and bioswales.