Leopold Park is the place to be this Saturday!

The Peace in the Park Block Party will kick off with free food, fun and games at 11 am and run until 2 pm. Last year, more than 100 people came out on a rainy day to play soccer, bounce in the bounce house, say hi to police horses, get their faces painted and enjoy some great food.

You’ll also have the chance to have your voice heard about the neighborhood — why Leopold is a great place to live, and what it needs to make life there even better.

It’s the first of three similar block parties. The next will be August 5 at Lighthouse School, and the third will take place August 26 at Mendota Elementary.

Each block party is sponsored and organized by local neighborhood schools and organizations, and all three are sponsored by Madison365 and the new interfaith organization Selfless Ambition. Block Parties at Leopold and Mendota are on for the second year; Lighthouse School is a new addition this year.

“These block parties are real opportunities for people to gather and get to know each other,” says Madison365 CEO and Selfless Ambition co-founder Henry Sanders. “We are doing these block parties to support not only the schools but the kids and families in the community.”

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Just getting to know each other will go a long way toward solving issues and responding when problems arise, says Josh Miller, pastor at the Bridge Church and Selfless Ambition co-founder.

“Learning each others’ names, finding a common positive experience to share, that foundation of common positive experiences, when the crises arrive like they have been in a lot of Madison recently, offers a foundation to actually know people as opposed to simply otherizing them, kinda separating yourself from them, isolating themselves from them,” Miller says.

The block parties will also serve as an opportunity for conversation about the community and neighborhoods.

leopold4“The second part is something that we were able to start last year, we’re excited to continue on now is another great opportunities to do community listening and asset mapping, of who is actually in the community,” Miller says. “How do they self-identify their community, what are the strengths, what are the weaknesses, what are areas they could see improvements done on. And this, we did a lot of that last year, and this year we’re going to actually take a step further and say, ‘All right, we still wanna know how you see the community, but we also wanna know about you. What are you passionate about, what are you good at? If you had an opportunity, where would you like to serve, where would you like to volunteer, where would you like to find other advocates who are really able to lock arms with and see positive change in the community?’”

But really, the main thing will be just a fun afternoon.

“If you bring your family, you’re just gonna have a good time,” Miller says. “Bounce houses, free food, which in my opinion is the closest thing to a universal love language that we have in America. And just to be able to celebrate with a local community, and probably get to know people that aren’t like you, which is always a win. The other part, again, is just to kinda see what it can look like, and to be a part of those conversations, and trying to figure out what are the assets. Especially if you’re local to one of those block parties we would love to have you and just get to know you and what you’re passionate about.”

In addition to free food, music and games, a limited number of donated toys from American Girl and Mattel will be available.