Hayley Oleksiak
Driven by a passion for sustainable development, Hayley aspires to create public spaces that nurture economic growth and community wellness. Hayley works as Senior Analyst at JLP+D, creating site-specific to regional-scale urban solutions. Outside of work she is developing gamified citizen engagement tools.
While working as an urban planner and analyst she saw gaps in how communities engage with park planning and design—often with limited tools to advocate for their needs. Oleksiak was inspired by her love of SimCity to found Open Space Sandbox, a public design tool that empowers communities to develop equitable and vibrant open spaces through gamification.
Open Space Sandbox
Through local community partnerships, Open Space Soundbox is a 6-month pilot program that enables members to co-design open spaces in Philadelphia and share their creations on social media. Using our software, we select at least one park for co-design with QR codes in the park for easy access to the tool. We provide the city with dashboard data summarizing design ideas, programming needs, and feedback from the gamified survey. Open Space Sandbox is open to additional pilot uses and will iterate based on community or agency needs.