STooPS Closes Fall Series in Bed-Stuy’s Jackie Robinson Park

For four Saturdays this fall, the Jackie Robinson Park Playground in Bedford-Stuyvesant became a gathering place for music, dance, painting and hands-on workshops. The series, called Fall Funs and hosted by the arts organization STooPS, has now wrapped, with a stated aim that was as much civic as creative: to draw neighbors together through art, resources and community engagement.

The programming was wide-ranging. According to the Brooklyn Paper, which reported on the series, local creatives working in music, dance, painting, instruments and medicine led activities across the four weekends. Workshops included jewelry making and hat patch making, alongside dance classes, dance and music performances, and community sing-alongs.

Informational tables ran alongside the creative offerings, giving visitors access to medical and violence prevention resources. STooPS was joined by Bailey’s Cafe, Kings Against Violence Initiative, Inc. (KAVI) and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. State Sen. Jabari Brisport and Council Member Chi Ossé were also listed as partners in the series.

The effort has roots in a coalition formed in 2022 by Sabrina Brockman, who gathered community members to consider ways to deter gun violence along the Malcolm X corridor. STooPS founder Kendra J. Ross was part of that coalition, and she described the fall series as a continuation of that work. “We started this series as a response to a coalition that was formed in 2022 by Sabrina Brockman,” Ross told the Brooklyn Paper. “She was gathering community members to really think about how to deter some of the rampant gun violence that was happening in the Malcolm X corridor.”

The numbers around the neighborhood point in a cautious direction. The 81st Precinct, which covers Bedford-Stuyvesant and Stuyvesant Heights, including Jackie Robinson Playground, has reported nine shootings so far in 2026, compared with 11 in 2025, according to NYPD data cited by the Brooklyn Paper. That is an 18.2 percent decrease year over year. The latest available precinct report also shows shooting incidents down nearly 80 percent since 2001. The source does not attribute the recent decline to any particular program, and a single season of Saturday events is not presented as the cause.

What organizers describe is something harder to measure: a sense of ownership. Ross told the Brooklyn Paper that the activities are meant to bring people into the park to enjoy themselves and, in her words, to claim the space. “So it’s all different activities to bring together folks inside of the park to enjoy themselves and to also stake their claim as, ‘This is our park, and this is where we as the community deserve to be,'” she said.

That framing, echoed by organizers who say programming like this lets young people reclaim their community in a positive way, positions a playground as more than a place to pass an afternoon. With the fall series now complete, the question for STooPS and its partners is how to keep that momentum going, though the source does not say what comes next.