How to Face Three Common Liability Concerns
The first pushback I hear from churches considering placemaking usually has to do with liability. These concerns typically fall into one of three categories: injury, vandalism and loitering. Let’s look at each one more closely and consider ways you might address them.
1. People Getting Hurt
Opening space to the public brings with it the possibility that someone might get injured on your property. This risk makes many churches cautious of creating spaces for the community. But the reality is, your church faces that risk every week when it opens its doors to the public. All it takes is a call to your insurance broker to find out if additional coverage is needed and what the cost for that might look like…and it probably won’t be that much. For example, a church in Dallas that decided to add a dog park to their property found that it would only cost them $250 a year to add insurance coverage for this purpose. Don’t let worries about the extra insurance be what stops you.
2. Vandalism
Community-oriented placemaking projects are designed to encourage neighbors to interact and contribute to the space, to the church and to each other in a positive way. Unfortunately, there’s always a concern that someone will not share the same spirit of stewardship and generosity towards the space. What if they break or steal things? The fear around vandalism is real, but oftentimes it’s rooted in hypotheticals rather than in reality.
The best way to vet out real concerns is to create your project in an incremental manner so you can see what actually happens and have more insight into community dynamics. You can also design the components of your project in such a way as to discourage vandalism. For example: painting chairs in bright colors with the name of the church on the side with a friendly invitation to “please sit here” might not only make running off with the chairs less likely but communicate the idea that such elements are neighborhood gifts.
3. Soliciting Unwanted Uses
A common concern about outdoor placemaking projects is the possibility they might attract unwanted uses. What if homeless people sleep on the grounds at night? What if we find used needles on the grounds? What if skateboarders use the space to test new tricks and damage the property?
These are all valid concerns easily circumvented by creating a plan to have the space activated by consistent use, whether that’s through special programming, partnering with other organizations or direct use by your congregation. In the planning phases of your project, think of ways to activate the space that encourages the uses you want to see and that gives visitors something to participate in and to collaborate with. It’s also helpful to keep in mind that not all placemaking projects have to be installed on a permanent basis. It might be the case that the kind of project best suited to your immediate context is one that exists on a pop-up basis, which can help abate fears around unwanted uses.
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Fears about injury, vandalism, unwanted uses are all valid. But as serious as these fears might sound, the reality is that most liability concerns can usually be addressed through careful observation of the community, creative partnerships that ensure consistent use of the space or incremental design and implementation strategies to test and observe how the community responds to projects before making bigger, pricier investments. Churches considering placemaking should engage in thoughtful conversation about these concerns but not let them stop projects from moving forward. After all, Jesus calls us to be generous with our resources and this might mean taking some wise risks to share what we have with our neighbors.