Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge responds to the necessity, consistently expressed by South Philadelphia residents, for communal spaces. It is a hub of information exchange, where individuals and groups share their own unique assets, skills, and resources as solutions to specific needs. CohStra has gathered a growing archive of narratives and stories of useful knowledge collected during meetings and interviews with a wide variety of individual residents and community advocacy organizations, civic associations and nonprofit entities working in South Philadelphia. Though challenged by difficulties of communication across ethnic groups and organizations, the area is a repository of practical information and deep organizational and civic knowhow that, shared across disparate communities, can become a powerful catalyst for addressing persistent local and city-wide problems.