PLAY RELATED ORGANIZATIONS

Alliance for Childhood www.allianceforchildhood.org
The Alliance has issued statements and calls to action on the education of young children, calling on educators and policymakers to pay more attention to the critical issue of play and its direct links between children’s play and their healthy emotional, social and intellectual development.  They also sponsor research on the current state of child-initiated play in early education and on ways that educators can encourage and restore play. They are now preparing to launch a national campaign to raise public consciousness about the importance of play and its current endangered status.  They particularly see preschool as the place to intervene and restore childhood play.  Participants include landscape architects, child care providers, child life specialists, movement and physical educators, and parents.

The American Association for the Child’s Right to Play www.ipausa.org
IPA/USA is the national affiliate of IPA an international non-governmental organization founded in Denmark in 1961. It is interdisciplinary and membership includes persons of all professions working for or with children. IPA links national action groups through its members in over forty countries, and provides for an exchange of ideas, issues, problems and innovative solutions. The purpose of IPA/USA is to protect, preserve, and promote play as a fundamental right for all humans.  Specific interests include environments for play emphasizing universal access, leisure time facilities, programs that develop the whole child, play leadership training, toys and play materials.  They run national and global conferences, and put together an on-line Newsletter.  They are recruiting volunteers to be Recess Advocates in each state, suggesting ways you can get involved and promote recess at your child’s school.

The National Institute for Play www.instituteforplay.org  40 West Garzas rd, Carmel Valley, 93924
The National Institute for Play is a non-profit public benefit corporation with a council of advisors consisting of distinguished scientists from many science disciplines as well as play practitioners.  They are approaching their work as students of the science of play, gathering with other play experts and students to develop projects which will expand the clinical, scientific knowledge of Human Play as well as projects which will translate the knowledge of play into practices and training programs to deliver the benefits of play to all segments of society.  They promote play as a profound biological process.  Part of their mission is to weave un-recognized scientific information on play into the everyday fabric of our lives.

Play Matters www.playmatters.org
A non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the role of play in the lives of young children.  They stimulate and support projects ($500- $5,000) which encourage and nurture play of children birth through 8, conduct special events related to play, and seek collaborators and partners in like-minded efforts.  The organization was founded in 2003 in recognition of the life’s work of Docia Zavitkovsky, a long time advocate for children.

Playing for Keeps www.playingforkeeps.org
“Playing for Keeps is a national not-for-profit organization that exists to help bridge the gap between what researchers have learned about play and what parents and professionals who impact kids’ lives on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour need to know to help nurture our precious children to their full potential.”  They promote themselves are THE central source nationwide for information about play and its development benefits for children. They work with others to speak up about the need for play, provide parent education on the importance of play, maintain a central base of info about play with many documents that can be downloaded, and bring critical people together to learn more about and promote play.

TASP – The Association for the Study of Play www.csuchico.edu/kine/tasp
TASP is a multidisciplinary organization whose purpose is to promote the study of play, to support and cooperate with other organizations having similar purposes, and to organize meetings and publications that facilitate the sharing and dissemination of information related to the study of play.  They publish a regular, extensive newsletter that includes book reviews and research updates in different disciplines.

KaBOOM www.kaboom.org
Ka BOOM is a national non-profit that envisions “a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.”  Fulfilling this vision through leading select playground build projects.  Most interested in community engagement when it comes to addressing the need for places to play – In the planning, fundraising, design, construction, maintenance, and programming for a/the new play-space.  As an organization, they help individuals think about the children in their community and how they can become vocal advocates to increase the space and time for children to play.  They see the equal importance of both the community-build process and the play-space product of their work.

TRUCE – Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment www.truceteachers.org
Truce is an organization of early childhood professionals that works to promote a positive play environment for children.  They share a concern about how children’s entertainment(s) and toys affect behavior and learning.  TRUCE produces written materials, such as A Toy Action Guide, and a new one-page flyer TV and Your Child in English and Spanish.  As a small, grassroots organization, we rely on the efforts of concerned professionals and parents to help with the distribution of their materials.

Rescuing Recess The PTA campaign www.rescuingrecess.com  asks parents, teachers and students to study the benefits of playtime and to call on state and local education leaders to protect it.  They are organizing campaigns and putting together research and advocacy points for parents, children, and teachers about Why Recess Matters.  www.pta.org

CCFP – Center for Creative Play www.centerforcreativeplay.org 
The organization located in Pittsburgh works to ensure that people understand the importance of play for all children with a vision that every child and their family will have access to all-inclusive play environments.  Professionals involved with CFCP are valued allies and provide support, technical assistance, and consultation to families who are encouraged to shape the future of the organization (I assume locally). One particular focus is supporting families with children who have special needs.

CHAWK www.chawk.org is a local organization in Arlington, Va., seeking to ensure, through a variety of ways, that children’s health and wellness is a central focus of the school day.

Montgomery Child Care Association www.mccaedu.org  is a local group working with others to promote the value of a play-based curriculum.  They think it is time to shift the argument for play in childhood. Their chief concern: What are children missing when they are missing out on play?  People against play are, in their opinion, trying to re-write the developmental needs of early childhood.  These advocates worry as growing numbers of programs follow the public schools’ lead, reducing the amount of play

Stop Homework www.stophomework.com is the BLOG of Sara Bennett, co-author of The Case Against Homework:  How Homework is hurting our children and what we can do about it.  Stop Homework provides up to the minute homework news and opinion articles, guest editorials, suggestions for advocating change in homework policy, and discussion forums for parents, educators, psychologists, and students.

Play-children play-children-request@mailbase.ac.uk is an open unmoderated list for debate on issues around children’s play in both physical and social environments. 

Common Good www.cgood.org/society.html is an organization that wants to put common sense into playground design.  Fear of lawsuits, excessive safety regulations, and society’s growing aversion to risk, have fundamentally altered the nature of play and recreation in America.  Common good is working to protect and restore play and recreational opportunities to American life.  They are currently developing legislative solutions and raising awareness of the effects that removing all risk from our children has on their lives, based on their research and understanding of the necessity of limited risk.

The Strong National Museum of Play, One Manhattan Square, Rochester, NY 14607  585 263-2700 www.strongmuseum.org/play/freeplay.html  Among their links are the Highlights from a new American Academy of Pediatrics report on the importance of play at home and at school and a link to the full report.  The website for the American Academy of Pediatrics is www.aap.org

National Association for the Education of Young Children – NAEYC.   www.naeyc.org
Go to their website and check out the Play and Policy Forum.  Susan Solomon (ssolomon@curatorialresources.com) wrote a book about playgrounds called American Playgrounds.

Rethinking Childhood www.rethinkingchildhood.com  Excellent work from Tim Gill in the UK a leading thinker on childhood and an effective advocate for change.  His work focuses on children’s play and free time.

This website was created by Kristin B. Eno of Digital Story Workshop.