Nearly half the children in the United States do not live within walking distance of safe, high-quality playspaces or playgrounds. Parents, children's advocates, business leaders and other concerned citizens can help correct this problem by building and caring for playspaces for children in their communities.

This can begin with you. Working with your friends and neighbors, you have the power to bring play to the forefront of your city's political agenda by asking your mayor or city council to make children's play a priority and demonstrate their commitment with specific action. 

Some ideas for engaging your local officials include asking them to establish a "Commission on Play" within the local government, sponsor a city-wide "Play Day" or commit additional funding to the development and refurbishing of existing playspaces.

The individual circumstances of each city or town may vary, but whatever you decide is the need in your community, here are ten tips for creating the team of Playmakers and mobilizing to gain support within your local government structure. 

1.  Get others to RALLY for play! Educate others and build a team. The old saying "there's strength in numbers" is true in civic action. Many people are unaware of the importance of play in the healthy development of children, so you may need to share some information about the issue in order to build support. Build a team of supporters by gathering friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, clergy, business leaders and anyone else who is willing to learn about the challenge and focus more attention and resources on children's play.

2.  Include the kids! Be sure to ask the kids for their ideas and give them concrete tasks they can perform. They're the experts on what kids want! Also, think about ways to keep kids engaged. Children can have a tremendous impact on policymakers, so consider involving them in the actual meetings and giving them the opportunity to share their experiences and views directly with local officials.

3.  Meet about play. Before you take any action, you'll want to gather your team together. Introductions are important. If people will be working together, they'll need to get to know each other and exchange phone lists or email addresses. 

4.  Play needs structure, too. Most groups have a leader and people who volunteer for specific tasks (e.g., drafting letters, making phone calls, finding space to meet, etc.). Other groups rotate who chairs each meeting or takes certain responsibilities. Do what's best in your community. Making sure you have a structure in place allows individuals to see their contributions making a difference and creates a sense of accountability.

5.  Ready yourself and your team with the facts. Your first teambuilding exercise should be gathering the necessary data on the status of play in your community. Prior to making contact with an elected official, you will want to have all your facts ready to persuade him or her. First you should know the status of play in your community by doing a playspace audit, which will arm you with an in-depth understanding of the condition and location of playspaces across your city. It may help to take photos of the playgrounds that are of real concern. In addition, you will also want to have concrete data regarding the relationship play has in the healthy development of children including information on the health, academic and social benefits of children's play. Finally, you may also wish to gather examples of how other communities are succeeding in making play a priority. The closer to home that these communities are, the harder they will hit home when you are sharing this information.

6.  Plan! Plan! Plan! Now that you have the facts about the status of play locally and are armed with talking points about the importance of play, it's time to decide what you want in terms of action. A piece of legislation establishing a Commission on Play? A proclamation from the mayor declaring a "Play Day"? Approval for the clean-up of certain playgrounds? Approval for the building of additional playgrounds on specific sites? Once you are all in agreement, map out the steps to reach your goals. 

7.  Identify key decisionmaker(s). In most towns, playspaces will fall under the jurisdiction of the mayor or city manager, most likely in the parks and recreation department. Almost everywhere, the city or town council will be very involved in decision-making. Ask established community leaders how it is best to proceed — seek them out if they are not part of your initial team. Longtime activists can be goldmines of information, ideas and contacts. And building a list of supporters can help your cause.

8.  Talk with your local leaders about play. Call your mayor and/or city council member and ask them to meet with your group about improving children's playspaces and playgrounds. When you are persistent, most elected officials are amenable to meeting with constituents and voters. If they can't meet right away, they may ask a staff member to meet with you to hear your concerns. Staff members can be very helpful. Be specific in your discussions, have supporting documents that can be left for review by other staffers, and follow up by sending a summary of the meeting and the commitments made.

9.  Be persistent about play. Sometimes, it may take two or three requests to get an elected official to take action. They may be concerned about play, but they also have many other constituents pressing for their attention on other issues. Be patient and polite, but keep following up with more information and checking on the status of your specific request. 

10. Contact your RALLY support team at KaBOOM! KaBOOM! is dedicated to promoting the importance of play across North America. If you hit a roadblock anywhere in the process, check out KaBOOM!'s website for additional tips, best practices and strategies to keep your community moving forward as you advocate for play across the country.