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How playful is your city or town?

Playful City USA is a national recognition program honoring cities and towns that make play a priority and use innovative programs to get children active, playing, and healthy. Learn more about how your city or town can qualify for designation.

Facts about the 2013 Playful City USA communities:

  • 217 cities in 43 states
  • 16 Founding Cities are recognized for a seventh year as Playful City USA communities
  • 37 cities and towns have earned Playful City USA designation for the first time

What is Playful City USA?

Playful City USA, sponsored by the Humana Foundation, is a national recognition program honoring cities and towns investing in children through play. Recognized Cities and Towns make a commitment to play by developing tailored local action plans that increase access to play in their community. As a result, some of the most innovative programs and policies are developed and implemented in Playful City USA communities.

How does a city qualify for designation?

Playful City USA designees map local playspaces, complete a needs assessment, and develop and action plan that identifies a minimum of three policies, programs, or initiatives aimed at increasing access to play at school, in neighborhoods, and through community engagement.

 

Benefits of Playful City USA designation

  • Two Playful City USA highway road signs.
  • Connections to a network of city, municipal, and play thought leaders.
  • Access to on-line trainings and best practices and toolkits.
  • Playful City USA designation is embraced and highlighted by realtors, local Chambers of Commerce, Visitor Bureaus, developers and investors to highlight your community as a great place to live and raise healthy and happy children.

 

Playful stories from our cities

$30,000 and $15,000 Grants to Support Playful Policies

Posted by Daniel McNulty on January 28, 2013

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While communities throughout the country struggle with budgetary constraints, providing the resources needed to ensure that children stay active and healthy too often gets placed on the back-burner. Yet, despite these constraints, there are several cost-effective policy measures that community leaders can pursue to increase access to the play opportunities that children need to thrive.

To that end, KaBOOM! strongly supports the creation of joint use agreements that make play more accessible to kids, and is working to assist communities across the country to open up school playgrounds, during non-school hours, through the availability of $30,000 and $15,000 Let’s Play Joint Use Grants.

A joint use agreement (JUA) is a formal agreement between two separate entities–often a school and a city or county–setting forth the terms and conditions for shared use of public property or facilities. While most agreements are formed between government entities, nonprofit groups and private property owners can also take part in joint use agreements. Each agreements differs in size and scope, but they all serve to solidify collaborative partnerships that pool resources and divide responsibility amongst all of the parties involved.

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Rec It! In Alvin

Posted by Danielle Vetter on January 23, 2013

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In the Playful City USA community of Alvin, Texas, students are working hard to play hard all year. In 2012, the Parks and Recreation Department partnered with the Alvin School District to launch a new program called “Rec It!” Through the program, Rec It! coordinators will meet with local elementary schools to encourage student to keep a log of their physical activity.

The goal of Rec It! is to have each student log 120 hours of physical activity, or a half hour of play a day. Students will have monthly goals and prizes in addition to a grand prize at the end of the year. After reaching their 120 hours, the kids will receive a number of prizes from community partners. Prizes included a summer pool and park pass giving kids ample opportunity to enjoy some quality fun in the sun!

Michelle Nestra, Alvin Parks and Recreation Coordinator says “I am confident with this new program we cannot only encourage kids to be active, but assist them with incorporating exercise, journaling, and healthy eating habits for a lifetime. Journaling is a proven effective tool for weight loss and accountability of personal goals and can also be used by the teacher as a weekly writing assignment.” By encouraging healthy habits and rewards for healthy behavior at a young age, these students will learn to maintain a healthy lifestyle, leading to smarter and healthier children of the community.

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Las Cruces makes play their mission

Posted by Danielle Vetter on January 17, 2013

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What does being a Playful City USA community mean to the City of Las Cruces, New Mexico? The “Playful City USA designation is an important honor to the City of Las Cruces and through a continued commitment to promote play, an honor we hope to continue benefitting from.” Through partnering with schools, introducing creative programs, and making play a priority, the citizens of Las Cruces continue to benefit from a playful lifestyle. Here are some innovative ways Las Cruces keeps their citizens playing.

Working with local non-profits, the Las Cruces Public School District (LCPSD), and the New Mexico Department of Health, a number of collaborations have made Las Cruces involved in healthy lifestyles for citizens.

First, Las Cruces partners with LCPSD to use recreational and equipment spaces. The partnership has grown into the expansion of youth sport leagues, with over 1,000 players, 200 coaches, and 100 teams made up of children from all ages! The partnership allows the youth league to use public and school gyms to accommodate for the increasing popularity. The partnership also works to support the Recess Before Lunch Program. By allowing kids to burn off energy before going to lunch, kids waste less food, re-fuel more efficiently, and focus better on the rest of their day. Las Cruces has reported great success with these initiatives.

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