Home » Take Action » Playful City USA

Join Parkland, WA and become a Playful City USA!

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

Kissimmee gives back

Posted by [field_author-raw] on November 30, 2012

Tagged:

The Playful City USA community of Kissimmee Florida is known for sunshine and play. In order to improve the quality, safety, and use of play spaces in Kissimmee, the Parks & Recreation Department created the Volunteer in Parks program (aka VIP). The VIP program allows residents of Kissimmee to give back to the city through a variety of volunteering opportunities that are all focused on keeping the parks of Kissimmee clean and beautiful.

How does this program work? The Parks & Recreation Department of Kissimmee allows volunteers to sign up for projects that are posted online monthly. Eventually, the city hopes to incorporate a points system that rewards the residents devoting the most time to play space improvement. By involving residents and community groups (such as the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts), roughly 10 different community parks will receive the care they deserve.

Why does this program matter? The Kissimmee volunteering program creates greater ownership of the local parks, a close-knit community, and best of all, beautifully maintained parks. Through creating greater ownership of the community’s parks, residents can make tangible improvements and changes on their city. In order for the children of Kissimmee to maintain a healthy lifestyle and get the recommended levels of physical activity, they need to have dependable places to play.  Improving play spaces brings the children of Kissimmee safe and reliable places to play for years to come.

Read more...

Comments

Let's Play Completion Grants

Posted by [field_author-raw] on November 16, 2012

Tagged:

Residents of the Playful City USA community Allentown, Pennsylvania are the proud new owners of the newly re-built Franklin Park. A once unsafe and out-dated play space, Franklin Park was in desperate need of a makeover. Partnering with the Trexler Trust, St Stephen’s Lutheran Church, and the Allentown Department of Parks & Rec, residents of Allentown came together to make a playground that will serve 15,000 children annually. After 8 months of planning and hard work, over fifty volunteers came together to set up the new playground in just over two hours!

To help add the essential finishing touches to the new play space, Allentown applied for, and received the Let’s Play Completion Grant. The grant awarded Allentown with a $500 American Express Gift Card to be applied towards the newly completed playground. The Playful City USA team would like to congratulate Allentown on their new playground and their grant!

If your community recently completed a playground using the KaBOOM! Community Build Model, you might be eligible for a Let’s Play Completion Grant! If you're interested, we encourage you to apply for a Let’s Play Completion Grant. The $500 American Express Gift Card towards funding any element of the completed playground.

Read more about Allentown’s play traditions here.

Read more...

Comments

Waves of play

Posted by [field_author-raw] on November 15, 2012

Tagged:

In the city featuring nature’s most famous waterpark, Niagara Falls, New York has been making major waves. Niagara Falls has been a recognized Playful City USA community since 2009. A diverse and growing community, play is at the center of the city’s revitalization plan. Niagara Falls embraces play in three effective ways.

Read more...

Comments