Leveraging both our own play infrastructure expertise and our successful collaborations with cities and partners, we've explored, encouraged and developed a number of successful approaches to creating kid-friendly cities with equitable access to safe, quality play experiences. With input and insight from city and community leaders, health experts, urban planners and affected families, we've created this toolkit – the Play Everywhere Playbook.
Our cities' futures are inextricably tied to the success of our kids. Unfortunately, we are in danger of unintentionally designing kids and families right out of that future.
Though cities have made great strides when it comes to increasing livability factors, as municipal budgets inevitably tighten, the kid-focused amenities of many city master plans are usually the first lines to get cut. When this happens, it has a disproportionate impact on kids growing up in under-resourced communities.
As cities increasingly cater to young adults, they are at risk of becoming unaffordable to families, and inaccessible when it comes to offering great places to play.
But we can turn it around, one community at a time.
By working with partners across the country, KaBOOM! has increased the numbers of playgrounds in cities and ensured equitable access to them. By understanding the day-to-day challenges these kids and their families face and addressing them on a community level, we're helping to make play an easier choice.
What equity means to KaBOOM!
KaBOOM! recognizes that kids and families have different barriers and opportunities to live active, healthy and playful lives in safe and connected communities. Equity at KaBOOM! is a value that addresses the effects of social, racial and economic differences that create disparate outcomes for people in areas like health, education and employment. In order for KaBOOM! to achieve our vision of, "All kids getting the childhood they deserve filled with balanced and active play, so they can thrive," we must understand the barriers that exist for the kids we serve, and address them through our work to transform the built environment.
Our hope is that the ideas, design guides and case studies shared here will inform and inspire the work of a diverse coalition of leaders, implementers, advocates and change-agents who share a commitment to creating kid-friendly and playful cities. These individuals include, but are by no means limited to:
The Playbook is intended, above all, as a tool for action—for envisioning, designing and implementing creative opportunities for play in communities so kids and families may thrive. It is envisioned as a dynamic, living document that is supported by an expanding, continuously updated library of digital content and additional resources on the KaBOOM! website. The Playbook will grow and evolve over time as more communities across the country implement amazing ideas and demonstrate the value of Play Everywhere.