Play Is Essential At Families Moving Forward
“Play is essential for children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional well-being, both at home and at school.” – American Academy of Pediatrics
Written by Rebekah Schneider, Families Moving Forward Program Manager
A disproportionate number of children living in shelter experience emotional, behavioral, and learning problems. Though it’s well-researched and documented that play and recreation is essential for their wellbeing to combat these problems, resources for such are often limited or inaccessible at shelters.
At Beacon, play is accessible daily. While COVID has meant isolation and limited physical engagement for us all, families of the Families Moving Froward Program have daily access to a playground to run and play. This month, with the help of several volunteers from Westminster Community Church, we had the opportunity to freshen up our playground at Families Moving Forward. After some much needed weeding and the addition of fresh mulch, the playground continues to be a resource for child and parent well-being associated with play.
“The playground, just in the backyard of the program center at Shepherd of the Hill, is a welcoming space for the children and their parents to have fun outside to expend some energy,” says Vang, Case Manager at Families Moving Forward. Like everywhere, the COVID mandates meant we followed newly developed safety standards, however with such a small program it was possible to allow children to play with the parents in groups.
We’ve frequently heard from parents the importance of being outside and getting the opportunity to do things together as a family. Parents often state they worry about their children being cooped up far too long and spending too much time on their phones. They want their children to be able to express their creativity and to get outside to play.
How much play does any child need? Research shows that spending just 20 minutes in nature can promote health and well-being.1 For children, this opportunity to play outside can be vital to reducing stress and can impact their ability to perform well in school.
This summer, in addition to playground ‘freshen up’ we also had the opportunity to start small garden plots for families, a space of their own to plant flowers or vegetables and get their hands dirty together. Look for future articles on shelter gardening, tutoring, etc. designed to partner with parents as they lead and navigate this experience for their children.
Now, as we are all more isolated and families in our shelter are spending many hours a day in a hotel room, it is more important than ever that children have the opportunity to play outside, dig in the dirt, and run on the grass.
Source 1: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00722/full
