Our mission has always been to provide opportunities for child-directed play within a supportive community of adults. This means offering support and training to parents, professionals, and community members around the world whenever they reach out to us.
After a few years of pursuing this mission, we realised that many communities still need additional support. They may struggle with concerns about risk, lack community backing, or simply need more confidence to make play a regular part of their community life. That’s when we had an exciting idea: let’s take our community-based play initiatives on tour!
Much like a playworker supports children, we wanted to make ourselves available to communities across America. We invited you to invite us to your neighbourhood. There, we would help you build a stronger community around play.
Our tour started on the East Coast and quickly head to the West. After that, we made our way back home. The entire trip lasted around eight weeks, starting on February 19th, 2014. At each stop, we hosted a Pop-Up Adventure Playground. It’s a free event where people of all ages can come together and play with loose parts. To help cover the costs of these events, a workshop or seminar on a play-related topic of your choice could have been run.
If you think that your community would benefit from a visit from Pop-Up Adventure Play, then get in touch! I took the lead on the project and was happy to provide more information or answer any questions you had. Just email suzanna@popupadventureplay.org and we can start the conversation.
By Zan
