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Commitment 1
Create a local play task force and/or commission!
Gathering together to address common concerns is a unique part of the American tradition and the foundation for becoming a Playful City USA. Creating a play commission or task force that is recognized at the highest level of local government is critical for ensuring that an agenda on play is integrated into the daily operations of municipal life. Through the establishment of a play commission or task force, parents, children's advocates, business leaders, elected officials, parks and recreation officials, public safety officers and concerned citizens can come together to create and implement an action plan for creating and preserving children's playspaces. Note: To formally meet this goal, your play commission or committee must be recognized by the highest level of municipal leadership, with at least one member appointed by this leadership entity.
Check out some of the following examples of meeting this criterion!
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San Francisco's citizens wanted a greater voice in funding decisions and management of play spaces within the city. During 2000, nonprofit groups such as Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth successfully advocated that a Park, Recreation and Open Space Advisory Committee (PROSAC) be established in the city's parks bond legislation. PROSAC has 22 members that are appointed by the Board of Supervisors and one member appointed by the mayor. The all-volunteer group meets monthly to advise the Recreation and Park Department on strategic, capital and operations plans, serve as a liaison between the agency and neighborhood groups, and assist in hearings soliciting public comments on its budget.
- In addition, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently appointed a council of leading San Franciscans to study how the city could do a better job of attracting and retaining families with children. This commission is expected to look at a large number of factors, including housing costs, open space and quality of schools. Through this action effort there is an opportunity for this committee to reach out to city officials and put unstructured play — an old-fashioned solution to many modern problems — on the agenda.
- In Kansas City, Kansas, a citizens' advisory committee helps set priorities for the parks and recreation department. The parks board is making playspaces for immigrant children and low-income families a high priority. For a long time, residents have used community organizing tactics (neighborhood watches, phone trees, emails) to move prostitution and drug sales out of their parks. Now, many of those same principles are being used to encourage the city to refurbish older parks and playgrounds and create new parks closer to where low-income families live.
- In Portland, Oregon, concerned citizens observed that parks and playspaces were available in upscale neighborhoods, but there were few playspaces for low-income children. They set up the Portland Parks Foundation, which recently persuaded a corporate donor, Columbia Sportswear, to give $1 million over the next 10 years for maintenance and improvements to Sellwood Park in Southeast Portland. And that's just the beginning of their plans.
- Philadelphia had more than 125 volunteer parks groups that made improvements to their neighborhood parks. But they had no strong citywide voice to influence government decisions regarding parklands and play areas. This became the mission of the Philadelphia Parks Alliance in 1983.
- More recently, Philadelphia Mayor John Street appointed a Blue Ribbon Commission to study children's behavioral health. The Blue Ribbon Commission has 50 members representing children, youth, parents, judges, children's rights advocates, educators and many others. Philadelphia Safe and Sound, a children's research and advocacy nonprofit organization, helps staff the commission. Creating more spaces and opportunities for children's play has been a topic among committee members, and they will make a report to the Mayor in November 2006.
- A play committee does not need to start with a formal structure. In Madison, Wisconsin, a group of mothers formed a reading and discussion group that frequently centers around the value of carefree play. Book selections include The Hurried Child by David Elkind and The Overscheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap by Alvin Rosenfeld. At a recent meeting, the mothers reminisced about their own childhoods, including long summer nights playing without parental supervision, swinging from willow trees, playing kick-the-can and flashlight tag.
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