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Playgrounds Where All Kids Are Able to PlayPlaygrounds Where All Kids Are Able to Play
Communities Mobilize for Children of All Abilities
Imagine a childhood in which monkey barsare out of reach, seesaws are toodangerous, and slides don’t accommodateyou. For too many children with specialneeds—especially children who arephysically challenged—play can berestricted and frustrating.
In response, the Kellogg Foundation’s Youthand Education team is funding the Able toPlay Project, a special effort to buildbarrier-free playgrounds throughout Michigan.These are playgrounds that not only greatlyexpand play opportunities for children withspecial needs but also serve as a rallying
point for communities to mobilize resourcesfor integration and disability issues.
“Play is an absolute necessity for thedevelopment of children’s language, motor,and social skills,” says Gail McClure, vicepresident for Youth and Education Programs.“The idea behind the Able to Play Project isthat these new play areas will be inclusiveof all children—no one is left out.”
This is precisely the vision of the NationalCenter for Boundless Playgrounds,® thenonprofit organization coordinating theproject. The Connecticut-based group wasestablished in 1997 by a team of parentsand child development professionals thatwas dedicated to working with communities
to create fully integrated, universallyaccessible play environments for all children.
Much of the inspiration for BoundlessPlaygrounds (BP) came from its cofounderand executive director Amy Jaffe Barzachand her desire to honor the short life of herson, Jonathon, who died of spinal muscularatrophy in 1995. Together with hundredsof volunteers and donations, Barzach’scommunity built a special, inclusiveplayground in memory of Jonathon. Afteran article appeared in “Time” magazine,the phone began ringing. The concept of“boundless playgrounds” touched a nerve.
In 1998, Boundless Playgrounds grew,expanding with a grant from the Hasbro
In 1931, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation established the first school in
the United States to integrate regular and special education
students in the classroom. In honor of its 75th Anniversary in
2005, the Foundation is supporting a statewide effort in Michigan to
help communities build fully integrated, universally accessible
playgrounds and raise awareness about the benefits of children of
all abilities playing together.
Playgrounds Where All Kids Are Able to Play
Communities Mobilize for Children of All AbilitiesCommunities Mobilize for Children of All Abilities
The process of creating BoundlessPlaygrounds is also abouteducating and changingcommunities.
“The more communitieswork with the people andchildren with disabilities,and the more youngchildren of all abilitiesplay together, the moreall kinds of barriers
Children’s Foundation to launch a nationalawareness campaign and to fund technicalassistance to 24 communities. By mid-2003,BP had helped more than 60 communities in21 states develop their own playgrounds.
Now BP is launching a major statewide effortin Michigan with a multimillion-dollarKellogg Foundation grant. Most of the awardwill provide Able to Play challenge grantsand technical, design, and support services to13 communities.
“We’re pleased these Michigan communitieswill have completed their learning andconstruction by 2005 when we celebratethe Foundation’s 75th Anniversary,” saysthe Foundation’s McClure. “The Able to PlayProject ties in very appropriately with theoriginal vision of Mr. Kellogg to helpchildren and create positive communitychange. This will continue that legacy.”
Seven additional communities will receivesmaller “seed” awards and design mentoringservices. Other Able to Play applicants will beoffered opportunities to attend BP’s “basictraining” workshops that review special playbehavior and design criteria.
An ancillary component of the projectincludes a design competition that isintended to have long-term impact on theart and science of playgrounds. Educationand outreach programs along with anupgraded Web site will provide help.
What makes a BoundlessPlayground unique?
Although traditional playgrounds may havebeen built with consideration of theAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA),Boundless Playgrounds play environmentsreach even higher to ensure that childrenwith and without disabilities can playtogether, according to Jean Schappet, BP’scofounder and creative director.
“Boundless Playgrounds not only include theADA focus on removing barriers to access,but also incorporate our organization’scommitment to child development, rigor, andchallenge for all children,” Schappet adds.“We believe in the importance of play as anopportunity for learning.”
In terms of barriers, federal guidelines requirethat 50 percent of a playground’s elevatedstructure be accessible. On larger playgrounds,25 percent of the elevated play platformsmust be ramped. By comparison, BP requiresthat at least 70 percent of play activities servechildren with physical disabilities, allowingfor greater “integration” of all children.
However, BP play spaces are not just aboutwheelchair access. They are designed toaddress the needs of children with sensoryand developmental disabilities, too. Theyare designed to be fun, rigorous, andchallenging places for all children—notjust special needs kids.
Boundless Playgrounds aredesigned to be fun, rigorous,and challenging places forall children—not just specialneeds kids.
disappear,” says Leslyn Odom Clark, BPdirector of programs.
BP staff say that their playgrounds becomea focal point for both children’s play andcommunity change.
“People drive hours to experience aBoundless Playground,” says Schappet.“When they go back to their owncommunities, their expectations have beencompletely changed. They begin to demandthat kind of play space.
“It’s market-driven,” she adds. “Playgroundequipment manufacturers respond tocustomers’ needs. We’ve already begun tosee that up to 12 additional playgrounds arespawned from each Boundless Playgrounddeveloped. That’s the beauty of what the
Able to Play project will bring to Michigan—these play environments will serve ascatalysts where people will see what aplayground can be and want to push theirown community to do something just like it.”
Boundless Playgrounds is working with thePittsburgh-based Center for Creative Play, anationally recognized leader in indoorspaces. The Center will work with BoundlessPlaygrounds to help two Michigan granteecommunities first develop and thenimplement indoor projects.
The Michigan sites will receive assistancefrom BP and the Center, including coachingon how to raise matching funds, plan, build,and involve the community even more intheir play environment projects. First, eachcommunity will assess its needs through a
strategic planning process that involves adultstakeholders and children with and withoutdisabilities. Then, BP and Center designerswill work in collaboration with locallandscape architects, architects, builders,design professionals, and playground projectcommittees to develop play environmentsthat meet the Able to Play criteria.
Then there’s the matter of cost. There is noaverage cost of construction. But with suchfeatures as added ramps, educationalactivities, and safe, navigable groundsurfaces, the total cost can range from$150,000 to $400,000 or more. Able to Playchallenge grants will give each grantee astrong start, but each grantee must mobilizeits community to raise other financial andin-kind resources and, finally, drive theplayground projects to completion.
To encourage participation, workshops wereheld throughout Michigan. Ultimately, grantapplications were received from every regionof the state. A national panel of judgesmade up of doctors, educators, nonprofitexecutives, and other professionals reviewedthe applications.
“The judging was weighted in favor ofapplicants that demonstrated real communitycollaboration,” says Dianne Noth, seniordirector of operations for BoundlessPlaygrounds, “as well as commitment to theconcept of children and people of all ages andall abilities being able to play together.”
Visit www.abletoplay.org and take a “virtual tour” of a groundbreaking Boundless Playground effort.
Play Is Vital to Children’s Development
Children, regardless of ability ordisability, learn to navigate their worldthrough play. Evidence from researchinto brain development shows thatchallenging environments like well-designed playgrounds will encouragesocial, emotional, physical and cognitivegrowth for children.1
One in ten children has some type ofdisability that makes it hard orimpossible for them to play on atraditional playground. BoundlessPlaygrounds projects are designed witha difference. More than 70 percent ofthe playground is universally accessibleto children with physical disabilities,incorporating sensory-rich activities.As a result, children with physical,sensory, and developmental disabilities,and children without disabilities, canactively, safely, and enjoyably playtogether, each at their own highestlevel of ability.
Often the play activities and equipmentincluded specifically for children withspecial needs are especially enjoyed bychildren without disabilities, whocould play anywhere.
1 “Play is Essential for Brain Development,”published by the Children’s Institute for Learningand Brain Development
• Statewide Michigan effort to build
fully integrated, universally accessible
playgrounds and raise awareness of
the needs of children with disabilities
• Challenge grants ranging from
$75,000 to $225,000 and technical
assistance will help 13 communities
open playgrounds by 2005
• Smaller seed grants and design
mentoring for 7 other communities
will support the development of
additional playgrounds
• Scholarships for playground design
and development workshops offered
to all other applicants
• Through education and outreach—
including collaborating with universities
and conference presentations—
Boundless Playgrounds will seek to
influence future design of children’s
play environments
Able to Play Project
Educational Benefits ofBoundless PlayAfter a Boundless Playground was built at the Baer School in Baltimore, Maryland, principal
Shari Huene-Johnson saw significant developmental growth in children with severe
disabilities. Before the playground was installed, these students averaged a developmental
growth of 1.7 months in each 6-month period. The rate more than doubled afterwards.
“That’s a phenomenal figure for us,” says Huene-Johnson, “and directly attributable to our
Boundless Playground, which we use as an outdoor classroom.”
The Able to Play Project is funded by a
special grant that is part of the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation’s 75th Anniversary, which will be
formally celebrated in 2005. W.K. Kellogg
himself recognized the limited options and resources for children and families
with special needs. After an accident, Mr. Kellogg’s grandson, Kenneth, was
permanently disabled. “[Al]though I was amply able to pay the medical … bills, I found it
almost impossible to obtain adequate treatment for him … ,” he wrote. “This
caused me to wonder what difficulties were in the paths of needy parents
who seek help for their children when catastrophe strikes, and I resolved
to lend what aid I could to such children.”
Able to Play includes a component that promises
to have long-term impact on the art and science
of playgrounds.
Morningstar. “We’re a small community, and we are competingfor funds with things like a new hockey arena thecommunity recently funded. But people here are verysupportive and pull together.”
“The students have really taken this idea and run with it,”says Lesacki. “This is just the latest in a series of communityefforts the students have gotten behind. We don’t look atthe park project as that remarkable. It’s just the way youngpeople are here.
“The students meet in my classroom every Tuesdaymorning, and I am just there for feedback. It’s theirmeeting, and they throw their ideas out there. BethMorningstar has really been a go-getter.”
There are only about 1,400 students in the entire schooldistrict. “What they lack in numbers they make up for inenthusiasm,” says Lesacki. “When our community recreationdirector went to the first Able to Play grant writing meeting,she came back with the impression that a community buildidea was too labor intensive—that a company should behired to build the play structure. But our students wantedownership. They said, ‘No way, we’re going to build it.’”
That’s exactly the community spirit that impressedBoundless Playgrounds. “With us, the community builds theplayground with the guidance of professionals, and thoseprofessionals do what needs to be done for safety andreliability,” says Debbie Midford, program manager at theNational Center for Boundless Playgrounds. “But it definitelytakes a community effort.”
In Sandusky, it takes the kids. The community involvementlessons Nesbit learned in Sandusky have remainedimportant to her, even as she finished her freshman year atNorthern Michigan University, nearly 400 miles from home.“I love getting involved,” she says. “It gives me a kind of joyto make a difference.” After her first year in college, she’schanging to a dual major in criminal justice andenvironmental science because, in part, it will provideopportunities to work with communities.
When Nesbit learned Sandusky had received the Able to Playgrant, she skipped down the halls of her universitydormitory, shouting for joy.
n Sandusky, Michigan, population just over 2,400, highschool students are leading a communitywide effort to helpall children be able to play, using a powerful combination ofyouthful determination and drive. In fact, their Able to Playeffort began years before Able to Play was launched.
In November 2000, a group of high school students decidedto “gift” a revitalized playground to their community. TheK.I.D. Committee (Kids Illustrating Determination) was thebrainstorm of a high school senior, Mandy Nesbit, whorallied fellow students to begin raising money for new andsafe playground equipment for the city. Nesbit enlisted theguidance of one of her teachers, George Lesacki, and theteens went to work raising money.
“When Mandy graduated, I took over as president,” saysBeth Morningstar, who had served as a volunteer in theproject, and just finished her junior year at Sandusky HighSchool. “We had been concentrating on fund-raising, butwhen we learned about the Able to Play matching grant, wewere inspired to write the grant proposal.”
Lesacki is quick to point out that it was Morningstar whotook the initiative to write the grant herself, then meet withother students for their input. “She took it as a personalchallenge and growth opportunity.”
Meanwhile, students continued fund-raising efforts, usingevery tool from can and bottle drives to a discount golf cartsale. Even the elementary schools have been involvedthrough “Penny Wars,” in which elementary classes competeby bringing in piles of pennies. By May 2003, the K.I.D.Committee had garnered $20,000 toward the Able to Play effort.
“The entire community is behind us, from our school boardto our local businesses. The Sanilac County CommunityFoundation even awarded us a matching grant,” says
U.P. Community Rallies Around Playground
Youth-Powered Playground in SanduskyYouth-Powered Playground in SanduskyI
“This is just the latest in a series of community efforts the
students have gotten behind.”
For Heather MacDonald, a social worker who is the parent ofa child with disabilities, the indoor play space will provideplay opportunities unavailable anywhere in the UpperPeninsula. “The sensory play is very important to mytwelve-year-old daughter—she loves it,” says MacDonald,“and the fact that it will be available all year round in ourown community is very exciting.
“Plus, I work with a lot of families who are really struggling,and many of them can’t afford to have a lot of toys andthings that are stimulating and fun in the home. But theability to go someplace nearby, without charge, is reallygoing to help them.”
who retired as school superintendent in January. “What itmeans is that you have a community that’s working foritself, using all of its resources, to do things for its childrenof all abilities.”
One very creative feature of the Sault Ste. Marie play space isthat it will actually be a kind of hybrid—an outdoor BoundlessPlayground in an enclosed play space with a 25-foot ceiling.“It’ll be kind of like a playground in a gym,” says O’Conner,adding that such a play space will allow more independentplay than do interior play spaces focusing on serving thedisabled, which require more staff involvement.
O’Conner points out that approximately 16 percent of theyoung people ages 5 to 20 in the community have some kindof disability. “We wanted a place where all kids could playtogether, those with and without disabilities. This will addtremendously to what young children can do during ourlong, harsh winters.”
McLain adds that the indoor Boundless Playground projectwill serve a far larger area than relatively isolated Sault Ste.Marie. “We will literally serve most of the Upper Peninsula,parts of Canada, and expect to draw visitors from thenorthern Lower Peninsula as well. Altogether, we expect todraw visitors from a 350-square-mile area.”
An additional draw for the Sault Ste. Marie Able to Playproject is that it plans to combine the best of universallyaccessible play spaces with regularly changing educationalexperiences, such as interactive exhibits about UpperPeninsula history and culture, separately funded by localefforts. “We want to meet the needs of universal accessibilityto all children, while also providing educational opportunityon a lot of different levels,” says O’Conner. “This will providean experience that kids will want to come back to over andover during the year.”
hen your remote community averages 100 to 150 inches ofsnow over a very long winter, providing indoor playopportunities for children is a critical need. In their Ableto Play proposal, the Sault Ste. Marie Able to Play AdvisoryCouncil made this need dramatically clear by including
a photograph of a childbundled in winter gear, ina wheelchair, gazing at amound of snow covering thecity’s outdoor playground.Point made.
Even more dramatic wasthe way the communityrallied around the effort to
become an Able to Play grantee. Just three years before,the community had thrown its support behind an outdoorplayground project, and the Council was a little concernedthere might be a “been there, done that” attitude aboutsupporting an indoor play space.
The concern was unwarranted. “There was still so muchenergy and enthusiasm for doing something like thistogether,” says Kerry O’Conner, who chairs the Board ofDirectors for the Chippewa Community Foundation.
Tony McLain, chair of the Sault Ste. Marie Able to PlayAdvisory Council, completely agrees. “We invited a handfulof key people to help put together the Able to Play proposal,but before long we had volunteers coming forward fromeverywhere in the community. This kind of project has reallybuilt community will and energy.
“I’ve spent most of my career working in communities thatreally don’t have the resources that many communitieshave, and to see our community come together like this,around a project like this, is really fulfilling,” says McLain,
U.P. Community Rallies Around PlaygroundU.P. Community Rallies Around Playground
Youth-Powered Playground in Sandusky
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YO/ED 4206 • item #410A • 07032.5M.Gargoyle Graphics • Printed on Recycled Paper
One Michigan Avenue EastBattle Creek, MI 49017-4058
Phone: (269) 968-1611TDD on site • Telex: 495-3028
Fax: (269) 968-0413
www.wkkf.org/YE
45 Wintonbury Avenue Bloomfield, CT 06002
Phone: (860) 243-8315Fax: (860) 243-5854
www.abletoplay.orgwww.boundlessplaygrounds.org
West Ottawa Public SchoolsWoodside Elementary School, Holland
Jon Manier, [email protected]
People’s Community ServicesDelray Memorial Park, Detroit
Thomas Cervenak, Executive [email protected]
Wing Lake Developmental CenterWing Lake Developmental Center, Bloomfield Hills
Cindy Seguin, Instructional [email protected]
Baraga County Community FoundationKeweenaw Bay Children’s Center, Keweenaw Bay
Gordette Cote, Executive [email protected]
Ingham County ParksHawk Island County Park, Lansing
Brian Collins, Assistant Parks [email protected]
Detroit Open School Parent CouncilDetroit Open School, Detroit
Chris Seguin, Ed.D., Council [email protected]
Lenawee Community FoundationEllis Park, Blissfield
Billie Patton, [email protected]
Design Grant Recipients**
Youth Sport and Recreation CommissionDad Butler Playfield, Detroit
Carla Giles, Program [email protected]
Washtenaw Intermediate School DistrictHigh Point School, Ann Arbor
Jan Culbertson, Honey Creek Community School Board [email protected]
Junior League of KalamazooUpjohn Park, Kalamazoo
Carol McGlinn, Past [email protected]
City of WyomingMetropolitan Health Village, Wyoming
Rebecca Rynbrandt, Director of Parks and [email protected]
Lansing School DistrictHenry H. North Elementary School, Lansing
Rena Baxter, Committee [email protected]
Sanilac County Community FoundationSandusky City Park, Sandusky
Beth Morningstar, Sandusky Park Project [email protected]
Saginaw Community FoundationKochville Township
Lucy Allen, President/[email protected]
Watersmeet Township SchoolWatersmeet Township School, Watersmeet
Gwen Pierce, Project Coordinator [email protected]
Hillman Community Education FoundationHillman Township Tournament Park, Hillman
Tom Carlson, [email protected]
Sault Ste. Marie Play Advisory CommitteeSault Ste. Marie
Dr. Tony McLain, [email protected]
Battle Creek Community FoundationBailey Park, Battle Creek
David Lucas, [email protected]
Flint Community SchoolsSummerfield/Longfellow Schools, Flint
William DeFrance, Chief of [email protected]
Life Services SystemLife Services System, Holland
Deanna DePree, Executive [email protected]
Major Challenge Grant Recipients*
1400 S. Braddock AvenuePittsburgh, PA 15218
Phone: (412) 371-1668
www.center4creativeplay.org
Able to Play Grant Recipient Contact Information
These will be Center for Creative Play™ indoor play spaces.
* $75,000–$225,000 each ** $25,000 each
