August 23, 2023 IPA-USA National Day of Loose Parts Play The International Play Association-USA chapter presents National Day of Play on September 16, 2023! To celebrate this international recognition of the importance of play, Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative is hosting a special, pop-up play day on Saturday, September 16 at Lytle Land and The Elizabeth Street Parklet from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Playful Pittsburgh “IPA-USA National Day of Loose Parts Play” event is a free, family-friendly opportunity for all communities throughout Pittsburgh to enjoy a day of play. The event will focus on embracing loose parts play to highlight how everyday items, such as cardboard boxes, paper tubes, string, and various fabrics can be representative of items from around the world. Using our imagination, we will celebrate cultural differences and similarities of play through a range of activities. When: Saturday, 9/16 | 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Where: Lytle Land Park, 5113 Lytle Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15207 (Hazelwood) Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. We know you’ll leave the play day feeling inspired and creative, so the fun can continue wherever your family travels! Loose parts are all around us! Don’t miss this celebration of play from perspectives around the world! Partnering Organizations Include: Open Field Child in Mind Consulting Global Links Kaleidoscope PGH City Squeakers Trying Together Lion of Judah Enterprises
May 3, 2023 Ultimate Play Day Returns to Pittsburgh on Sunday, May 7 Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative, alongside event partners Trying Together, Citiparks, and ZeroFossil, will host its annual Ultimate Play Day from 1 – 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 7. Ultimate Play Day is an opportunity for people throughout the Pittsburgh region to gather together, play together, and raise awareness of the benefits of play for everyone. This year, Ultimate Play Day will be held at Lower McKinley Park in the Beltzhoover/Knoxville area of Pittsburgh. Local partners and community organizations offer play activities for all ages each year. This year, more than 28 vendors are participating with hands-on playful activities, entertainment, and refreshments. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of “playful” activities from vendors, including ultimate frisbee, basketball, soccer, imagination/dramatic play with costumes, bean bag toss, oversized classic games like Connect 4 and Jenga, and plenty of arts and crafts projects. Share the Ultimate Play Day flyer with your friends, family, and neighbors! Ultimate Play Day is a part of Remake Learning Days. Remake Learning Days returns to Southwestern PA May 4 – May 23, 2023. A special thank you to Remake Learning for providing a mini-grant to The Collaborative for Ultimate Play Day. SLB Radio Ultimate Play Day Interview Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative was a special guest on the Neighborhood Voices show, hosted by The Saturday Light Brigade, to talk about Ultimate Play Day! Assistant Director of Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative Adam James and Nicole Stevens from Beltzhoover Consensus Group joined SLB Radio to talk about this special day of play, why play is important for everyone, and how this event will connect neighbors throughout the City of Pittsburgh. Visit the Ultimate Play Day webpage to listen to this interview. Getting to Ultimate Play Day Ultimate Play Day is the same day as the Pittsburgh Marathon. That means there will be adjusted traffic patterns to be aware of, but that won’t stop the fun! You can find additional directions to get to Lower McKinley Park on the Ultimate Play Day webpage. Check out this map provided by the Pittsburgh Marathon to check the rolling road closures and openings on Sunday, May 7. Lower McKinley Park Learn more about Lower McKinley Park and its history before Ultimate Play Day. Check out this informational flyer on McKinley Park from Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. Remake Learning Days Remake Learning Days hosts 1200+ learning events reaching 150,000 families. The festival features events across the southwestern PA region for youth, families, grandparents, caregivers and educators to explore creative and fun ways of learning. For more information, visit remakelearningdays.org/southwesternpa. Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative is a group of organizations dedicated to advancing the importance of play in the lives of children, families, and communities in the Pittsburgh region by raising awareness on play being a critical life element for people of all ages, educating decision-makers (from parents to legislators) to support access to play for all, and modeling play through various recreational and professional activities. For more information, visit playfulpittsburgh.org.
April 12, 2023 Playful Learning Conversations Join Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network (PLLAN) for this virtual discussion on the importance of infusing communities with playful learning infrastructure. Webinar Details Tuesday, April 25 | 1 – 2 p.m. Virtual via Zoom Register Learn More In this webinar, PLANN’s Executive Director, Sarah Lytle, will discuss PLLAN’s role in fostering child-caregiver connection through playful learning spaces. Additionally, Dr. Amy S. Kronberg, an Early Learning Specialist at Preschool Promise, will show how her organization has developed Playful Learning Landscapes for her community, and Dr. Annelise Pesch, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Temple University, will introduce PLLAN’s new certification program. To learn more, visit the “Playful Learning Conversations” registration page.
November 12, 2020 Make the Most of Learning at Home With PBS KIDS Are you interested in learning how to develop a learning routine for your family and increase your child’s motivation to learn? Join PBS Kids on November 18 for their online event, “Make the Most of Learning at Home With PBS KIDS.” About With children across the country learning at home, parents and caregivers are facing new challenges. PBS KIDS invites parents and caregivers of children ages five to eight to come together for a discussion with educators, a child psychologist, and fellow parents. Get ideas on how to use PBS KIDS resources to encourage everyday playful learning. Presenters will answer questions and share tips on how you can maintain a strong connection with your child’s school, help your child stay motivated to learn, and develop a learning routine for your family. Registration To register for this event, visit the PBS Kids website.
September 4, 2020 Early Childhood League Launch & Expansion of Recess Advocacy Team On September 1, 2020, Trying Together and the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative were awarded grants through The Grable Foundation and Remake Learning’s Tomorrow campaign. Through this funding, both entities will work to address early childhood needs in Pennsylvania. About Trying Together is a leading advocate for high-quality early care and education in Pennsylvania and a co-founder of the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and Recess Advocacy Team. With funds from the Tomorrow grant, Trying Together will launch an Early Childhood League and the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative will expand the Recess Advocacy Team to engage additional youth, families, organizations, and communities as advocates to address early learning constraints in the region. “Through the Tomorrow grants, we will be able to work with community members that we may not have previously to learn about their early learning priorities for children so we may support them in mobilizing to take action,” said Cara Ciminillo, Executive Director at Trying Together. Trying Together Tomorrow Campaign Project: Early Childhood League The Early Childhood League will partner with Trying Together, its advocacy partners, and each other to transform early childhood education conditions in the region. Members of the League will include selected parents and other caregivers of young children; community organizations; and a large institution that is to be determined. The League will achieve improvements in local early learning environments by receiving training, similar to the Early Childhood Advocacy Fellowship, from Trying Together and other experts. Training topics will include: communications techniques; community organizing strategies; early childhood education principles; and public policy processes. With ongoing programmatic support from Trying Together and the Tomorrow grant, the League will acquire the agency to develop and implement an advocacy plan that further advances the efforts of existing statewide early childhood policy campaigns such as Start Strong PA (child care), Pre-K for PA (pre-k), and Childhood Begins at Home (home visiting). More information and application details will be available soon. Please continue to monitor the Trying Together website, Facebook, and Twitter page for future updates. Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative Tomorrow Campaign Project: Recess Advocacy Team The Recess Advocacy Team’s mission is to educate and advocate for the importance of recess; engage with children, families, and educators on recess experiences; establish a resource for recess-related advocacy, policy, and best practices; and engage stakeholders in recess advocacy efforts. By partnering with a regional school district, the Recess Advocacy Team will utilize this funding to support efforts to conduct a needs assessment survey and develop a toolkit for children, parents, and educators who want to serve as recess champions. As a part of the toolkit, funding will also support professional development and training related to advocacy and topics such as: creatively using school space for physical activity; indoor recess ideas; and volunteer recess supervision. While this partnership will focus on one district, the Team’s outcomes and products will be scalable and designed to be replicated with other school districts to best meet their needs. Additional details will be available soon. For information on how to join and more, visit the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative website. About the Tomorrow Campaign A $1.4 million dollar investment in organizations throughout the region, the Tomorrow campaign is an effort to #RemakeTomorrow, one where every learner is prepared to “create the future of learning” when everyone combines timeless ideas and new ways to learn. Last spring, the Tomorrow campaign asked 17 nonprofit organizations to boldly imagine what smart risks they might take if they had research and development (R&D) funding – not for covering current activities, but for pursuing experimental ideas, testing new concepts, and finding powerful ways to move their field toward the future of learning. “Each of these projects represents the imagination and resourcefulness not only of the 17 grantees, but also of the many partner organizations who will join them in their efforts,” says Kristen Burns, Associate Director of The Grable Foundation. “We hope these grants will provide a spark that will help move the entire field of learning forward in our region.” More Information For more information, read the full press release.
October 11, 2019 Recess: A Community Conversation Children, parents, and community members are invited to join the Recess Advocacy Team on November 7 to discuss their school recess experiences. The evening will include conservation, playful activities, networking, dinner, and more! More Information For questions, contact recess@tryingtogether.org. Share this flyer with your network. Registration To register, complete the form below.
August 19, 2019 Hazelwood Community to Celebrate Elizabeth Street Park Opening The Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and Trying Together, in cooperation with the City of Pittsburgh, invite community members and stakeholders to celebrate the official opening of the Elizabeth Street Park in Hazelwood on Wednesday, August 28. About Located on the corner of Roma Way and Gloster Street, the Elizabeth Street Park was revitalized thanks to a grant from the Heinz Endowments. Working in partnership with the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works and Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative, and Trying Together contracted with various entities to design and create the park. Efforts for the park began in March 2015, born out of a community conversation around access to play in Hazelwood. Youth, community members, and community stakeholders joined together to brainstorm and design the park as a stop along the Hazelwood Play Trail. The location of the park was selected to help bridge the division created by the train tracks that split Hazelwood. Located across Roma Way from a KaBOOM! community-built playground, created with funds from the Heinz Endowments and partnership between the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative, Trying Together, and the Hazelwood Initiative in September 2016, the park features a beautiful mural inspired by the rich history and community members of Hazelwood. The City’s Public Art & Civic Design Division released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify artists to complete the mural on the bridge, with the highest score going to local artists Edith Abeyta and Sandy Kessler-Kaminski. Event Details Community members are invited to join together at the Elizabeth Street Park on August 28 from 5 to 7:00 p.m. for an opening celebration and ribbon-cutting ceremony, featuring: food, family-friendly games, music from the Center of Life’s KRUNK program, and Hazelwood-relevant information tables. Visit the event page to learn more. Acknowledgments The Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and Trying Together thank the following organizations, individuals, and entities for their dedicated support and for the work they have done to make this project a success: the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works, Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, Department of Public Safety, Department of City Planning, and Art Commission; Zone 4 Police; the Office of Corey O’Connor; the Hazelwood Initiative; the Heinz Endowments; Studio for Spatial Practice; 1 over 1 Studio; Edith Abeyta; Sandy Kessler-Kaminski; Eisler Landscapes; and the Student Conservation Association of Pittsburgh. More Information For more information, contact Sarah Siplak at 412.567.4386 or sarahs@tryingtogether.org. Share this flyer with your network.
April 26, 2019 Harnessing the ‘Power of Play’ to Build Equitable Cities When planners and community stakeholders are hashing out asset inventories and needs assessments to figure out the state of neighborhood amenities, a few things are sure to almost always make the list: more access to green space, safer crosswalks, more parking in business districts, gateways, and wayfinding signage. When planners design communities to be safer, healthier, more sustainable, and more walkable, how often do those efforts make a community more playful? The Power of Play Play is powerful. In the sphere of early childhood education, experts recognize the unparalleled importance of play in learning and development. In business, play is seen as a gateway to greater creativity, collaboration, and breakthrough innovation. In society, communities that play together stay together. Isn’t it time we embraced playfulness as a quality worth designing into our urban spaces? Perhaps the trouble is that the word itself seems just too playful to be taken seriously. We need more words for play. More Words for Play The Finnish language has no shortage of words for play. For Finns, playing a game is different from playing a sport, which is different from playing music. There are distinct Finnish words for children’s play and the play that adults engage in. There’s even a Finnish word that means both “work” and “play.” This rich vocabulary shows that in Finland, play is a valued part of life that isn’t confined just to kids’ stuff. Where else would we see play show up in our plans, if only we had the words for it? What would we call the kind of play that brings strangers together? What would we call playing around with ideas and possibilities? It’s questions like these that motivated a coalition of public and private sector partners to start the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and organize a citywide movement to expand the presence of play in every community. As a mid-size, post-industrial city in the midst of dramatic changes spurred in large part by new development, we see a mandate to build greater public demand for play as an integral part of the city’s future. Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative Locally in southwestern Pennsylvania, the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative is working to make play a part of the urban infrastructure. Since 2013, members of the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative have been working together to find and remove the barriers holding communities back from experiencing the social benefits of play. These efforts have brought together leaders and representatives from the city’s parks and museums, human services and municipal agencies, arts and sustainability nonprofits, and community development groups. Along the way, we’ve encountered distinct manifestations of play that we really wish had their own name. Learn more about the work of The Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and read the full article from the urban planning magazine Planetizen. (shared via Planetizen)
November 20, 2018 KaBOOM! Announces Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge Winners KaBOOM! recently announced the winners of the Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge. As part of the Challenge, 10 grantees in Allegheny County were selected to receive a combined total of $200,000 in prize funds. Trying Together is pleased to announce that the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative was awarded one of these grants for The Neighborhood Play Stop Project. Learn more about it and the other grantees below. Challenge Winners The Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge selected nine organizations as winners, with a total of ten ideas: Trying Together (Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative) The Neighborhood Play Stop Project Glassport Community Outreach, Inc. Families Will Go Gaga to Play GaGa Pittsburgh Fulton PTO From Pittsburgh to Paris and Beyond! Garfield Jubilee Association, Inc. James Sensory Park Grounded Strategies MACS Discovery Walk Race Me! Pitcairn Green Playce Community Forge Number Mountain Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Ping Pong in the Plaza UniversalWit Play! to End Blight Focus on Renewal POW! (Place of Wonder) The Neighborhood Play Stop Project The Neighborhood Play Stop Project will reimagine existing spaces within Hazelwood by using play stops to encourage community engagement and playful interaction. These play stops may be featured in public spaces near businesses and civic locations such as grocery stores, green spaces, fire stations, and more. Conversations are underway to identify the finalized play stop locations. Impact By placing play stops in spaces that are not typically associated with play, this project will prompt community members of all ages to rethink their daily routines. For children, it’s an opportunity for imaginative play. For adults, it may be a space where they can take a mental break and play chess or engage in a calming playful activity. Similar to the Little Free Library movement, these play stops will be stewarded by various entities (the businesses where they are located, Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative member organizations, interested community members, etc.). A Closer Look Each stop will be based upon the common concept of play and will have playful interactive parts that relate to the location and the party stewarding the installation. For example, a stop outside a grocery store may include play items such as plastic fruits and vegetables to “purchase,” paper and pencils to create grocery lists, and laminated sheets of information about grocery store products. However, if a stop is located outside of a fire department, their play items may include play items such as firefighter helmets, a mini fire drill tower, and fire safety facts. Each stop will include a chalkboard with permanently affixed prompts for participants to write their thoughts. Prompts may include statement starters such as “When I play outside I like to…” or “At the grocery store I can find these colors…” About the Challenge The Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge is a design competition that took place in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania—presented by Keurig Dr. Pepper and KaBOOM!—to develop innovative ideas for making play easy and available for kids and families. This challenge is about creating opportunities for free, unstructured, unplanned play to ensure that all kids, no matter where they come from or where they live, get the active play they need to thrive. Learn More To learn more about the challenge winners and their ideas, read KaBOOM’s post.
