April 24th is Healthy Environments for Learning Day, led by the Canadian Partnership for Children's Health & Environment! The 2025 campaign centers on protecting children from extreme heat in schools and child care settings (including outdoor play and learning spaces) in Canada. This campaign has been co-signed by 40+ organizations, including Outdoor Play Canada. Check-out the full...
The Outdoor Play Canada 2025 Awards will be presented at this year’s Breath of Fresh Air Outdoor Play Summit! If you know of an individual or organization that has demonstrated exceptional commitment and leadership in the promotion of outdoor play, nominate them for an OPC award! Award categories include: 2023 OPC Honour Award Dr. Mariana Brussoni...
Since 2020, the PaRx Prescription for Nature program has meant that physicians first in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario (and now many more) could prescribe a Parks Canada Discovery Pass to their patients for the purposes of promoting physical and mental health. A collaboration between PaRx, an initiative driven by health care professionals that promotes...
This article was originally published on the University of Lethbridge website. Parents today likely won’t be surprised to know their children have far less freedom to travel in their neighbourhoods than they did. But what they might not know is how that could affect their children’s mental health. Dr. Richard Larouche, a Faculty of Health Sciences professor...
Over the next 4 years, our colleagues at the University of British Columbia will be collaborating with Green Communities Canada, alongside Université de Montréal, Queen's University, Toronto Metropolitan University, 880 Cities and Centre d’écologie urbaine to evaluate School Streets in communities across Canada. The team will work together to build a greater understanding of the impacts...
Join us, June 27th 4:30-7:30pm at 415 Corkstown Rd in Ottawa to celebrate the grand opening of Forest Explorers, a licensed program of Andrew Fleck Children’s Services and home of the Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play! The Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play and Forest Explorers – a multi-use building located on 900 acres of National Capital...
BREAKING NEWS. Outdoor Play Canada, the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the CHEO Research Institute, Andrew Fleck Children’s Services, Algonquin College and the Canadian Disability Participation Project have recently been awarded funding for a 4-year project to address challenges in the built and social environment for outdoor play and learning in natural spaces for young children living...
Congratulations to OPC Board Member, Dr Mariana Brussoni, who was awarded the 2024 Joe L Frost Award for distinguished research at the US Play Coalition Conference in Indiana held April 16-18, 2024! In the mid-2000s, Mariana dared to push back against the accepted attitude that play should be 'as safe as possible' instead of 'as...
The 16th edition of the Report Card, Rallying for Resilience: Keeping Children and Youth Active in a Changing Climate, highlights how the current and impending effects of climate change could be particularly harmful for children and youth’s physical activity. Unfavourable weather and climate conditions like heatwaves, heavy rain and smoke-filled air can lead to recesses...
Thank you to Sarah Forrest, second year journalism student at Carleton University, for providing this post. Outdoor risky play is key for childhood development, says Canadian Paediatric Society, but it’s not quite so simple. In a statement released on Jan. 25, CPS defined risky play as “thrilling and exciting forms of free play that involve uncertainty of...
