Promoting Life-skills in Aboriginal Youth (PLAY), by Right to Play Canada, is a program that trains locally-hired Community Mentors to deliver weekly play-based programs that promote healthy living, healthy relationships, education and employability life-skills to Indigenous children and youth. The program aims to provide safe play spaces, life-skills training, healthy food, inclusive physical activities, leadership...
Farm to Cafeteria Canada has launched a new school food map and is intended for use by anyone who’s passionate about transforming how food is experienced, learned and celebrated at school. For schools, getting on the map can help celebrate your school's efforts, connect with other schools, and contribute to national data. For community partners,...
In 2021, Metropolis – a global network of major cities and metropolitan areas – launched a global call for children to draw their hopes for the city of the future. The resulting report: “How do children imagine the future of their metropolises” is the result of an analysis of children’s contributions in response to that...
Spirit North is a not-for-profit organization that aims to empower Indigenous youth through sport and play. Their 2021-2022 Community Impact Report provides a 5-year overview of their initiatives, shares stories of success, and highlights their reach, impact, and vision. In particular, they highlight how sport and play can serve to advance reconciliation in Canada, by...
The 2022 Park People Report focuses on how collaboration, mindfulness, and power-sharing in parks can help nurture and repair relationships between ourselves, our communities, and the wider natural world. The report includes data on the latest national and local trends in parks including the observed trend of increased interested in adventure play in parks (e.g.,...
On April 7, 2022 Dr. Trevor Hancock delivered a webinar on behalf of the Canadian Public Health Association entitled 'Our Planet, Our Health, Our Public Health Responsibility', in which he discusses climate change as the greatest public health challenge we now face, and efforts such as promoting outdoor play and learning as part of the...
This report from Maximum City summarizes data on children and youth's play, physical activity, emotions and healthy growth during the third wave of the pandemic in Ontario, in the spring and early summer of 2021. The results highlight the role of outdoor play and physical activity in maintaining emotional wellbeing and healthy growth during this...
The 'Standards for healthy eating, physical activity, sedentary behaviours and sleep in early childhood education and care settings: a toolkit' provides implementation recommendations and standards for promoting healthy movement and eating behaviours in early childhood education (ECE) settings. The toolkit highlights the importance of providing opportunities in ECE settings for play to promote children's healthy...
Play to Thrive, a white paper produced by Maximum City, makes the case for the fundamental importance of play for children's ability to learn and thrive in the 21st century. The report provides an overview of the current state of global crises, how play may help children navigate these crises, why it is important to...
The Alberta Recreation & Parks Association has a series of tools to support municipalities in creating Play Declarations; formal, signed commitments for communities/municipalities to share a vision for play. Resources include 'how-to' guides, video presentations and executive summaries for use with decision-makers, and webinar presentations for practitioners (featuring a quote from OPC Chair Dr. Mark...
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