Education United States Project #5995

Improve Outcomes for Pacific NW Kids through Play

by Playworks

Improve Outcomes for Pacific NW Kids through Play

Project Report | Oct 10, 2011
Playworks Portland Spring Report 2011

By Jonathan Blasher | Portland Executive Director

Smiling Playworks kids after a game

Playworks is wrapping up the school year this month and sending students off to summer break with high-fives and big smiles. In the last few months we hosted a Junior Coach Conference for over 150 students, doubled our number of volunteers from last year and completed developmental sports leagues for girls basketball, co-ed volleyball, boys basketball and co-ed flag football and soccer! Schools, parents, teachers and of course students have continued to be excited and amazed with the Power of Play and daily impact Playworks Portland has made in the region.

As the school year winds down and we prepare to revamp for next fall, we're excited to announce that the Playworks fun will continue over the summer!! We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with Kaiser Permanente and the Oregon Children’s Theater for all of this year's Portland Sunday Parkways events. We kicked off the season at the Gilbert Heights Park Kids’ Fair where we trained "Thrive Coaches" and taught some of our favorite recess games and of course, roshambo! Kids and adults of all ages joined in and even dogs were out there playing with us. We played kickball, amazing tag games, soccer, and rolled out Imagination Playground. The weather held and we had an all-around fantastic day full of healthy play.

If you didn’t have a chance to come play at the May Sunday Parkways event (or if you had such a great time that you’re wanting more), never fear! We will be setting up another round of games at the June 26th event in North Portland; as well Sunday Parkways in July, August and September. We can’t wait to get back out there again and help our community have fun and get active.

Our second year in the Great Pacific Northwest has been wonderful and full of impact to the many lives and communities we've been a part of. We're closing the school year out with a number of fun activities including our 2nd Annual Corporate Kickball Tournament, follow the link for more info and see what teams are joining us; like Nike, The Portland Trailblazers, Univeristy of Portland and Symantec! For more information about all the happenings with Playworks check out our recent newsletter, check us out on Facebook and Twitter and visit our website often www.playworks.org/portland.

Thank-you everyone and stay playful my friends!
-The Playworks Portland Team

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Feb 28, 2011
Playworks Portland Winter Report 2011

By Jonathan Blasher | Project Leader

Multnomah County Board and Playworks

The 2010-11 school year continues to be an amazing year for Playworks Portland in terms of growth, services provided and building relationship. Most recently we had the opportunity to present a briefing for the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on February 10th. The briefing began with all present members participating in a game of 'Switch'. Chair Jeff Cogen and Commissioners Deborah Kafoury, Loretta Smith, and Judy Shiprack learned one of the many games we play with our students everyday. The first hand experience led to a deeper understanding of the power of play and it's social, emotional and cognitive development benefits to youth. The Board was also presented with a Playworks playground ball to give their office professionally playful. The Commissioners were all very impressed with the impact Playworks Portland has made in only 20 months of operation, with decreases in student conflict and increases in student cooperation, physical activity, and academic participation. Visit the Playworks Portland website for more photos, videos and in-depth coverage of the briefing.

Aside from getting the Multnomah County Commissioners more active we've continued our direct service to our nearly 6,000 students and biggest fans of Playworks. In mid-February we wrapped up our 2nd annual Girls' Basketball league with over 140 fourth and fifth grade girls participating, many playing basketball for their first time ever! We jump right into our Co-ed Volleyball league starting March 5th with our Volleyball Extravaganza kick-off. The University of Portland is hosting our Extravaganza at the Chiles Center that will include some of the university players joining us to speak and play with the participants.

Continuing in line with our youth development model to teach social skills that improve school climate through the power of play, we're hosting a Junior Coach Conference on March 18th! Our Junior Coaches are 4/5/th grade students trained by our Playworks Coach to support the younger grade recesses. The conference is an opportunity from Junior Coaches from all 14 schools to gather for a day of learning, sharing, playing and growing together to become leaders in their respective communities.

Playworks Portland has lots and lots of great stories, information and updates to share and more than we can fit in this report. Visit the Playworks Portland website to learn more about our new board members, collaboration in multiple healthy campaigns, Portland Timbers Awareness Night in April, Playworks Training in Parkrose and great volunteer opportunities!!

Principal Cindy Bartman at Shaver Elementary in Parkrose said: in 5 months they've seen a "50% reduction in office referrals". When asked about having Playworks Training she "couldn't imagine doing anything different" and went on to say "it's that good, that fast".

Thanks for reading, supporting and playing!!

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Nov 18, 2010
Playworks Portland Fall Report 2010

By Jonathan Blasher | Project Leader

Coach Ruby and Sitton Elementary soccer team

The first 11 weeks of school have been great for Playworks and our partnering schools. We launched our full-time program in 14 Portland Public schools and are serving nearly 6,000 students everyday. Playworks Portland has been extremely effective at bringing the power of play into school communities to help support learning and healthy living by improving school climates.

Principal Thomas Breuckman from Beach School remarked a few weeks ago that "there have been almost no fights or referral incidents during recess this year. In fact we only had our first incident of the year last week and by this time last year [before Playworks] we had incidents at least twice a week. I'm really impressed with the program!"

2010-11 marks the second year Playworks Portland has been operating. In this second year we've been able to increase our reach by serving an additional five schools, added a soccer league and have engaged four elementary schools in Parkrose through a training and technical assistance model called Recess implementation. [check out the great photo of Coach Ruby Buckley with her Sitton soccer team, we had 60 students from six schools and dozens of families and friends attend our Soccer Jamboree on October 2nd] We've also participated in a number of community events including Sunday Parkways, Playworks Healthy Halloween and a National Day of Service with the Oregon Food Bank.

Playworks Portland is also proud to be included in this year's Willamette Weekly Give!Guide campaign. Check out the website and see how you can help raise awareness and support for kids in our community. We're also partnering with the University of Portland for a girls' basketball event on December 3rd! To keep up with all the great work we're doing check us out on Facebook: Playworks Portland and follow us on Twitter: PlayworksPDX!

We're tremendously appreciative of the Portland community to partner with Playworks and support the important work we're doing in the schools and community. As donors and supporter, please don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions, thoughts or ideas as we all move forward together.

Thanks again for your support and Play On!!!

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