By Jonathan Blasher | Project Leader
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!!!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
