For Play's Sake - National Nonprofit KaBOOM! Helps Create Opportunities to Play

Lack of Play Opportunities Has Greater Impact on Girls and Lower-Income Neighborhoods

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, opportunities for play are dwindling — the U.S. is suffering from a severe shortage of places for kids to play. According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control, there aren't enough parks and playgrounds for children to be active every day. And while the lack of play opportunities affects all kids, it has a particularly negative effect on girls and kids in low-income neighborhoods.

According to the CDC report, only one in five homes has a park within a half-mile — and only 17 percent of blocks have a fitness or recreation center within that distance.  Without easy access to suitable places to play, kids today are not getting as much physical activity as they need — a key contributing factor to the childhood obesity epidemic.

The lack of play opportunities affects girls and kids in low-income neighborhoods in particular, where the play deficit is leading to increased rates of obesity.  Studies have shown that girls, in general, are less likely to participate in unstructured physical activity — or play — than boys.  A 2008 study from the Archives of Disease in Childhood, showed that only 11 percent of girls ages 5 to 8 get the recommended hour a day of physical activity, compared with 42 percent of boys. Without access to suitable playspaces, the issue is compounded.

KaBOOM! (kaboom.org/), a nonprofit dedicated to saving play for America's children, has been building playgrounds in underserved neighborhoods across the country for the last 14 years — helping to build playgrounds in low-income neighborhoods.  Part of the process includes the KaBOOM! Design Days where the neighborhood kids can "design" their dream playgrounds.  Using paper and crayons, KaBOOM! staffers invite the kids to draw their ideal playgrounds.  

While boys and girls may participate in play at different levels and in different ways, KaBOOM! has found through their Design Days that there aren't big differences in what boys and girls ask for in their dream playgrounds. Not surprisingly, slides, swings and clubhouses are popular items. On the less traditional side, kids have also asked for football fields, video games, dinosaur fossils — and most recently a pet shark.

Read the full press release for more statistics and for ideas to make play happen in your community.

SOURCE KaBOOM!

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