The last few months have challenged Right To Play and Community Mentors to continue to innovate and create new ways to safely engage children and youth in purposeful play. As always, the creativity of community partners has been inspiring and has led to impactful programming that has kept children and youth healthy, safe and engaged.

While partner communities have taken every precaution to protect themselves from the virus, they have continued to prioritize the engagement of children and youth in playful programming. In March, Right To Play adapted youth programming deliverables to support partners to continue delivering programming from a distance. Over 80% of PLAY program partners have modified programs and Community Mentors have continued to design and deliver remote programming to children, youth and families.

Across community partners, programs have taken on many different shapes. Community Mentors have continued to create and deliver “PLAY packages” to homes that include activity guides and materials that get children and youth playing. They have challenged youth to create their own games and obstacle courses at home and shared videos of completing them (see below!), and they have used various online platforms to meet youth where they are at, to minimize feelings of isolation, and to sustain positive connections. In some cases, new youth have joined virtual programs, and some have had more family members participate in the playful activities!

At Right To Play, we have continued adapting program resources and training in order to support the incredible efforts of Community Mentors (CMs) leading modified child and youth programs.

We have delivered six remote training workshops that have enhanced CM knowledge in areas such as safe spaces and anti-bullying, incorporating variety into remote programming, and Indigenous food sovereignty.

We have designed and shared weekly resource packages with modified games and activities that lead to key learning outcomes and are suitable for play in the home. This includes a Play @ Home resource that was designed in collaboration with Country Offices across Right To Play and is being used around the world, and joining the Rumie Initiative and over 10 other Indigenous led and Indigenous serving organizations to create a COVID-19 Indigenous Coalition Content Library.

Over the last month we have started to work with a handful of communities that are re-starting safe and socially distant in-person programming, as some restrictions have eased. While this is still in the early stages, it has been great to see children and youth beginning to play together in person with appropriate precautions. Throughout these transitions, we will continue to coach community partners to design and deliver programs specific to their local context and to provide flexible resources that keep children and youth engaged in exceptional outcome-based PLAY programs that are being led across partner communities – no matter the distance between participants.

To read about an example of creative PLAY-at-home programming happening in Aamjiwnaang First Nation, Ontario this spring, click here.

A PLAY Community Mentor challenged youth to design their own obstacle course and submit videos for one of Right To Play’s share-back challenges in April. Here are a couple standout submissions!