The Power of Outdoor Play
2022 has been a year of restoration – full of transformations and innovations! We are happy to share that we remained accessible to families for support and programming six days a week – by phone, email, zoom, and in person indoors AND outdoors!
Outdoor play is increasingly recognized as a foundation for children's healthy development. Children are hard-wired to need nature and to play in their natural environments. Research shows that unstructured play that takes place outdoors is vital to children's social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development.
Our WILD CHILD Outdoor Playgroups take place in the forest three times weekly all year round – in all weather. We provide a child-led adventure during which children will explore, crawl, hike, skip, climb, hop, ask questions, roll, and balance their way through the forest. Mud and puddles are a bonus! The play of preschool children is intense and powerful. It is play with purpose! Children are investigating, program-solving, being curious and creative. WILD CHILD sets children on a positive trajectory for life-long inquiry and learning.
Earlier this year we retained the Human Environments Analysis Lab (HEAL) at Western University to perform an evaluation of the perceived impacts and effectiveness of our WILD CHILD Outdoor Playgroup during the pandemic. The report indicated that WILD CHILD families tended to visit more natural spaces more frequently for outdoor play than those families who did not attend WILD CHILD playgroups. Those who did participate in WILD CHILD reported that both parent and child wellbeing was positively impacted by the outdoor programming. It is also important to recognize that parents reported weather, insufficient time, transportation, and lack of information about outdoor areas as leading barriers for accessing nature-based play. Our WILD CHILD team is addressing these barriers and continuing to develop WILD CHILD to improve uptake among London families.
This is where you come in. Continued support of the WILD CHILD is essential to supporting London families, building stronger connections to nature, improving children’s well-being, and inspiring life-long interest in outdoor play and learning. This unique award-winning playgroup relies solely on the generosity of donors like you! In 2023, to continue offering WILD CHILD free to all London families, we must raise $20,000. Every dollar counts – please be as generous as you can.
When you give to Childreach, you are investing in the early years of a child’s life and helping them grow up to become happy, healthy and caring adults.
With gratitude,
Qi Hui , our Board Fundraising Chair, and Yvette Scrivener, Executive Director
