Copy of email to attendees of Summit on the Value of Play at Clemson

I wanted to share this with all of you, since it was forwarded to me:

The Summit on the Value of Play took place a few weeks ago and it was a wonderful event. The evaluations from attendees confirm that all were inspired and impressed by the wonderful speakers at the Summit as well as the opportunities to work on bringing play back to the everyday lives of the general public. We wish you could have been there to join us, but understand that it was not possible. This does not mean that you can’t assist us in the future. The purpose of this email is to let you know about the Calls to Action that were developed by the attendees and to invite you to be a part of moving this work forward.

Before we do that, we want to extend a special thanks to all of our sponsoring partners without whom this event couldn’t have taken place. Our platinum level sponsors included The National Recreation and Park Association with the assistance of the National Recreation and Park Foundation, Landscape Structures and PlayCore/GameTime. Our gold sponsor was Vortex and our bronze sponsors included IPEMA, BCI Burke and Little Tikes Commercial. Again, this summit could not have taken place without their help and we are pleased that they are planning to help us in the future.

At the end of the Summit, we voted on our Top 10 Calls to Action. We feel the process went smoothly and resulted in the following 10 Calls for Action.

10. Identify the costs to society and individuals that result from a lack of play.

9. Target others from related professions for the purpose of collaboration and partnering.

8. Inspire families to change their perceptions and behaviors in regard to the essential value of play.

7. Change liability laws to be friendlier to play.

6. Develop national guidelines for healthy play and healthy communities.

5. Mobilize youth and young adults as key players in developing a play movement.

4. Create one organized coalition of professional organizations to communicate and advocate for the play crisis.

3. Synthesize existing research on play and cognitive, physical, and affective development.

2. Advocate for legislation in support of play.

1. Develop a robust national communication campaign on the benefits of play.

However, as we analyzed our results, two things became evident. First, it wouldn’t be prudent to address each Call with a separate committee of people; we would risk being “silo-ed.” There are obvious similarities among the Calls that suggest a need to combine them. For example, “Change liability laws to be friendlier to play,” and “Advocate for legislation in support of play” are closely related and it makes no sense to address them separately. Second, the numerical order may work for David Letterman, but it makes no sense for us upon closer examination. As an example, our #1 Call to Action was to “Develop a robust national campaign on the benefits of play.” But, a national communications campaign obviously cannot miraculously fall out of the ether – it must come from an entity. Therefore, our #4 Call gains more prominence: “Create one organized coalition of professional organizations to communicate and advocate for the play movement.”

On the morning after the Summit closed, the Steering Committee met to review the Summit and address our next steps. We agreed that minor revision and reorganization of the original list of Top 10 Calls was needed.

Below is a revision of the Top 10 Calls to Action. As you will see, the original Top 10 Calls are included, but now synthesized into five major strategies.

· From the list of attendees, “create a Coalition for Play to communicate and advocate for a new play movement”

o Strategically grow the Coalition for Play by “targeting others from related professions” and organizations in areas of needed emphasis

o “Mobilize youth and young adults as key players in developing a play movement”

· Begin “synthesizing existing research on play as it affects a person’s lifelong cognitive, physical and affective development”

o “Identify the costs to society and individuals that result from lack of play”

· “Develop a robust national communications campaign” on promoting a play movement

o “Inspire families to change their perceptions and behaviors regarding the essential value of play”

· Develop the capacity to “Advocate for legislation in support of play”

o “Change liability laws to be friendlier to play”

· “Develop national guidelines for healthy play and healthy communities”

In order to move forward with these Calls to Action we are going to be creating committees from those who were in attendance as well as others who have expressed an interest in being involved. Please let us know if you are willing to participate and if there are any that are of particular interest to you.

As we put our calls to action into effect we will be keeping everyone posted through the play summit website, http://www.hehd.clemson.edu/PRTM/Play/. Please take a look at our updated website. There is now a Resources tab that contains links to video recordings of the addresses from our wonderful moderator and keynote speakers. We will soon be adding abstracts of the research and programs that were highlighted at the poster session during the Summit. You can also watch for the addition of the annotated bibliographies as part of the planned resource library. This section of the website will require your assistance as well. We need you to provide us with citations and brief summaries of books, articles and other resources that you have found useful in understanding the value of play. For more direction look under the Call for Abstracts/Posters and Annotated Bibliography tab that will remain up on the website. Also be sure to take a look at the Sponsors link as they have been instrumental in helping us with our success.

Please note that all material on the website of The Summit on the Value of Play, including the audiovisual recordings and/or the printed versions, is licensed to the user solely for educational and research purposes and not for any commercial purpose.

As you may or may not know, some media outlets including CBS have taken some interest in Play as well. We have continued our contact with CBS Sunday Morning and they are looking to air the segment on Play sometime in August. We will let you know the exact date as soon as we have it.

Local media outlets have already published articles discussing the benefits of play. Please find links to these articles below.

Local radio has also picked up on what we have been doing as at least one story has aired there as well. Also, one of our committee members, Dr. Bob Becker, Director of the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs hosts Clemson University’s radio show, Your Day. During the entire month of July his show will be dedicated to play and it will include interviews from some of our speakers and attendees. You can find his show at .

For those of you who are interested, a document is attached to this email that contains a press release that you could use in your own area with your local media and with your contacts and membership organizations. If you need additional information just let us know and we’ll be happy to assist as we can.

Finally, Clemson University and the steering committee have agreed to continue their support of what we are doing, but we are going to need your help. The work has just begun and the significant impact of what we are doing is yet to be seen. We look forward to a continued relationship with you as we move forward with bringing play back to the daily agenda for all people. Thanks again for your help and support. Again, please let us know in what way you would be interested in helping us further the cause of play.

Let’s go out and play,

Fran

Fran P. Mainella

Visiting Scholar, Clemson University

Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management

263 Lehotsky Hall, Box 340735

Clemson, SC 29634-0735

(864) 656-2566

Fax: (864) 656-2226

fmainel@clemson.edu