Larson emphasized that the kind of service Playtime Project provides should be integral to any program that tries to help children.
Ultimately, we’ll always go where the children need us.” “We’re figuring out how to recreate playtime to continue serving the children. Their new “pop-up playtime” model being used in the overflow shelters is working, according to the organization’s communications coordinator, Melanie Hatter. Space challenges notwithstanding, the nonprofit has been making do. General family shelter. The organization must now adapt and figure out how to fund more programs at a smaller scale in order to serve approximately the same number of children. Playtime Project fully supported the closure of the dilapidated D.C. General, where the program had enough space to provide for the children that needed it, Larson said. Something like that would not have happened at D.C. It culminated when one of the kids tried to stab the other with a toy. Jamila Larson, executive director and co-founder of the Playtime Project, remembers when she saw two children fighting over a limited number of building toys. In the overflow shelters, lack of space is a primary concern. The Playtime Project began working in the city’s family overflow shelters - hotel rooms rented in bulk - in 2017. General family shelter, Playtime Project had rooms for separate age groups and enough space and toys that all children that attended could be accommodated. The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project has been changing that for families in temporary shelter.īack when it operated out of the now-shuttered D.C. But children from families experiencing homelessness may not have the opportunity to play. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development and well-being of children. Playing is an undeniably important part of childhood. For these children, playtime is an event, not an abstract concept of fun. It has a place and time. This is what playtime looks like for children of families in temporary shelters in Washington, D.C. They had to make the most of a short hour-and-a-half because they only get to do this twice a week. Some played with other kids, some with toys, and others with their adult supervisors. On a weekday evening in December, families crowded at the door of the Quality Inn ballroom, waiting to sign in their children. Scattered across the floral-print carpet, kids were playing.
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