Community Play Sessions with Free Play Houston and Bayou City Play: Honoring the Nature of Children
October 2, 2024 2pm
Webinar with Jill Wood & Brett Sillers, Founders of Free Play Houston
Free Play Houston and Bayou City Play are two organizations working in Texas’ largest city to advocate for children and their right to play. Both are centered around the belief that every community benefits when we create time and space for play, whether at a local park, community center, school or a willing neighbor’s yard. When we say ‘yes’ to children’s play, we are saying yes to young people’s health and welfare, acknowledging that play is how they express themselves, connect, and safely explore the world around them.
As opportunities for children to meet and play freely become rarer, and public space becomes more restricted to commercial activity, adults can compensate by organizing community play sessions, arranging a time and place for families to meet, and then allowing children to get down to the important business of connecting and to their world through play.
This webinar will introduce playwork concepts and resources to help you host or encourage community play at your organization, in your neighborhoods, and for the children in your life. Brett Sillers and Jill Wood will share anecdotes and observations from many years of hosting child-directed play sessions, in natural settings, in libraries, schools, and wherever else children are found. They will introduce Free Play Houston’s Community Play Initiative which provides orientations and support to adults who are looking to facilitate play events in their local communities. The initiative is meant to highlight the value and simplicity of play while helping adults remember the important role play has played in their own lives.
In today’s society, it is up to adults to permit and provide access to the play that children need to develop and thrive. Play is the language and culture of children. It is their nature.
Jill Wood and Brett Sillers are founders of Free Play Houston, a community organization grounded in playwork principles. Their focus is on child-centered, self-directed play, raising awareness creating more play opportunities, and addressing barriers to play in Houston, TX. Free Play Houston arose from Bayou City Play and the Free Forest School of Houston, both of which served for years organizing public play sessions within the Houston-metro area.
Bayou City Play continues to provide training in playwork, a profession developed on adventure playgrounds in the UK, an approach that is designed to protect children’s play as defined by the child.
Webinar is offered at 2:00 and 7:00 on October 2, 2024
A Zoom Link will be emailed to registrants on the morning of the event
Ticket Sales will end on October 1st