Are you a volunteer for Peace Corps, Voluntary Service Overseas, United Nations Volunteers, or some other community service program? Are you looking for meaningful, feasible community service project ideas?
Playground Ideas offers free resources to community service programs to create low-cost, locally built playgrounds. We exist to support anyone, anywhere build a space for play using only local tools, materials and skills. Since 2007, we’ve supported over 1400 communities in 85 countries to build playgrounds, impacting over 600,000 children.
How? By providing free resources anyone, anywhere can access. On our website you’ll find over 150 DIY designs with full step-by-step instructions as well as a whole suite of manuals covering everything from playground safety to inclusive design.
Many schools and communities around the world lack safe, stimulating environments for children to play in. Play is fundamental to healthy child development, particularly for children living in poverty. Long term studies have shown access to early play experiences boosts life outcomes substantially -42% raise in yearly earnings, 44% increase in high school graduations, and 17% increase in bachelor degrees. Perhaps most importantly, play builds the critical skill of self-regulation, which underpins success for a lifetime. You can learn more about the long-term impacts of of play in our Case for Play report, which compiles the best research on play, spanning the fields of economics, psychology, child development, education and neuroscience.
Over the years, numerous volunteers in community service programs have used our resources to build playgrounds in their communities and have inspired others to do the same. In Morocco, two Peace Corps Volunteers began a project to build playgrounds at every school in their host community. Soon other Peace Corps Volunteers began hearing of their work and starting their own playground building projects in their communities. Read more about their story here.
If you’re interested in using Playground Ideas resources to build a playground as a part of your community service program, you can access all our resources by creating a free account on our site. Inside your account, you’ll be able to start a page for your project and save your favorite designs, create a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for your playground, connect with other playground builders in your region, and much more. If you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to contact us. We can’t wait to see what you build!
