Children's ministry is ramping back up, just in time, because the coronavirus led to play deprivation at a scale never seen before.
The pandemic caused social and community disruptions that will have a lasting negative effect on wellbeing for children of all ages. At first, parks and playgrounds were temporarily shut down alongside closures of children’s museums, and children’s ministries, too. Every community mourned the loss of transformational institutions, some of whom couldn’t financially survive the long span of the pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a collective trauma.
"We need to push our communities, our schools, our workplaces, and our spiritual homes to value [play]."
Sharon Exley, Architecture is Fun, Chicago, IL
During the course of it, children were not allowed to play in the manner to which they are accustomed—the loss of such freedom is unhealthy and problematic. In fact, coronavirus has led to play deprivation at a scale never seen before.
Prioritizing play
It’s imperative that as a society we rebuild a culture that supports play as a priority for children and adults. This means we need to value its benefits, and support recess and playtime. We need to push our communities, our schools, our workplaces, and our spiritual homes to value it. Play is one of the healthiest ways in which we can process the challenges we face.
Sharon Exley of Architecture is Fun in Chicago, one of the creators of a church Gothic Garden, shown here, advocates for play spaces: "Play is a fundamental human right. Its integration into our communities will ensure that they are set up to be resilient, healthy, safe, equitable, and accessible."
Making play last
As we all emerge from the constraints that the pandemic has normalized, advocate to make play and fun intrinsic to your everyday life. Search for environments that support imaginative play and creative places to help us make sense of the radical changes that have affected our daily lives. Play can be one of the vehicles that helps us make a return to new and healthy normal.
In the public and private realm, it is imperative that we prioritize the creation of public spaces, especially, that help us connect, that allow us to heal, to be social, and to be engaged. Play is a fundamental human right. Its integration into our communities will ensure that they are set up to be resilient, healthy, safe, equitable, and accessible. Play is something we can control, and in turn it allows us to process and contribute to our world—it has the potential to fill us with calm, and to feel secure and safe.
By valuing play, and consciously integrating opportunities for it into our schedules and environments, we become a more resilient society.
For those of us blessed with great indoors and out-of-doors play spaces, let’s share them. This spring, extend hours. Let neighbors in—and let’s enable play for all.
