Center for Creative Play | Play. Learn. Grow Together.

KaBOOM!
Children's Museum Initiative
National Children's Museum
Hattie Larlham
Assisting Other Communities
Able to Play

KaBOOM!
Center for Creative Play® (CFCP) is teaming up with our good friends at KaBOOM! to help educate people about the importance of creating playspaces that are universally accessible. Through KaBOOM!’s web portal, CFCP has published an extensive section on accessibility, helping to educate individuals who are planning community playspaces how to think beyond "wheelchair" accessibility.

CFCP has expanded our expertise on play, and the creation of fully accessible playspaces to include specific examples and recommendations for promoting play, and making opportunities accessible in outdoor playspaces. Each visit to http://www.kaboom.org/accessibility will be unique, as news stories, research, and featured playgrounds are added and updated. The web portal also provides a forum where visitors can pose questions and participate in discussions about accessible play.

CFCP has also presented on the importance of play and inclusion at the KaBOOM! University of Play (UPlay) for the last three years, including Mara Kaplan’s appearance as a keynote speaker in 2005.

Children’s Museum Initiative
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has generously awarded Center for Creative Play (CFCP) a grant that will allow the organization to assess 20 existing children’s museums over the next two years (starting Fall 2006-Spring 2008). This opportunity coupled with a sizeable grant from The Grable Foundation launched CFCP’s Children’s Museum Initiative. An initiative that will result in the assessment of 30 children’s museums across the country.

In April of 2007, CFCP received a grant from MetLife Foundation which will increase the number of children's museums assessed to 40 over the two-year period. Funding from MetLife Foundation also will allow for the creation of a resource for museums, documenting how accessibility can be conceptualized and implemented in children's museum settings.

During the assessment process, Play Environment Specialists conduct in-depth universal design assessments of the children’s museums. Over the course of three days, they gather information and make observations about items such as: entryways, flow of traffic, exhibits, design and colors, programming, marketing pieces, and customer service. This information is compiled into a comprehensive report and presented to the museums with a wide range of suggestions for immediate implementation and those that can be incorporated into long-term planning.

Through this initiative, Center for Creative Play impacted more than one million children in the first year and will enhance the opportunities for unstructured play that are available and accessible to children and families of all abilities. The response from children’s museums has been overwhelming. Industry professionals highly value the resources made available through this initiative and recognize the need to create environments where children and families of all abilities can participate side-by-side.

Center for Creative Play has another 20 assessments scheduled from Fall 2007-Spring 2008. CFCP again thanks our generous funders for this opportunity.

National Children’s Museum
The National Children's Museum in Washington D.C. has contracted with CFCP to provide suggestions that will create accessible, inclusive and welcoming experiences for all visitors to their new museum, expected to open in 2012.

Hattie Larlham
Hattie Larlham provides a wide range of services to children and adults with disabilities through community homes, home and foster care services, an integrated day care, and family care management. They have hired CFCP to help them create a Center for Creative Play environment as part of their new wellness center in Mantua, OH. Designs for this facility were approved by CFCP in 2006 and are currently in construction.

CFCP also assisted the following communities as they addessed the importance of inclusive play opportunities:

Washington County UCP, PA
Uniontown, PA

New CFCP Environments created through the Able to Play Project are:
Center for Creative Play® (CFCP) is thrilled to announce the completion of the Able to Play project. Launched with a lead gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Able to Play was an innovative project that provided challenge grants and technical assistance for the development of inclusive play environments throughout the state of Michigan. Able to Play worked with communities to create play environments that incorporate full integration and universal accessibility with rigorous, challenging, developmentally appropriate, and sensory-rich activities to benefit children of all abilities.

Kids ‘N’ Stuff, Albion, MI: This children’s museum doubled in size through the project and is now able to host children of all abilities in a playful learning environment designed for all children. New additions such as the fully accessible John W. Porter World Village allow every visitor to “travel” the world.

KBOCC Children’s Indoor Play Center, Baraga County, MI: The Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College is taking the lead on this Able to Play project site. The location, in the small lake front town of Baraga, reflects the Native American culture of a large segment of the local population. The play center is currently operating in a temporary facility while a new building is being designed at the college to permanently house the play center.

Life Services System Family Play Center Holland, MI: This 15,000 sq. ft. facility reflects local community landmarks including Lake Michigan, local lighthouses and, of course, snow! This Center for Creative Play Environment is the most similar to the Pittsburgh playspace in size and design. The LSS family play center’s Board of Directors just voted to re-name the facility Deanna’s Playhouse.