Yuma Named Playful City USA for Third Consecutive Year
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Yuma, along with each of the 2009 Playful City USA communities demonstrate creative commitments to the cause of play in the areas of quantity, quality and access.
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In a time when, according to recent Harris Poll, 82 percent of parents believe children don't spend enough time playing outside. Yuma and 92 other communities across the nation have taken innovative approaches to make play a priority for the health and well-being of their kids. Communities large and small, urban and rural, have created initiatives designed to increase the quantity and quality of play and playgrounds, while improving access to existing play opportunities.
To honor cities and towns making this commitment to play, KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit dedicated to bringing play back into children's lives, named them Playful City USA communities. In the third year of this annual program, 32 of 93 Playful City USA communities were repeat honorees from 2008, while 22 cities were honored for the third consecutive year, including Yuma. Thirty nine new communities have joined others in making a commitment to children, including Honolulu, Indianapolis and San Antonio. These 93 communities created and implemented programs to positively impact childhood wellness, public safety and the quality of life.
Each of the 2009 Playful City USA communities demonstrated creative commitments to the cause of play in the areas of quantity, quality and access. Quality relates to the number of usable, open playspaces. Quality involves subjective factors that encourage repeated use and make playspaces engaging, exciting, interesting and fun. Access entails the ability to get to a playspace (roads, trails) and a lack of barriers to the playspace (cost, safety, traffic, locked gates, equity).
KaBOOM! also selected Yuma for its dedication to play. Recognizing the power of collaboration, the City of Yuma began partnering with school districts over 40 years ago to provide a broad spectrum of quality facilities to its citizens. Together, these partnerships or Inter-governmental Agreements (IGAs) have provided millions of dollars for land, facility construction, and on-going maintenance. Recently, the City of Yuma and the Yuma Union High School District partnered on the construction and operation of an $8.8 million aquatic center centrally located to attract diverse participants. The City of Yuma is currently collaborating with Arizona Western College to create soccer fields, a 20 acre park with a playground, picnic areas and walking paths in an area of the City that is under-served due to new development. New softball fields in the east mesa will also be developed over the next few years.
"This is great," exclaimed City Administrator Mark Watson, when told of the news. "We are extremely proud of our Parks and Recreation facilities and the dedicated men and women who provide these services to the entire Yuma community. And with the recent renewal of the Hospitality Tax, we'll be able to add even more opportunities for our community to play and enjoy our great weather year-round."
"The City of Yuma Parks and Recreation staff continues to forge partnerships with other groups in our community," said Parks and Recreation Director Becky Chavez. "Because we all work together, we're able to provide more opportunities for everyone."
Playful City USA celebrates and highlights these unique initiatives developed by communities across the country. A primary goal of Playful City USA is to encourage cities and towns to share creative ideas, concepts and programs in an effort to increase play opportunities for children. Yuma's initiatives include:
- Partnering with Arizona Western College (AWC) to create more athletic fields, open space, and play spaces
- Adding alternative play equipment to the City's inventory
- Developing and launching a Playground Inspection Training program and offer this service to other area agencies, as no other agency in the region has nationally Certified Playground Inspectors. Yuma is nearly equal distance from the Phoenix and Southern California Metropolitan areas
- Developing a community-wide program to enhance quality of parks and recreation facilities and reduce vandalism of our play spaces
- Work with our development community to incorporate play spaces in their sub-division plans
- Offering increased play opportunities for Yuma's Adaptive Recreation population
The KaBOOM! vision is a great place to play within walking distance of every child. Playful City USA communities create best practices, like the ones above, to reach a similar goal. They serve as role models for other communities and prove that enhancing children's well-being by increasing the opportunity for play is an attainable goal for every community.
"Our country is facing two monumental deficits: a lack of unstructured play among children and a lack of resources to address this very issue," said Darell Hammond, KaBOOM! CEO and Co-founder. "Yuma took a stand and determined that the future of their community-their children-deserve a commitment to the cause of play. This is an investment in the future, not an expenditure and cities and towns across the country can replicate initiatives from these Playful City USA communities so that they too can bring play back into the lives of their children."
