May 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 48

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Play Streets in rural areas might be more accessible in other public spaces, like fields and/or
parking lots, since streets in these areas often are major thoroughfares.

temporary play spaces and equipment,
with inflatables being the most popular
activity and where children seemed to be
most active. We also found that in rural
communities, streets are not always the
most accessible places for Play Streets to
be implemented, considering that there
are fewer streets and those streets often
are major thoroughfares through town
(hence, they cannot be closed to traffic!).
Play Streets in rural areas might actually be more accessible in other public
spaces, like fields and/or parking lots.
For instance, one community collaborated with its local park and recreation
department to identify a location for the
Play Streets, which ended up occurring
on sections of an underutilized public
park, including the parking lot.
We are also learning how each community implemented Play Streets, including the partners they are working
with and how limited resources are
being creatively combined within these
organizations. For example, one com46

Parks & Recreation

munity partnered with a summer meals
program and hosted the Play Streets
at a time that overlapped with when
children were picked up for their summer meal. The intentional " coupling "
of Play Streets with other community
or organization events was consistent
across the four communities. This approach allowed organizations not only
to capitalize on shared resources, but
also to reduce the burden and barrier of suburban sprawl faced by rural
residents, who often had to travel via
car to attend the Play Streets. We look
forward to learning more about the
impacts of Play Streets on children
and families, in addition to important
lessons regarding how communities
should organize and run them.
Conclusion
For individuals interested in this method
of intervention to promote outdoor play,
it is important to know that Play Streets
offer an opportunity for safe outdoor

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play for children, especially in communities that lack safe parks and playgrounds,
and/or available and affordable programming opportunities. They are relatively low cost and carry many potential
benefits for host organizations, the children who participate and the broader
community. Play Streets are a promising
intervention strategy that can help communities close gaps in availability of and
access to safe places to play and enhance
health equity while doing so, especially
in areas that have fewer resources and
greater challenges to supporting and promoting physical activity and play.
The practicality and low costs of Play
Streets also provide a " reachable " solution to address challenges around access
and availability of safe play spaces that
can simultaneously bring communities
together in a meaningful manner not
only to support their children, but also
to improve community connectedness
and capacity, potentially increasing social networks within the community and
collective efficacy. In many rural areas,
public resources are limited, and the
idea of advocating for new parks or even
renovating parks or other play areas can
be daunting and often unrealistic as an
immediate or even long-term solution.
Working with communities to understand how to advocate for some of these
larger environmental changes remains
important; however, Play Streets offer a
more attainable, immediate and likely
sustainable solution, with potential for
broader social impacts and reach.
Note: To find out more about PARC, go online
to https://paresearchcenter.org/.
Keshia Pollack Porter is a Professor at the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
(kpollac1@jhu.edu). M. Renée Umstattd Meyer
is an Associate Professor of Public Health at Baylor
University (renee_umstattd@baylor.edu).
Amanda Walker is a Research Associate for
Active Living Research and the Physical Activity
Research Center at the University of California San Diego (amandawilson@ucsd.edu).

May 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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