Play Street for Health Community

Play Street is an intervention of a street or parking lot temporary closure to create a place for children to play outdoors. This initiative is one way to improve not only the quality of life of the children in cities, but also strengthen the community's relationship. This intervention proved to increase the children’s outdoor play in cities. It also boosts physical activity that city children lack due to the limited open space in urban areas. Observations from pop-up parks in Melbourne report that children enjoy this initiative especially as it invites opportunity for unstructured free play or playing with equipment such as balls, jump ropes, hula hoops etc. Other studies revealed that Play Street or similar pop-up playing spaces also increase the social interaction and connection, encourage independence for children and increase the perceived safety of the neighbourhood.  

Reference:

Umstattd Meyer, M. R., Bridges, C. N., Schmid, T. L., Hecht, A. A., & Pollack Porter, K. M. (2019). Systematic review of how Play Streets impact opportunities for active play, physical activity, neighborhoods, and communities. BMC public health, 19(1), 1-16.

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