October 4, 2025 • 23 mins
Kids have packed school schedules these days, and the few precious minutes of recess they can get aren't often enough to run off all that pent-up energy. Over at Playworks New England, they believe recess is for much more than play - it's critical to help kids grow and learn important social skills. They're working in schools around the region to make that happen, and Max Fripp, the Executive Director of Playworks New England, joins the show this week to talk about their work and mission.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England
Weekend where each and every week right here we come
together we talk about all the topics important to you
and the place where you live. It is great to
have you back with us this week. I'm Nicole Davis.
For kids in school learning to read and write, solve equations,
speak in other language, all that, it's very important, but
it's also critical for them to stretch their legs and
(00:30):
run around and just be a kid for a bit.
But when you only have a few minutes out on
the playground, it can quickly collapse into stress and fights,
games that leave people out. None of that is fun.
We don't want that. Playworks is working in schools around
New England to try to change that. They help staff
strapped schools manage recess to make sure kids get more
physical activity in They learn how to peacefully resolve conflicts
(00:53):
and overall make the playground a safer, happier place to be.
Let's talk about why their work matters. Max Fripp is
England Executive director for Playworks. Max, thanks for the time,
and let's learn a bit more about what you all do.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So Playworks as a national nonprofit and we are unique
in that we really focus on recess. And what we've
proven over thirty years now being in operation is that recess,
while often the most chaotic and disruptive time of the
school day, when done well, has these amazing ripple effects
in kids' health, kids happiness, school culture, teaching and learning,
(01:30):
and all of our programs and products are focused on recess.
We started in Oakland, California, like I said, about thirty
years ago, and our president founder, Jill Violet, who's a
really well known and respected social entrepreneur at the time,
was actually doing art programming in schools in Berkeley, California.
(01:51):
And she's waiting to talk to the principal, and the
principal comes in and oftentimes as elementary school principles are
as flustered, has a line of kids behind her was
clearly freaking out, and she looked at Jill and says,
can't you help me? And Jill's like, yeah, we're doing
our artists in residency program and we're going to do
an art show. And the principal said, no, no, no, I
need help with the recess. And turns out that these
(02:13):
kids that were behind her were getting into fights and
doing all sorts of naughty things at recess and this
principal's day was overcome by it. And we hear that
story all the time from schools for US across New
England that recesses this major disruptor. And Jill thought back
to growing up in a day where she had an
(02:33):
amazing arcs and rec guy named Clarence who made it
possible for Jill to be involved in the games and
play football and basketball with all the kids. And she said,
you know what, I can make it possible for every
kid have a clearance. So Jill literally just started showing
up at these schools and being a caring, fun adult,
making play and recess a better time of the school day.
(02:55):
Long story short, We're now a national nonprofit. We are
celebrating our almost or twentieth year in New England. Started
in six schools in Boston and now serve over one
hundred schools across New England every day.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's incredible. And let's talk then about what exactly you're doing,
what the clearances so to speak, are doing in our
schools here in New England. When recess time happens and
it can be several times during the day for different grades,
and whatnot. What are your people doing at the playground
inside and otherwise.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, so our signature program, what we've done from the
beginning is called our Coach program. Okay, we place one
full time really well trained AmeriCorps member, so these are
people serving in national service and they're in the school
Monday through Friday full day. We do a classroom component
on a rotating basis called class game Time, where we
(03:50):
use play and kinesthetic learning to teach new games, teach
social emotional skills, leadership skills, so that kids are learning
games that can then go to the recess shard. One
of the problems Nicole's we have a generation of young
people and it's not their fault who don't engage in
organic play like I used to. So kids aren't going
(04:11):
into the neighborhoods playing hide and seek or kick the
kin or catch the flag. So as a result, recess
are fighting about like, oh, how do you even get
the game going? So we teach it in small groups
and then literally we are working every recess every day,
So kindergarten through fifth grade, we were out there and
we like to call it organized chaos. If you came
(04:33):
out you should see recess as you know it. But
what we're doing on the back end are some very
specific things to make sure that that recess experience is amazing.
The sad reality is in Massachusetts kids are lucky if
they get about twenty minutes of recess a day.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Some schools that are up to thirty, and we love that.
Many of our schools are maybe fifteen.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's all the whole day.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That is all now, yes, the whole day.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Now. We also know we have a hell epidemic facing
young people. Sure kids are supposed to get sixteen minutes
of physical activity a day, so when you do the math,
it's not adding up right. So if we are lucky
to get twenty in the school, we want every kid
to be actively playing. So that's that's kind of our
big goal. We know that about ninety seven percent of
(05:19):
our kids are physically active at recess and a few
things that happen at recess that lead to that increase
in physical activity. One is we have multiple game stations
set up so kids have choice over what they get
to play, and then there's clear boundaries. So what you
don't want at recesses the kickball game being interrupted by
(05:40):
kids with jump.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Ropes and hula hoops.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You can imagine that becomes a problem pretty quickly. Kids
know what the games are, they know where to play them,
and they know how to play them. The other thing
that would be different in our schools is we teach
rock paper scissors as they go to conference resolution strategy
and it works. It'll be well time and time and
time again. So instead of Max and Nicole fighting about
(06:04):
who was safer out, we use rock paper scissors, We
give a high five, the game goes on.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Our games are rotational games, so kids are in and
out quickly, but when they get out, they know they
can get in. So if it's a tag game, for example,
there's no tag, you're out and then you sit for
the rest of the ten minutes because they don't have
time for that. So we do a few things that
lead to this environment where every kid gets to play,
they move their bodies, they get their breath and their
(06:31):
body regulation down, and then they go back to the
classroom quickly, focused and ready to learn.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And the way we do that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Is we have an opening and closing ceremony, and so
recess starts with an opening ceremony. At the end of
recess our coach blows the whistle. Kids put peace signs
up in the air, they say peace, They squat down
on earth, take a breath. All right, go have a
great day, everybody. And that's what recess.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Is looking like.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, a little grounding going on there at the end.
I like that little segue to get back into the
serious learning. I actually really like that. Yeah, So what
happens then when you have a day where it's either
snowing or it's raining. Indoor recess is a thing too,
So how do you translate the work you're doing outside inside.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It's a funny story because when we launched in Boston,
we were the first expansion site outside of sunny California,
and come October it was cold and rainy, and we said, oh,
what do we do. We've gotten really creative at saying
how do we make sure that even on cold, rainy,
snowy days, kids are moving. So a few things we've
(07:36):
seen work really well that any school can do. One
is we take empty hallways. We tape four square courts,
a classic game. We tape a wall ball court. So
we've taken some games that are safe enough to play inside,
and we'll take over an empty hallway or a multipurpose room.
If that's not an option, we then work with the
(07:57):
teachers to say, hey, here are five games we can
do right in your classroom to get kids moving, because
we know we need to get those wiggles out for kids.
So we've adapted to our environments and we have recess
every day regardless, and sometimes it's indoor recess.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How did you deal with the height of the COVID
pandemic when kids were in in their homes, they weren't
getting outside, and I'm sure everything was digital. How did
you all, I guess work within that and has any
of that transferred over into what you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, as you know.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
As I know, I'm a dad of two kids myself,
my kids are now sixteen thirteen. COVID retavoc on young people,
and we were trying to figure out how to adapt
to it like every other nonprofit. So what we started
doing was digital play games, where we would literally have
a coach that would turn on their iPhone and say, hey, everyone,
(08:54):
we're gonna play up down.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Stop go.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, here's how you play up down, stop Go.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
We're going to do it right now.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And so we were looking at games of like little
to no equipment that a kid could do in their
living room in Dorchester and move their body. And so
we did that and it worked. We had pretty high engagement.
And the good news is we don't have to rely
on that anymore. But what it did teach us was
how can we get really good at supporting any school
(09:23):
anywhere and increasing opportunities for playing physical activity. So when
I talked about kind of serving hundreds of schools, the
way we do that now is through training and professional development.
So we've taken what we've learned with that coach program
and now we support schools literally way up in Maine,
out in western mass all over New England to make
(09:45):
sure that every kid has amazing play and recess every day.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And something I really like about what you're doing is
the junior coach leadership program, because it's important, I think
for kids on the playground to also the ones especially
who really exemplify the values that you're trying to instill
in these kids. Give them a chance to grow and
show some leadership. So tell us how that's all working out.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Junior coaches are really my favorite thing of what we
do at Playworks, and we're just about to launch this
year's cohort of junior coaches. So at our schools will
identify about twelve to fifteen, typically the older kids in school,
so it's a K five school kind of fourth and
fifth graders. We get these kids about one hundred hours
of training throughout the school year, which is a huge
(10:30):
investment in young people. Yeah, and we train them in
things like game facilitation, conflict resolution strategies, how to be
a strong leader so that they can go out and
actually lead recess activities for their peers. And so the
junior coaches will work a recess schedule right with their
playworks coach, and they're out literally setting up games, helping
(10:53):
to lead those games, making sure kids are resolving their conflicts. Well,
and you're right, what we see is that these young people,
by giving them a chance to lead, it has these
amazing effects on recess.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
But almost more.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Importantly, and we've done evaluations with external groups on this,
our kids are growing in huge ways around sense of
self connection and belonging. We know that kids feeling connected
and belonging that they have peers and grown ups who
care about them as a huge indicator of success. And
(11:29):
we have a profound impact on that. We also help
these kids think about long term plans, right, so like
how do you imagine yourself going from elementary school to
middle school to high school and beyond? Because our ultimate
goals that these kids live their best lives and we
actually think the skills were teaching them as junior coaches
put them on that path.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
What do you do with the kid who is sitting
there in the corner and all he wants to do
is play minecraft. He wants nothing to do with tether ball.
He couldn't care less out running around and playing you know,
duck duck goose. How do you handle that?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Maybe a controversial statement, so I'm saying this is Max
as a citizen enough. Max's playworks okay, But I would
really love to see Massachusetts go bell to bell, no phones.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Right, And there's a push for that on beginning, there's.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
A push for that. There's there's a bill right now.
I think it's important we're seeing other states do it.
And the reason I say it again I'm part of
this is as a dad is I want kids to
be engaging in real life, to be looking at each
other's in the eyes. I don't want my kids personally
to be like, oh great, it's lunch, I can be
on my phone and you're not talking to your friends.
And so I just think we need to get to
(12:39):
a place where there's no screens in schools again, so
that young person wouldn't even have access to the you know,
Minecraft or whatever they're playing. That being said, we know
there's a there's a few ways we think about it.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
One is, every kid sometimes.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Needs to check out totally right, I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So I think for us in that case, it's a
caring person comes over, is everything okay?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And the thing I need to know? Want to get
in a game with me? Now? I just need to
time out today? Awesome, high five.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Good, see you later.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
If it's a kid that day after day after day
is sitting out, often we think about are they feeling excluded?
Are they having trouble making friends and connections? Do they
feel like physical activities not for them? Either someone's told
them that or it's a perception they have. And then
our challenge is to say, how do we find a
(13:33):
way to make this young person feel like they can get.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Into a game.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And one thing we think a lot about in our
schools is how do we as adults model healthy, meaningful
play right, And so if I'm talking to that young person,
I'm like, hey, I'm gonna go get in that game
a four square once you join me, just come and
I invite and I create that opportunity. Often to'll be like,
(13:59):
oh off, coach Max is playing, I'll jump in with their.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
They want me there the validation, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And I can see if there's something going on and
am monitoring for that without that young person knowing, I'm
kind of seeing is there's something bigger going on. So
you know, again we know the kids need a break,
that's fine. Bigger picture is if it's a repeat thing,
We've got to get to the root cause of that,
right and make sure that that young person feels like
(14:26):
they can play.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Sure, young people, especially these days at starting earlier and earlier,
where you know, they have access to the internet and
so with social media, kids are feeling self conscious. Bullying
is still a thing. I mean, kids are always going
to be growing through puberty and this stuff happens. The
conflicts come up, and there's clicks, and there's this and that,
and it almost feels to me like I know, back
(14:49):
in the day for me recess was kind of like
the great unifier, right where you would hang out with
your friends, but you could also you know, beat the
bully at a game of tether ball or run around
on the structure or whatever you would call it. Do
you feel that that's still the case these days?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
You know, we talked earlier about just a generation of
kids that literally sometimes don't have the skills to play,
So I think that's one. I think the other thing
we've seen is this rise of really competitive youth sports
and private club teams, right, So that's created an environment
where some kids are just really gifted, especially in those
(15:25):
course sports basketball, soccer, baseball, Right, So sometimes you get
a little bit of that those kids who are playing
really competitive versus what we call recess basketball.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Hey, we all love basketball. Recess basketball is a little different.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And then we do know that bullying happens in schools
that are often at the most unsupervised times, so that
is buses, cafeterias, and recess And so we did a
two year randomized control trial years ago, and there's lots
of results that we can talk more about, but one
of the big results was that we showed a huge
(16:01):
decrease in instances of bullying, and I think again, the
reason is if we can create a culture where it's
about every kid deserves to play, they can play any
game regardless if they're the best soccer player in the school.
You know we're not going to do captains. So at
a playwork school, you won't see captains. Why because it
(16:21):
takes too long in the first place. And second, some
kids always end up pick getting picked first. Some kids
always last. That kid who's last all of a sudden, like,
I guess I'm not good at soccer. I'm not playing anymore.
And when we create a culture where we are high
fiving when someone gets out and saying, hey, that was awesome,
instead of laughing and picking on them, then kids are
(16:43):
just playing and again they get that play out, they
feel good and then they go on with their day
versus you know, making kids feel terrible for missing a
shot or whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Right, right, we don't want that. I mean, some of
us are just not good at basketball. Some of us.
I was ever good at the mile, Like, there are
just some kids that are not athletics. Some of us
are meant to be drama kids. Right, It's just the
way of the world. And there's room for all of
them on that recess playground outside.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
So you know then I guess my next big question
is you are in all these different schools in all
parts of New England, which is great. How are you
dealing with cuts to AmeriCorps. Because I know you work
with these kids at AmeriCorps, these young people, I should say,
how are the cuts to AmeriCorps impacting your mission and
the work you're doing.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, so, I personally serve two years in AmeriCorps. I've
worked in Americal organizations for almost twenty years. I think
that every American should serve our country, whether it's in
the military, national service. You know, we have every year
we turn away thousands and thousands and thousands of Americans
(17:52):
trying to serve our country through AmeriCorps and so, and
it's also been something that typically is pretty strong bipartisan support.
So you know, I hope, just as a citizen, that
AmeriCorps is something that is here for decades to come,
because I've seen it do amazing things for both people
and communities. We are really grateful in this moment of
(18:15):
time to be able to share that we maintained.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Our AmeriCorps grant.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So this year in Boston we have ten AmeriCorps coaches
serving in schools and we also kept our grant. Nationally,
not all organizations did, and you know the impact of
that is really detrimental. If AmeriCorps were to go away completely,
(18:40):
we would need to radically rethink our model. So in short,
the way AmeriCorps works for playworks is that it's almost
about twenty percent of our budget, and so it covers
about twenty thousand, or nearly half of what that coach
in a school gets. First. That would be a huge
(19:03):
hole in our budget, and so I think what would
mean is that we'd have to look at our donor community,
which are grateful for and they're generous, but to say,
can donors help fill this gap which you know for
our budget this year just in New England to almost
two hundred thousand dollars in AmeriCorps funding.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Wow, Okay, not an insignificant number by any means, but
you know, if somebody is listening and hearing this and saying,
I don't want this to go away, I have means
I can help. How can they help? What do you need?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So the amazing thing about playworks is that schools pay.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
For our program.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Oh good, Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Schools have skin in the game, and I think that's
really important. If you're an individual that is thinking about
how you donate your money, and you know, maybe you
can give ten dollars, maybe you can give thousands of dollars,
that's great, and we all need people that open up
their wallets and be generous in this moment of time
because times are tough. I would say to that person
(20:07):
if they're interested in what we do. The fact that
schools are paying for that direct service program I've been
talking about, schools pay about forty two thousand dollars. That's
a big investment right out of their school budget. And
I think when you see that level of investment, what
that says is that principle sees a strong return on
their investment. They know that we're going to come into
(20:28):
their school, We're going to show strong results, and our
ultimate job is to take the chaos out of recess
so that that school can focus.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
On teaching and learning. That's what kids are showing up for.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We care about the social skills and having fun and
moving our bodies. But ultimately We want every kid to thrive.
We want schools to be these amazing places where kids
feel great but they're also learning. And so if people
wanted to give, they could go to playworks dot org,
slash New England. They can find us that way, they
(20:59):
can find through the website. We can talk more about
what we do and why why it matters. But we
need new donors from individuals, corporate foundation. We welcome them
and need them in this moment of time.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You're still accepting schools at this point or have you
put kind of a hold on that.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, So for our professional development, trading and coaching, we
accept schools throughout the year and we can have a
lot of impact even through a half day workshop and
then we do year long engagements.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So yeah, any.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
School can find us. We also have a free games library,
so if you're not ready to partner, we have some
free resources.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
There's some YouTube videos.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
You know, when we talk about every kid having great play,
we really mean every kid and we think that means
sometimes people engage with us, sometimes they'll get our games
library and go do it on their own, and we
still give that a high five.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
All right, last question, probably the most important question. I'm
going to ask you what is your favorite game?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Oh gosh, lately I have been really into sprout ball,
which is a little bit of a hybrid game between
a dodgeball and a tag game. Okay, so the way
it works is that there's a few people that are it.
They have the ball. If you get hit, you squat down,
and then you're watching. If the person that hit you
(22:19):
gets hit by another ball, they squat down.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I'm back in the game. Cool, and then you can
play it.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
And the dance model is that the people that are
down as the sprouts, they can get a ball pass
to them so that they're still in the game, and
they can pass it to other people. So you get
It's fun, it's super fast, it's competitive, which I like,
but it also teaches things like if your basketball or
soccer player, you're learning about giving go right because you're
(22:45):
learning how to pass and move without the ball. There's
a lot of strategy to it. It's a great game
and all you need is a couple of balls in
a boundary era.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Very different from when I was back in school many
decades ago, and we're not going to say how many,
but just you know, getting wailed on by a dodgeball
or four square or something. Kind of wish we'd sprout
ball back then.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Huh yeah, and dodgeball, four square, they all still exist.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
We love it all.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
But you know, the more, like I talked about, the
more we can introduce new games throughout the year, absolutely,
then recess becomes this fresh kind of.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Environment, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Well. Max Fripp from Playworks really enjoyed the conversation. I
learned a lot today. Thank you for helping our kids
get outside, get healthy, and have some fun, because you know,
these days we could all use a bit more fun.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I agree, Thank you, Nicole, and play on all.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Right, have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me
again next week for another edition of the show. I'm
Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England
Weekend where each and every week right here we come
together we talk about all the topics important to you
and the place where you live. It is great to
have you back with us this week. I'm Nicole Davis.
For kids in school learning to read and write, solve equations,
speak in other language, all that, it's very important, but
it's also critical for them to stretch their legs and
(00:30):
run around and just be a kid for a bit.
But when you only have a few minutes out on
the playground, it can quickly collapse into stress and fights,
games that leave people out. None of that is fun.
We don't want that. Playworks is working in schools around
New England to try to change that. They help staff
strapped schools manage recess to make sure kids get more
physical activity in They learn how to peacefully resolve conflicts
(00:53):
and overall make the playground a safer, happier place to be.
Let's talk about why their work matters. Max Fripp is
England Executive director for Playworks. Max, thanks for the time,
and let's learn a bit more about what you all do.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So Playworks as a national nonprofit and we are unique
in that we really focus on recess. And what we've
proven over thirty years now being in operation is that recess,
while often the most chaotic and disruptive time of the
school day, when done well, has these amazing ripple effects
in kids' health, kids happiness, school culture, teaching and learning,
(01:30):
and all of our programs and products are focused on recess.
We started in Oakland, California, like I said, about thirty
years ago, and our president founder, Jill Violet, who's a
really well known and respected social entrepreneur at the time,
was actually doing art programming in schools in Berkeley, California.
(01:51):
And she's waiting to talk to the principal, and the
principal comes in and oftentimes as elementary school principles are
as flustered, has a line of kids behind her was
clearly freaking out, and she looked at Jill and says,
can't you help me? And Jill's like, yeah, we're doing
our artists in residency program and we're going to do
an art show. And the principal said, no, no, no, I
need help with the recess. And turns out that these
(02:13):
kids that were behind her were getting into fights and
doing all sorts of naughty things at recess and this
principal's day was overcome by it. And we hear that
story all the time from schools for US across New
England that recesses this major disruptor. And Jill thought back
to growing up in a day where she had an
(02:33):
amazing arcs and rec guy named Clarence who made it
possible for Jill to be involved in the games and
play football and basketball with all the kids. And she said,
you know what, I can make it possible for every
kid have a clearance. So Jill literally just started showing
up at these schools and being a caring, fun adult,
making play and recess a better time of the school day.
(02:55):
Long story short, We're now a national nonprofit. We are
celebrating our almost or twentieth year in New England. Started
in six schools in Boston and now serve over one
hundred schools across New England every day.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's incredible. And let's talk then about what exactly you're doing,
what the clearances so to speak, are doing in our
schools here in New England. When recess time happens and
it can be several times during the day for different grades,
and whatnot. What are your people doing at the playground
inside and otherwise.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, so our signature program, what we've done from the
beginning is called our Coach program. Okay, we place one
full time really well trained AmeriCorps member, so these are
people serving in national service and they're in the school
Monday through Friday full day. We do a classroom component
on a rotating basis called class game Time, where we
(03:50):
use play and kinesthetic learning to teach new games, teach
social emotional skills, leadership skills, so that kids are learning
games that can then go to the recess shard. One
of the problems Nicole's we have a generation of young
people and it's not their fault who don't engage in
organic play like I used to. So kids aren't going
(04:11):
into the neighborhoods playing hide and seek or kick the
kin or catch the flag. So as a result, recess
are fighting about like, oh, how do you even get
the game going? So we teach it in small groups
and then literally we are working every recess every day,
So kindergarten through fifth grade, we were out there and
we like to call it organized chaos. If you came
(04:33):
out you should see recess as you know it. But
what we're doing on the back end are some very
specific things to make sure that that recess experience is amazing.
The sad reality is in Massachusetts kids are lucky if
they get about twenty minutes of recess a day.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Some schools that are up to thirty, and we love that.
Many of our schools are maybe fifteen.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's all the whole day.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That is all now, yes, the whole day.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Now. We also know we have a hell epidemic facing
young people. Sure kids are supposed to get sixteen minutes
of physical activity a day, so when you do the math,
it's not adding up right. So if we are lucky
to get twenty in the school, we want every kid
to be actively playing. So that's that's kind of our
big goal. We know that about ninety seven percent of
(05:19):
our kids are physically active at recess and a few
things that happen at recess that lead to that increase
in physical activity. One is we have multiple game stations
set up so kids have choice over what they get
to play, and then there's clear boundaries. So what you
don't want at recesses the kickball game being interrupted by
(05:40):
kids with jump.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Ropes and hula hoops.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You can imagine that becomes a problem pretty quickly. Kids
know what the games are, they know where to play them,
and they know how to play them. The other thing
that would be different in our schools is we teach
rock paper scissors as they go to conference resolution strategy
and it works. It'll be well time and time and
time again. So instead of Max and Nicole fighting about
(06:04):
who was safer out, we use rock paper scissors, We
give a high five, the game goes on.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Our games are rotational games, so kids are in and
out quickly, but when they get out, they know they
can get in. So if it's a tag game, for example,
there's no tag, you're out and then you sit for
the rest of the ten minutes because they don't have
time for that. So we do a few things that
lead to this environment where every kid gets to play,
they move their bodies, they get their breath and their
(06:31):
body regulation down, and then they go back to the
classroom quickly, focused and ready to learn.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And the way we do that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Is we have an opening and closing ceremony, and so
recess starts with an opening ceremony. At the end of
recess our coach blows the whistle. Kids put peace signs
up in the air, they say peace, They squat down
on earth, take a breath. All right, go have a
great day, everybody. And that's what recess.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Is looking like.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, a little grounding going on there at the end.
I like that little segue to get back into the
serious learning. I actually really like that. Yeah, So what
happens then when you have a day where it's either
snowing or it's raining. Indoor recess is a thing too,
So how do you translate the work you're doing outside inside.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It's a funny story because when we launched in Boston,
we were the first expansion site outside of sunny California,
and come October it was cold and rainy, and we said, oh,
what do we do. We've gotten really creative at saying
how do we make sure that even on cold, rainy,
snowy days, kids are moving. So a few things we've
(07:36):
seen work really well that any school can do. One
is we take empty hallways. We tape four square courts,
a classic game. We tape a wall ball court. So
we've taken some games that are safe enough to play inside,
and we'll take over an empty hallway or a multipurpose room.
If that's not an option, we then work with the
(07:57):
teachers to say, hey, here are five games we can
do right in your classroom to get kids moving, because
we know we need to get those wiggles out for kids.
So we've adapted to our environments and we have recess
every day regardless, and sometimes it's indoor recess.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How did you deal with the height of the COVID
pandemic when kids were in in their homes, they weren't
getting outside, and I'm sure everything was digital. How did
you all, I guess work within that and has any
of that transferred over into what you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, as you know.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
As I know, I'm a dad of two kids myself,
my kids are now sixteen thirteen. COVID retavoc on young people,
and we were trying to figure out how to adapt
to it like every other nonprofit. So what we started
doing was digital play games, where we would literally have
a coach that would turn on their iPhone and say, hey, everyone,
(08:54):
we're gonna play up down.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Stop go.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, here's how you play up down, stop Go.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
We're going to do it right now.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And so we were looking at games of like little
to no equipment that a kid could do in their
living room in Dorchester and move their body. And so
we did that and it worked. We had pretty high engagement.
And the good news is we don't have to rely
on that anymore. But what it did teach us was
how can we get really good at supporting any school
(09:23):
anywhere and increasing opportunities for playing physical activity. So when
I talked about kind of serving hundreds of schools, the
way we do that now is through training and professional development.
So we've taken what we've learned with that coach program
and now we support schools literally way up in Maine,
out in western mass all over New England to make
(09:45):
sure that every kid has amazing play and recess every day.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And something I really like about what you're doing is
the junior coach leadership program, because it's important, I think
for kids on the playground to also the ones especially
who really exemplify the values that you're trying to instill
in these kids. Give them a chance to grow and
show some leadership. So tell us how that's all working out.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Junior coaches are really my favorite thing of what we
do at Playworks, and we're just about to launch this
year's cohort of junior coaches. So at our schools will
identify about twelve to fifteen, typically the older kids in school,
so it's a K five school kind of fourth and
fifth graders. We get these kids about one hundred hours
of training throughout the school year, which is a huge
(10:30):
investment in young people. Yeah, and we train them in
things like game facilitation, conflict resolution strategies, how to be
a strong leader so that they can go out and
actually lead recess activities for their peers. And so the
junior coaches will work a recess schedule right with their
playworks coach, and they're out literally setting up games, helping
(10:53):
to lead those games, making sure kids are resolving their conflicts. Well,
and you're right, what we see is that these young people,
by giving them a chance to lead, it has these
amazing effects on recess.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
But almost more.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Importantly, and we've done evaluations with external groups on this,
our kids are growing in huge ways around sense of
self connection and belonging. We know that kids feeling connected
and belonging that they have peers and grown ups who
care about them as a huge indicator of success. And
(11:29):
we have a profound impact on that. We also help
these kids think about long term plans, right, so like
how do you imagine yourself going from elementary school to
middle school to high school and beyond? Because our ultimate
goals that these kids live their best lives and we
actually think the skills were teaching them as junior coaches
put them on that path.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
What do you do with the kid who is sitting
there in the corner and all he wants to do
is play minecraft. He wants nothing to do with tether ball.
He couldn't care less out running around and playing you know,
duck duck goose. How do you handle that?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Maybe a controversial statement, so I'm saying this is Max
as a citizen enough. Max's playworks okay, But I would
really love to see Massachusetts go bell to bell, no phones.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Right, And there's a push for that on beginning, there's.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
A push for that. There's there's a bill right now.
I think it's important we're seeing other states do it.
And the reason I say it again I'm part of
this is as a dad is I want kids to
be engaging in real life, to be looking at each
other's in the eyes. I don't want my kids personally
to be like, oh great, it's lunch, I can be
on my phone and you're not talking to your friends.
And so I just think we need to get to
(12:39):
a place where there's no screens in schools again, so
that young person wouldn't even have access to the you know,
Minecraft or whatever they're playing. That being said, we know
there's a there's a few ways we think about it.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
One is, every kid sometimes.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Needs to check out totally right, I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So I think for us in that case, it's a
caring person comes over, is everything okay?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And the thing I need to know? Want to get
in a game with me? Now? I just need to
time out today? Awesome, high five.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Good, see you later.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
If it's a kid that day after day after day
is sitting out, often we think about are they feeling excluded?
Are they having trouble making friends and connections? Do they
feel like physical activities not for them? Either someone's told
them that or it's a perception they have. And then
our challenge is to say, how do we find a
(13:33):
way to make this young person feel like they can get.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Into a game.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And one thing we think a lot about in our
schools is how do we as adults model healthy, meaningful
play right, And so if I'm talking to that young person,
I'm like, hey, I'm gonna go get in that game
a four square once you join me, just come and
I invite and I create that opportunity. Often to'll be like,
(13:59):
oh off, coach Max is playing, I'll jump in with their.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
They want me there the validation, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And I can see if there's something going on and
am monitoring for that without that young person knowing, I'm
kind of seeing is there's something bigger going on. So
you know, again we know the kids need a break,
that's fine. Bigger picture is if it's a repeat thing,
We've got to get to the root cause of that,
right and make sure that that young person feels like
(14:26):
they can play.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Sure, young people, especially these days at starting earlier and earlier,
where you know, they have access to the internet and
so with social media, kids are feeling self conscious. Bullying
is still a thing. I mean, kids are always going
to be growing through puberty and this stuff happens. The
conflicts come up, and there's clicks, and there's this and that,
and it almost feels to me like I know, back
(14:49):
in the day for me recess was kind of like
the great unifier, right where you would hang out with
your friends, but you could also you know, beat the
bully at a game of tether ball or run around
on the structure or whatever you would call it. Do
you feel that that's still the case these days?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
You know, we talked earlier about just a generation of
kids that literally sometimes don't have the skills to play,
So I think that's one. I think the other thing
we've seen is this rise of really competitive youth sports
and private club teams, right, So that's created an environment
where some kids are just really gifted, especially in those
(15:25):
course sports basketball, soccer, baseball, Right, So sometimes you get
a little bit of that those kids who are playing
really competitive versus what we call recess basketball.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Hey, we all love basketball. Recess basketball is a little different.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And then we do know that bullying happens in schools
that are often at the most unsupervised times, so that
is buses, cafeterias, and recess And so we did a
two year randomized control trial years ago, and there's lots
of results that we can talk more about, but one
of the big results was that we showed a huge
(16:01):
decrease in instances of bullying, and I think again, the
reason is if we can create a culture where it's
about every kid deserves to play, they can play any
game regardless if they're the best soccer player in the school.
You know we're not going to do captains. So at
a playwork school, you won't see captains. Why because it
(16:21):
takes too long in the first place. And second, some
kids always end up pick getting picked first. Some kids
always last. That kid who's last all of a sudden, like,
I guess I'm not good at soccer. I'm not playing anymore.
And when we create a culture where we are high
fiving when someone gets out and saying, hey, that was awesome,
instead of laughing and picking on them, then kids are
(16:43):
just playing and again they get that play out, they
feel good and then they go on with their day
versus you know, making kids feel terrible for missing a
shot or whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Right, right, we don't want that. I mean, some of
us are just not good at basketball. Some of us.
I was ever good at the mile, Like, there are
just some kids that are not athletics. Some of us
are meant to be drama kids. Right, It's just the
way of the world. And there's room for all of
them on that recess playground outside.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
So you know then I guess my next big question
is you are in all these different schools in all
parts of New England, which is great. How are you
dealing with cuts to AmeriCorps. Because I know you work
with these kids at AmeriCorps, these young people, I should say,
how are the cuts to AmeriCorps impacting your mission and
the work you're doing.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, so, I personally serve two years in AmeriCorps. I've
worked in Americal organizations for almost twenty years. I think
that every American should serve our country, whether it's in
the military, national service. You know, we have every year
we turn away thousands and thousands and thousands of Americans
(17:52):
trying to serve our country through AmeriCorps and so, and
it's also been something that typically is pretty strong bipartisan support.
So you know, I hope, just as a citizen, that
AmeriCorps is something that is here for decades to come,
because I've seen it do amazing things for both people
and communities. We are really grateful in this moment of
(18:15):
time to be able to share that we maintained.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Our AmeriCorps grant.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So this year in Boston we have ten AmeriCorps coaches
serving in schools and we also kept our grant. Nationally,
not all organizations did, and you know the impact of
that is really detrimental. If AmeriCorps were to go away completely,
(18:40):
we would need to radically rethink our model. So in short,
the way AmeriCorps works for playworks is that it's almost
about twenty percent of our budget, and so it covers
about twenty thousand, or nearly half of what that coach
in a school gets. First. That would be a huge
(19:03):
hole in our budget, and so I think what would
mean is that we'd have to look at our donor community,
which are grateful for and they're generous, but to say,
can donors help fill this gap which you know for
our budget this year just in New England to almost
two hundred thousand dollars in AmeriCorps funding.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Wow, Okay, not an insignificant number by any means, but
you know, if somebody is listening and hearing this and saying,
I don't want this to go away, I have means
I can help. How can they help? What do you need?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So the amazing thing about playworks is that schools pay.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
For our program.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Oh good, Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Schools have skin in the game, and I think that's
really important. If you're an individual that is thinking about
how you donate your money, and you know, maybe you
can give ten dollars, maybe you can give thousands of dollars,
that's great, and we all need people that open up
their wallets and be generous in this moment of time
because times are tough. I would say to that person
(20:07):
if they're interested in what we do. The fact that
schools are paying for that direct service program I've been
talking about, schools pay about forty two thousand dollars. That's
a big investment right out of their school budget. And
I think when you see that level of investment, what
that says is that principle sees a strong return on
their investment. They know that we're going to come into
(20:28):
their school, We're going to show strong results, and our
ultimate job is to take the chaos out of recess
so that that school can focus.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
On teaching and learning. That's what kids are showing up for.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We care about the social skills and having fun and
moving our bodies. But ultimately We want every kid to thrive.
We want schools to be these amazing places where kids
feel great but they're also learning. And so if people
wanted to give, they could go to playworks dot org,
slash New England. They can find us that way, they
(20:59):
can find through the website. We can talk more about
what we do and why why it matters. But we
need new donors from individuals, corporate foundation. We welcome them
and need them in this moment of time.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You're still accepting schools at this point or have you
put kind of a hold on that.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, So for our professional development, trading and coaching, we
accept schools throughout the year and we can have a
lot of impact even through a half day workshop and
then we do year long engagements.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So yeah, any.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
School can find us. We also have a free games library,
so if you're not ready to partner, we have some
free resources.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
There's some YouTube videos.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
You know, when we talk about every kid having great play,
we really mean every kid and we think that means
sometimes people engage with us, sometimes they'll get our games
library and go do it on their own, and we
still give that a high five.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
All right, last question, probably the most important question. I'm
going to ask you what is your favorite game?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Oh gosh, lately I have been really into sprout ball,
which is a little bit of a hybrid game between
a dodgeball and a tag game. Okay, so the way
it works is that there's a few people that are it.
They have the ball. If you get hit, you squat down,
and then you're watching. If the person that hit you
(22:19):
gets hit by another ball, they squat down.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I'm back in the game. Cool, and then you can
play it.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
And the dance model is that the people that are
down as the sprouts, they can get a ball pass
to them so that they're still in the game, and
they can pass it to other people. So you get
It's fun, it's super fast, it's competitive, which I like,
but it also teaches things like if your basketball or
soccer player, you're learning about giving go right because you're
(22:45):
learning how to pass and move without the ball. There's
a lot of strategy to it. It's a great game
and all you need is a couple of balls in
a boundary era.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Very different from when I was back in school many
decades ago, and we're not going to say how many,
but just you know, getting wailed on by a dodgeball
or four square or something. Kind of wish we'd sprout
ball back then.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Huh yeah, and dodgeball, four square, they all still exist.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
We love it all.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
But you know, the more, like I talked about, the
more we can introduce new games throughout the year, absolutely,
then recess becomes this fresh kind of.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Environment, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Well. Max Fripp from Playworks really enjoyed the conversation. I
learned a lot today. Thank you for helping our kids
get outside, get healthy, and have some fun, because you know,
these days we could all use a bit more fun.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I agree, Thank you, Nicole, and play on all.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Right, have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me
again next week for another edition of the show. I'm
Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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