Lethbridge city council adopts ‘Play Charter’
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LETHBRIDGE – The days of climbing trees (and sometimes falling out of them), playing hide and go seek, and riding bikes with friends all day long are foreign to many children nowadays, according to a presentation by the Lethbridge Early Years Coalition Coordinator.
At Monday’s meeting Vicki Hazelwood presented something called a ‘Play Charter’ to council; a document that outlines a commitment by the city and various local organizations to support play that encourages physical, emotional and social development, to embrace the climate and geography of Lethbridge by supporting play year round, to educate the community as a whole about the value of play, and to encourage risky play as a way to promote healthy risk-taking skills.
“In our society, we’re sort of seeing a shift where parents are bubble wrapping kids and protecting them from health risks such as climbing…There’s health risk and there’s hazardous risk. And we want to see more of the healthy risk happening in our community.”
Hazelwood says Lethbridge has some great facilities, a natural ‘play area’ in the river valley, lots of parks and some new playgrounds that children and their parents can take advantage of year-round. She hopes that with encouragement from the city, from educators and various community groups, there will be a shift in mindsets about getting youth outside more, and off their electronic devices.
