Starting this year we will post quarterly updates on each active action team! Read below on what we’ve been up to so far in 2022.
New Blog! The team developed the following recommendations of policy changes that park agencies and school districts could implement to improve equity of access to facilities for organizations serving Black, Indigenous, youth of color who are typically furthest from play equity. The team presented their recommendations to the full Coalition membership who provided additional feedback along with the Coalition’s Leadership Team who ultimately endorsed the recommendations. The Facility Access Action Team will continue to collaborate and share learnings as park agencies and school districts implement these changes.
As the Advocacy Team works to craft and advocate for recess and physical activity laws, members have done incredible work learning about the recess laws across the country. Washington is one of 27 states without a recess policy. Three states are attempting to pass legislation this year including New York, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. In the next month or so the Advocacy Team will propose what it is recommending in terms of a policy approach. Items for potential inclusion are
- Recess is not withheld as punishment
- Recess before lunch
- Recess minutes do not replace physical education minutes
- 30-60 minutes of recess or physical activity is required
Other upcoming work also includes a parent survey about their thoughts on recess. To learn more or get involved in this advocacy work, contact Julie McCleery at juliem4@uw.edu
Last week we hosted the first session for our new Shared Learning Action Team!
This will be a cohort-based action team including 15 member organizations that is focused specifically on increasing and improving programming for girls, with a focus on newcomer and immigrant girls.
Participating member organizations include:
- Baseball Beyond Borders
- Congolese Integration Network
- DiscNW
- First Five Years & Beyond
- George Pocock Rowing Foundation
- Parkour Visions
- Seattle United
- Shoreline Sports Foundation
- Soccer Without Borders
- Upower
- Washington Education & Squash Academy
- Washington Student Cycling League
- YMCA of Greater Seattle
- AGE UP
- Oiselle
We spent December and January finalizing our Youth Action Team cohort. We are so excited to have nine outstanding young leaders joining us from all over King County with different physical activity interests, backgrounds, and experiences.
Our first meeting was held on Wednesday, February 16th. We started by building relationships, discussing opportunities and goals, and providing youth voice into the Coalition’s work. A blog post will be coming soon to showcase our new members, so be on the lookout!