Description

Four students collaborated with the Summer Parks Program, an 8-week program in Meadville, PA, in partnership with the YMCA and Creating Landscapes of Meadville, that offers roughly 20-30 children a day an opportunity to play, learn, and grow.

This toolk included General Practices for Summer Programs, Mindfulness in Summer Programs, Art in Summer Programs and Green Spaces in Summer Programs. This projected involved four students collaborated with the Summer Parks Program, an 8-week program in Meadville, PA, in partnership with the YMCA and Creating Landscapes of Meadville, that offers roughly 20-30 children a day an opportunity to play, learn, and grow. They each worked as play facilitators on-site and queried the literature on different components of summer programs and what makes them effective. Their summer project included the development of a toolkit where they shared their research findings on what makes summer programs for children successful (Leah Ungashick), how art (Evelyn Connor) and mindfulness (Elle Carpenter) can be used as tools to facilitate social and emotional growth in summer programs, and the benefits of unrestricted outdoor play for children (Charlotte Allen). The toolkit also includes sample activities for the community partner to use in the future.

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Outcome

Creating Landscape Park Program Toolkit

Project Details

IMPACT TEAM

Education and Social Development

TYPE

Community Based Research (CBR)
Direct Service and/or Social Action Project (SAP)

STATUS

Completed

FACULTY/STAFF SUPERVISOR

Lydia Eckstein

STUDENT(S)

Charlotte Allen '25; Evelyn Connor '24; Elle Carpenter '25; Leah Ungashick '24

COMMUNITY PARTNER(S)

Creating Landscapes for Families