Recess provides a safe place to be physically active.
To help keep Playworks coach Matthew Bailey on Manzanita’s staff, his colleagues created a GoFundMe that raised about $5,000 and The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation donated $65,000.” 19 YOUTH WHO FEEL SAFE PLAYING IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD 84 WHITE 84% 60 LATINO/A 60% 74 BOYS 74% 71 71% ASIAN 68 68% GIRLS 67 BLACK 67% Source: Aspen Institute Youth Survey
With one-third of surveyed Oakland youth not feeling safe to play in their neighborhood, recess at elementary school becomes a valuable tool for children to get physically active on their own terms. White children (62%) are more likely to have played sports at recess than those who are Black (48%), Latino/a (51%) and Asian (54%). A 2013 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that Playworks can reduce the transition between recess and class time – giving teachers more time to spend on instruction – and can cut back on bullying at recess. 17 Although founded in Oakland and viewed as a national leader on recess, Playworks only has on-site staff at four Oakland schools (Manzanita Community, Bridges Academy, Aspire Berkley Maynard and Lazear Academy). The four schools pay on average about $34,000 per year. 18 “We’re just barely scraping by to make those payments,” said Amy Jones, the principal at Manzanita, who added that providing a trained recess coach to every Oakland school would be a “game changer.”
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
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