HOMELESS CHILDRENS PLAYTIME PROJECT INC
Playtime helps children rise!
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
DC’s schools report that one in 15 students in the city’s public and charter schools is homeless each year. This means that there are 6,000 school-age children experiencing homelessness in the District each year, a number that has nearly doubled since 2014 (National Center on Family Homelessness). Sky-rocketing housing prices is one of the primary causes of family homelessness in DC, the second least affordable housing jurisdiction in the US (National Low-Income Housing Coalition). Families are the “hidden” homeless, often staying in a family member’s basement or similar location, excluding them from point-in-time counts and services they might receive through the shelter system. Those in shelters receive limited case management that is primarily focused on housing. Moreover, most family shelters are not child-friendly, ignoring children’s unique needs and, therefore, deepening the trauma associated with homelessness.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Baby Room Playtime
Serving children ages 6 months- 3 years old living in family homeless shelters, our baby rooms offer young children bright, colorful spaces that are equipped with developmentally appropriate materials that foster language and fine and gross motor development. We staff our baby rooms with trauma-informed volunteers that offer support to young children as they move freely through the space. In 2017, we launched Creative Curriculum’s "Learning Games." The focus of this curriculum is to strengthen children socially and emotionally while fostering kindergarten readiness through age specific games.
Playtime
Developed to support the needs of children between the ages of 3-10 years old living in family homeless shelters, Playtime provides children with structured, play-based learning activities that help build problem solving skills, develop social-emotional skills, and instill optimism for the future - all with the goal of building resiliency to reduce the likelihood of experiencing homelessness as an adult.
Preteen Program
Designed to serve youth between the ages of 8-12 years old living in family homeless shelters, our Preteen Program exposes youth to activities, discussion and field trips that support active living, wellness and empowerment. Relationship Building and Health and Wellness. Supported by trauma-informed volunteers, youth receive a consistent space to form positive relationships with peers, receive homework help and health-related referrals.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Families, Homeless people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Playtime's number of children served in 2020 was affected by the closing of in-person play programs in March, due to Covid-19.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of clients referred to other services as part of their support strategy
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Families, Homeless people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Number of families receiving intensive case management (referrals, linkages, counseling, supplies) from staff social worker. Affected by Covid-19 in 2020
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project aims to cultivate resilience in children experiencing family homelessness by providing and expanding access to transformative play experiences.
Short-term outcomes for Playtime children include increased social-emotional and problem-solving skills and increased optimism about the future. Our long-term goal is to increase children’s resiliency, thereby breaking the cycle of homelessness.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Playtime Project works to achieve our mission by:
- Creating ongoing play opportunities that nurture healthy child development.
- Challenging systemic injustice by advocating for policies and practices that reduce the risk of chronic homelessness.
- Connecting families with critical support services and supplies in the community to meet their concrete needs.
Playtime serves children, ages six months to 14 years, in family shelter sites across Washington, DC. Staff and volunteers offer year-round evening play programs and events, in-person or virtually. We provide developmentally appropriate toys, activities, and guest speakers to help children experiencing homelessness build resiliency and nurture their healthy social, emotional, and physical development. Playtime has developed a research- and best practice-based curriculum, including a mix of free and structured play activities, that guides staff and volunteers in their interactions with the children, as well at the Playtime to Go kits we deliver straight to families. Staff also conduct biweekly wellness assessments with families, to provide referrals to community services and emergency supplies like groceries, diapers, and moving supplies.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Homeless Children's Playtime Project’s greatest resource is volunteers. in 2018, close to 250 people each made a minimum two-hour/week, six-month commitment to Playtime. These volunteers are teachers, lawyers, college students, lobbyists; but each with a passion for supporting youth in our nation’s capital. In addition to our Site Managers who oversee programming, each program also has Volunteer Site Coordinators who take on a leadership role in managing other volunteers and ensuring the safety of youth in our programs. Each year, our volunteers donate more than 12,000 hours of their time. Simply put, without our volunteers, The Homeless Children's Playtime Project could not exist.
Playtime has developed a research- and best practice-based curriculum, including a mix of free and structured play activities, that guides volunteers in their interactions with the children. Staff and volunteers offer a free-play environment that empowers children to choose how they want to play, as most don’t have much autonomy in their lives. We provide toys that offer a variety of play options, from dramatic play
(costumes for dress-up, toy kitchen sets, etc.), to expressive play (crayons, watercolors, etc.), to constructive play (building blocks, Magna-Tiles, Legos, etc.). These activities foster creative problem solving, enhance social-emotional skills, and instill optimism. Giving children the choice of how to play and what to play with encourages healthy child development. In addition to free-play, each month our curriculum and
evaluation specialist creates a menu of guided-play activities that corresponds to a monthly theme. These guided-play activities
(detailed in The Playbook, our guide for volunteers) allow children to explore topics of interest in developmentally appropriate ways and give the children something to look forward to. Playtime’s curriculum also includes monthly field trips. Children have visited sites like the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, National Aquarium, Imagination Stage, Cox Farms, and a Washington Nationals game. These field trips allow youth to experience their city in a whole new way, broadening their world view, building contextual knowledge, and fostering curiosity beyond their immediate environment.
Playtime’s senior management team has extensive experience administering educational and social service programs for children, youth, and young adults. Executive Director Jamila Larson, MSW, has served as a social worker in DC since 1995, at Children’s Defense Fund, LIFT, and Bright Beginnings, among others. In 2012, she was named Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine, for her leadership of Playtime.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Playtime was founded in 2003 by social worker and child advocate Jamila Larson. After discovering there were 20 children living a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol in the Community for Creative Nonviolence (CCNV) shelter, Jamila took a tour but was not prepared for what she saw: rows of metal bunk beds, sheets for doors, rat holes, and not a single toy in sight. After this tour, Jamila recruited volunteers to establish a playroom at CCNV with weekly activities, snacks, and supplies. In 2004-2005, Playtime moved to DC Village and applied for 501(c)3 status, with the help of volunteers who were law students. As shelters came and went, Playtime followed the children, starting play programs in the grittiest of environments with only volunteer labor and virtually no budget. In 2006, Playtime expanded to transitional housing programs, starting at the Salvation Army’s Turning Point Center. We hired our first regular staff members in 2009 and expanded to DC General Emergency Family Hypothermia Shelter and Park Road Emergency Family Shelter. In 2010, Playtime moved into the District Alliance for Safe Housing’s new Cornerstone Building, a new transitional housing program for domestic violence survivors and their children. Social work interns also initiated a parent-resource help desk at DC General to deepen Playtime’s impact for families. Staff began offering parenting classes at DC General in 2014, providing an evidence-based curriculum that gives parents the opportunity to learn practical parenting skills. In 2017-18, Playtime began to offer services at DC’s emergency overflow hotel shelter sites, in anticipation of the closing of DC General at the end of 2018. 2018 was also the first year for Playtime’s full-time social worker, who provides much-needed case management and referral support for families.
Playtime was proud to serve 200 children in 2020, in spite of the pandemic. Since Covid-19 hit, staff have customized and delivered 812 Playtime to Go kits and created 79 Virtual or Zoom Playtime sessions for children to engage in. And staff have made over 400 wellness assessment phone calls to families to make sure their needs are being met, providing referrals to community resources, moving supplies, gift cards for groceries, and linkages, if necessary, to Playtime’s social worker for more intensive case management. In 2020, over 160 children received customized holiday gifts; 116 received back-to-school supplies for distance learning, including portable desks; and 133 received play costumes.
As part of our 2020-2024 strategic plan, Playtime had already begun the work of adapting our model to different locations and requirements; we will accelerate our design and testing of models that can bring play, connection, and resources to families facing the effects of Covid-19 on top of homelessness.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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HOMELESS CHILDRENS PLAYTIME PROJECT INC
Board of directorsas of 02/22/2022
Ms. Char Beales
Denise Forte
The Century Foundation
Term: 2019 -
Jan Piercy
Enclude
Jamila Larson
Homeless Children's Playtime Project
Elizabeth Voyles
Brass Ring Communications
Renee Stikes
Horizons Greater Washington
Denise Forte
The Century Foundation
Omid Mohebbi
Gelman, Rosenberg & Freeman
Char Beales
Compass Pro Bono Strategic Consulting
Cena Maxfield Smith
Exelon Corporation
Franco Tao
Compass Pro Bono Strategic Consulting
Ann Gray
Compass Pro Bono Strategic Consulting
Dr. Geoffrey Mount Varner
John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
J'Sent Brown
DC ReEngagement Center
Andy Chasin
Blue Shield of California
Patience Peabody
Flamboyan Foundation
Wesley R. Heppler
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Jason Wilson
Capital One
Katie Waldo
We The Action
Organizational demographics
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Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
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Gender identity
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Transgender Identity
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Sexual orientation
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Disability
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