Grants Open Door to Outdoor Play and Learning

NC State’s Natural Learning Initiative is making it possible for children to spend more time with nature, even if it’s just a few feet from the classroom.

The innovative program, part of the College of Design, has partnered with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation to provide almost $100,000 in grants to improve outdoor play and learning areas in childcare facilities and to train future teachers in outdoor learning.

“The Healthy Living Equipment grants help childcare centers and community colleges develop projects that will increase and sustain young children’s active play, which sets the stage to establish a lifetime of healthy behaviors,” said foundation President Kathy Higgins.

There are almost 5,000 licensed childcare centers in North Carolina, many of them with barren outdoor areas that potentially could be considered environmental restoration sites designed to support children’s active living. The Preventing Obesity by Design program, developed through the Natural Learning Initiative, offers ideas for enhancing outdoor learning environments with natural elements, such as gardens, pathways, stepping stones, shade structures and fruit trees.

The program offers technical assistance and online support via the Green Desk. Grantees will receive specialized support through interactive design sessions symposia, and on-call consultation for site layout and affordable design solutions.

Examples of how the grants will be used include:

• Care-O-World Early Learning Center (Beaufort/Hyde Partnership for Children), Washington, N.C., will install a looped pathway and a “play pod” (shed containing portable play equipment) in the preschool outdoor area.
• Roanoke Island Presbyterian Day Care and Colington Schoolhouse (Children and Youth Partnership for Dare County), will add hills and other physical features to aid endurance and support longer outdoor time (up to three hours a day).
• McDowell Technical Community College Foundation Incorporated, Marion, N.C., is planning to install landscape elements (lawn turf, a stage, stepping stones) to expand the Physical Development & Health, and Music & Movement Key Development Indicators of the center’s curriculum and will double children’s time spent outdoors.
• Wake County Smart Start is working with ABC Land and Primary Beginnings Child Development Center to enhance its outdoor learning environments and increase children’s outdoor time to 120 minutes a day.

The 2014-2015 Healthy Community grantees are:

• Alamance Community College, Child Care Center.
• Alamance Partnership For Children, two Shape N.C. Expansion Centers.
• Alexander County Partnership for Children, two Shape N.C. Expansion Centers.
• Beaufort/Hyde Partnership for Children, Care-O-World Early Learning Center.
• Buncombe County Partnership for Children, Inc., two Shape N.C. Expansion Centers.
• Central Piedmont Community College Outdoor Learning Environment Demonstration Site, Mecklenburg County.
• Chatham County Partnership for Children, Chatham Child Development Center.
• Children & Youth Partnership for Dare County, ABCs and OBX Kids Growing Up Healthy.
• Iredell County Partnership for Young Children, Inc., Small Beginnings Child Development Center.
• McDowell Technical Community College Foundation Incorporated, Child Development Center.
• Mitchell-Yancey Partnership for Children, Bald Creek Child Development Center, Yancey County.
• Nash Community College, Betsy Currin Child Development Center, Early Childhood Education and Culinary / Food Service Technology Programs.
• Orange County Partnership for Young Children, Community School for People Under Six Child Development Center.
• Randolph County Partnership for Children, Previous Memories and First Church of God.
• Region A Partnership for Children, Macon Program for Progress and God’s Little Acre, Jackson County.
• Sandhills Community College, Sandhills Children Center and Early Childhood Education Program, Moore County.
• Smart Start of New Hanover County, Kids & Company two childcare centers.
• Wake County Smart Start, ABC Land and Primary Beginnings Child Development Center.
• Wilkes Community Partnership For Children, PlayWorks Early Care and Learning Center.