Promoting children’s play in Calgary, Alberta: A case study of collective impact and municipal leadership

ABSTRACT

Play is key to healthy childhood development, yet, there is growing international concern around decreasing opportunities for children to engage in unstructured, outdoor play. While municipalities are well-situated to take a leadership role in developing play-friendly cities, there is a paucity of practice-based examples describing the process. Together with practice partners from The City of Calgary, the Alberta Parks and Recreation Association, and The Government of Alberta Ministry of Culture and Tourism, we used a case study method to explore how The City of Calgary used a collective impact model to promote and support local play opportunities, specifically by initiating the creation of a Calgary Play Charter. We describe the preconditions that supported the initiation of a collective impact process and identify facilitators (e.g., leveraging existing resources) and challenges (e.g., sustaining long-term engagement, power differentials) to municipal leadership across the three core phases the collective impact process. The findings demonstrate the impact of a shared leadership approach, and provide direction and key learnings for municipal leaders interested in creating local play opportunities. The findings could also inform policies and practices at the provincial/state or national levels to bolster local efforts that support and promote play.

KEYWORDS:

• Play
• adventure playground
• play charter
• collective impact model
• collaborative research
• municipal leadership

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Brad Babiak and Stephanie Won for their contributions to the study and the resulting article. Thank you to Sammy Lowe who assisted with data collection and analysis. Thank you to the YYC Plays Committee for their work on the Play Charter and their contributions to the data collection for this study. Thank you to the individuals who participated in the interviews and shared their insights and experiences with the research team.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose. H. Cowie, and J. K. Guimond were employees of The City of Calgary at the time of the study.

Additional information

Funding

The City of Calgary gratefully acknowledges the Lawson Foundation for funding for the Calgary Play Charter and the Mobile Adventure Playground pilot. This research study was funded by the Alberta Parks and Recreation Association with support from the Government of Alberta.

Notes on contributors

Nicole M. Glenn

Nicole M. Glenn is a Senior Research Associate with the Centre for Healthy Communities in the School of Public Health, University of Alberta. She brings a health equity and experiential perspective to her work at the Centre and is interested in promoting thriving for all communities and their members.

Krystyna Kongats

Krystyna Kongats is a PhD Candidate with the School of Public Health. She brings experience in applied approaches to health promotion research exploring the relationships between community participation, age-friendly communities, and healthy public policy. Krystyna is also passionate about participatory approaches to health research. She is an active member of the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research.

Heather Cowie

Heather Cowie is a passionate advocate and builder of children and youth initiatives. She has dedicated her career to date that focuses on improving outcomes for these age groups. After 24 years with the City of Calgary, Heather is now the General Manager of Community and Protective Services with the City of Fort Saskatchewan AB. She has a Recreation Degree from the University of Alberta and is the current President of the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association.

Julie K. Guimond

Julie K. Guimond is a Leader in Calgary Parks with experience leading teams who connect Calgarians to our parks through programs and partnerships with the intent to increase their awareness and stewardship of our natural world as well as managing and expanding our urban forest. She has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science focusing on ecology and environmental sciences as well as a certificate in leadership.

Candace I. J. Nykiforuk

Candace IJ Nykiforuk is Director, Centre for Healthy Communities and Professor, School of Public Health, University of Alberta. She holds a CIHR/PHAC/Alberta Innovates Applied Public Health Chair in Public Policy and Community Environments. Candace is a public health researcher with expertise in the role of built and social environments on health and health equity, and on the evaluation of population health interventions. She is passionate about all things play.