Play therapy goes beyond playtime: Therapists can help kids learn more helpful behaviors, understand their emotions, and gain insight into resolving inner conflicts, among many other skills.
The Toy Foundation, a charitable organization for the North American toy industry, and the Children’s Hospital Association, which represents more than 200 kids’ hospitals throughout the nation, revealed that the Children’s Hospital Play Grants program will fund over $385,000 in play therapy projects and activities in 19 kids’ hospitals in the U.S.
The selected projects are designed to improve pediatric care through the healing power of play at hospitals that serve communities of the greatest need. This is the second year that The Toy Foundation is partnering with the Children’s Hospital Association to carry out the program.
Last year, the inaugural program impacted 175,000 kids; in 2022/2023, The Toy Foundation expects to support 185,000 pediatric patients. “The extraordinary physical, emotional, and educational benefits of play are well documented,” says The Toy Foundation’s Executive Director Pamela Mastrota. “We are delighted to help these amazing hospitals deliver the power of play to the children and families they serve every day.”
The play grants awarded to 19 kids’ hospitals will fulfill a variety of needs that may not have otherwise been met. Projects include virtual reality technology to create customized and adaptive activities and experiences for patients at Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center in New York; dance play therapy available for all patients at Norton Children’s Hospital in Kentucky; and sensory safe spaces and toys for emergency department and inpatient kids at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in California.
A full list of The Toy Foundation’s Children’s Hospital Play Grants include:
- Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
- Baylor Scott & White McLand Children’s Medical Center in Temple, TX
- Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, NY
- Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, NJ
- Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California
- El Paso Children’s Hospital in Texas
- Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center in Yonkers, NY
- Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Orlando, FL
- La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago
- Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in California
- Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Health Network in Tacoma, WA
- MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital in Charleston, SC
- Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, KY
- Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital in Maryland Heights, MO
- Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN
- St. Louis Children’s Hospital
- The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis in Tulsa, OK
- University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital in Albuquerque
- UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center in Worcester
To learn more information about The Toy Foundation’s Children’s Hospital Play Grants program, visit toyfoundation.org.
