Playtime! Kids experiencing homelessness get a new place to play

For children living in homeless shelters, there’s a new service in Wareham dedicated to letting kids be kids.

Horizons for Homeless Children is an organization working to support kids living through homelessness and in homeless shelters across Massachusetts. 

Horizons offers support through three different programs: an early education learning center in Roxbury, coaches that help parents leave the shelter system and playspaces for kids in homeless shelters. Five months ago, Horizons opened a new playspace in Wareham.

Chief of Advancement and Playspace Tara Spalding said families are allowed very limited belongings in shelters and toys for kids are often left behind.

“We started building these playrooms in the early 1990s for children to have access to that sort of thing,” Spalding said. “Fast forward to today, we’re still doing that but we’re much more intentional.”

Spalding said the organization takes a "trauma informed” approach to their playspaces. She explained the organization aims to create a safe space for kids to be kids while living in traumatic circumstances because “kids heal through play, and they learn through play.”

“Our job is mitigating the impact of trauma on a child so they’re able to become healthy in all aspects of life,” she said. “There’s a lot of research that shows early childhood trauma leads to a lot of negative, long-term health effects.”

Playspace Program Director Lynne Gaines said the goal of each playspace is to give kids an opportunity to make choices because many kids in shelters are in situations out of their control.

“When [kids] cross that threshold, playspaces are a sanctuary where they just get to be children,” Gaines said.

Spalding added playspaces have five separate areas of play and are open for two hours a day. Each playspace is staffed with volunteers called playspace activity leaders, or, pals for short. 

“They just let the kids have a safe nurturing space to be kids,” Spalding said.

Each pal is trained in the organization's trauma informed approach to help them better understand the kids.

“We don’t know what [the kids] have experienced prior to coming here so we try to recognize that oftentimes some of the behaviors we see in the playspace may be due to the kids lack of exposure to developing coping skills,” Gaines said.

The volunteers sign up for a six month contract, according to Gaines, because consistency is important for the kids.

“It creates predictability so the kids are really able to create meaningful bonds with the volunteers,” she said. “It’s amazing to see a child who’s shy and reserved come out of their shell and their personality emerges and you begin to see their joy.”

One example of this Gaines saw was a young girl who initially collected all her favorite toys in a shopping cart and wouldn’t let go of the cart. Over time, Gaines said the girl realized the toys weren't going anywhere.

“She stood there and held her hand on the shopping cart because those were her toys,” she said. “Each week our volunteers would say she slowly began to not do that and every time she entered the playspace, she was understanding it was a safe space and that predictability and consistency was there for her.”

Trish Williams has been a volunteer at the Wareham playspace since February and while the kids are very young, she said the playspace has had a positive impact

“It’s time for them to have someone focused on just them,” Williams said. “They’re getting one-on-one or two-on-one attention.”

Williams said she worked various roles in the school system for many years and sees how the playspace will help prepare kids for kindergarten.

“They have to learn how to share and take turns with other kids and that’s a social skill,” she said. “Early childhood education is mostly about social, emotional growth.”

Williams has retired from working and she said being around the young kids is her “baby fix.”

“My children aren’t having children yet and I wanted to be a grandmother so I can’t wait for them,” she said. “I look forward to it every week because I feel like I’m doing something that is positively impacting people.”

Horizons is currently looking for volunteers for the Wareham playspace and anyone interested can visit the organization's website here.