Resource Library
Sharing a robust library of tools
We package our scholarly research into a variety of evidence-based publications that provide communities with the tools they need to rally support, plan and design best practice environments, and serve as catalysts for community engagement and impact.
Our unmatched library of resources represent the work of a broad network of scholars, practitioners, and experts, who are committed to our shared mission of building communities through play and recreation. We believe play and recreation are essential and an integral part of healthy growth, development, and learning, and that play continues through life, helping people stay youthful, healthy, and active.
Best Practice Design Principles
Through the research derived from our scholar network, we provide research-based principles and guidelines to help design environments that promote positive community usage and meaningful outcomes. At PlayCore, we don’t just build play and recreation infrastructure. Our innovative design programs are based on valid, scholarly research and can enhance your play and recreation project, taking it to a level of success beyond aesthetics. A successful play and recreation environment lets people succeed physically, socially, and emotionally. It brings families and communities closer together, teaches independence, skills, and confidence, and takes away the stresses of everyday life.
7 Principles of Inclusive Playground Design®
Putting Nature Into Play
Best Practices for Promoting Community Health by Increasing Physical Activity
Infusing Play Into Pathway Networks to Encourage Active Lifestyles for Children, Families, and Communities
Promoting Physical Activity & Fitness Through Active Play
Planning Guides
Our scholar and practitioner network informs a variety of useful planning resources and recommendations to help thoughtfully advocate and plan recreation projects across a variety of categories. We recognize that it is critical to elevate recreation spaces and to educate and inform decision makers and the public about the value these spaces bring to a community. These guides offer suggestions for responsible and effective approaches, tips for developing recommendations, and case examples from communities who have successfully advocated for recreation.
A Practical Planning Guide to Spectator Seating
An Instrumental Guide to Blending Music and Community
A Bicycling Advocacy Resource
Planning, Purchasing, and Protecting Play and Recreational Surfacing™
Designing Public Spaces to Promote Intergenerational Play & Recreation
Off-Leash Dog Park Design Trends and Planning Tips
Curricula & Programs
While best practice design helps create a high-quality environment, programming helps increase usage and engagement. Our standards-based curricula and programs maximize a community or school's playground investment by offering programming that teaches character education, promotes learning and education, and helps develops physical fitness in a fun way that children of all ages and abilities embrace.
Playground Programming to Foster Friendships Through Inclusive Play
Putting Nature Into Play
Best Practices for Promoting Community Health by Increasing Physical Activity
Standards-Based Playground Activities That Stimulate Creativity, Imagination, and Learning
Infusing Play Into Pathway Networks to Encourage Active Lifestyles for Children, Families, and Communities
Promoting Physical Activity & Fitness Through Active Play
Advocacy & Impact Tools
When seeking support for a project, education builds advocates. Our resources help people who are working hard to advocate for new play and recreation projects through leadership and empowerment tools which arm them with validated, citable material and funding resources so they can advocate with authority on the issues affecting the community, and the actions needed to bring about change.
We work with a variety of experts on city, state, and national levels to gather research that can help impact public policies and budgets, educate elected officials, maximize resources for play and recreation, and advocate for communities to increase recreation opportunities that advance health and well-being.
A PlayCore Digest
Community Engagement Strategies Using Social Science in the Design Process
Preserving the Play Environment, Promoting the Value of Play, Protecting Children
Preserving the Play Environment, Promoting the Value of Play, Protecting Children
Unleashing the Role of Play Environments as Community Assets
A treatise of articles by Dr. Stuart Brown, National Institute for Play
Partnership Best Practices for Play and Recreation
Research-Based Health Benefits of Aquatic Immersion and Activity
A Treatise on its Value by Leading Play Scholars