Partners

Children’s Health Fund
The Childrens’ Health Fund (CHF) is a national organization provides a wide range of health care services to tens of thousands of homeless and low-income families living in some of the most impoverished and underserved communities in the United States. TIF partnered with CHF to promote the healthy development of children served through Power of Play programs. During primary care visits, CHF health care providers educated parents on a range of topics, including psychosocial and physical development and how to use play to stimulate cognitive, social, and motor skill development. Parents were also given Power of Play educational materials that highlighted the many positive developmental aspects of play and explained interactive methods for fostering play. Cities that conducted Power of Play programs included: New York City, NY - Boroughs of Manhattan and So. Bronx; Los Angeles, CA; and Dallas, TX.
 
Help USA
Help USA uses a variety of therapeutic methods to provide comprehensive mental health services to homeless parents and children. TIF developed a play therapy program in partnership with the Philadelphia branch of this national organization. As formerly homeless parents were educated and empowered to re-enter a healthy, productive life, their children simultaneously participated in a constructive play therapy program to help them reverse the life-altering damage that homelessness often inflicts. Parents were also taught how to conduct child-centered play sessions that helped children with emotional, behavioral and other problems. By increasing parenting skills and learning how to better understand their children, the parents themselves saw how they could reduce their own stress levels.

Homes for the Homeless / Institute for Children and Poverty
Homes for the Homeless (HFH) and the Institute for Children and Poverty are two highly respected organizations that assist local organizations serving families living in homeless situations. HFH has developed the Healthy Living Center (HLC) initiative, a replicable program that promotes positive youth development in a recreational setting and incorporated The Power of Play into its HLC model as it expanded the program to a number of new locations around the country. With the help of the TIF, HCL provided play-enhanced after-school programs for homeless children, incorporating play and recreation into services that offer homework tutorials, academic enrichment and creative development to the children served. Our goal was to expose children to creative, social play, giving them an opportunity to develop their talents, skills and creativity. There are now five city programs in place: Oklahoma City, OK; Norfolk, VA; Savannah, GA; San Francisco, CA; and Chicago, IL, with additional cities cited in the future.

Horizons for Homeless Children
The POP partnership with Horizons for Homeless Children (HHC) included two pilot programs in Massachusetts. The Playspace Program made healthy play possible through play spaces installed in family homeless shelters, complete with books, play equipment and art supplies. The Community Children’s Centers Program provided safe, affordable, high-quality full-time childcare services to families residing in Boston shelters. The Centers used play in an integrated approach to teaching.

Parents As Teachers National Center
Parents As Teachers National Center (PAT) is an international organization of early childhood specialists offering child development information and support to parents of children from birth to age five. PAT recognized the intrinsic value of play to education and has made play a more dominant element in the more than 3,200 PAT programs in place in all 50 states and many countries. PAT and TIF recently partnered to develop a pilot program for working families living in homeless shelters in Maryland, Michigan and Texas, with the intent to incorporate the POP in all state programs. To supplement PAT’s educational curriculum, these statewide programs offered specific and consistent play opportunities to hundreds of children, some of whom had never participated in organized playgroups before. These programs proved to be especially helpful in leveling the playing field for high-poverty children when they entered kindergarten.
 
Rainbow Days
Through a new partnership between TIF and Rainbow Days (RD), an organization committed to the prevention of substance abuse in families, specifically children, play became a more substantial element in the services RD offers to homeless children and families. Seventy-five percent (75%) of all children admitted to homeless family and domestic violence shelters nationwide have been exposed to substance abuse in the family. Working together, TIF and RD introduced a program to employ play as a means of helping these families reduce stress, improve family communication and bonding, and encourage the parents to play with their children. The Power of Play program took place in Dallas, TX.