About Rooted in Play
Our Mission
Rooted in Play’s primary mission is to ensure that ALL children have regular access to child-led play opportunities. We encourage children to get outside, enjoy the natural world, and and foster environments that provide time and space for play. We achieve this by offering pop-up play experiences and opportunities for neighborhood street play for the children in the Tampa community, and by providing tools and resources to promote child-led play to the community at large.
Our Vision
A world where child-led play is recognized as a child’s right and valued as a key component of their health, learning, growth, and well-being.
Who We Serve
We serve families, children of all ages, and educators in the Tampa Bay Area who are interested in the benefits of child-led play. Play, learning, and healthy development go hand in hand. Our mission is to build a community of support around childhood play, so play becomes the default activity and not the backup activity. Will you join us?
Our Values
The Process
We believe that true learning rests in the process and not in the final outcome.
Inclusiveness
Everyone plays. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is valued.
Playwork Principles
The playwork guidelines inform and frame our practice.
Life-Long Learning
We are open and committed to growing all the time.
Autonomy
Play is personally directed and decisions about what and how to play are made by the play participants.
Our History
Rooted in Play began with two long-time friends and a question: what if children really need more time and freedom to just play?
After an inspiring visit to an Adventure Playground in Texas, that question was answered. Children do need to play, in fact, they have a right to! In 1989 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 31 of that treaty states,
“That every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts. That member governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.”
Rooted in Play held its first Popup Adventure Playground on April 22, 2019, with a simple purpose; to give children the time, space, materials, and a place to engage in self-directed play.
Since that first popup, Rooted in Play has hosted free and consistent popup play opportunities at local parks throughout the Tampa area and has served over 1,000 families. At popups, the children choose the ways in which they incorporate the loose parts into their play and are empowered to use critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
The Rooted in Play mission is for all children to have access to consistent, child-led play opportunities. Our vision is to grow the Play Movement and to see Tampa increasingly become a child-friendly city.
This starts with shifting mindsets around the importance of play. The Popup Adventure Playgrounds are Rooted in Play’s Proof of Concept. They demonstrate to parents, educators, caregivers, and community members that play is an integral part of a child’s healthy growth and development and an overall benefit to the community. In addition to the popups, Rooted in Play provides outreach in the form of tools and resources on the importance of play through social media, our website and blog, professional development training, and public speaking events.
Community partnerships and collaborations are key to achieving the Rooted in Play vision.
Rooted in Play endeavors to have easy access to self-directed play opportunities for children wherever they are; in their schools, homes, daycare centers, museums, preschools, and parks and this is the driving force behind our proposed project.
Our Cofounders
We have been friends since middle school and were even college roommates! Each of us was running a successful business when we learned about adventure playgrounds.
As experienced professionals in our respective fields, we recognized the profound importance of outdoor, self-directed play and were inspired by the idea of introducing an adventure playground to Tampa.
We immersed ourselves in the world of playwork, and undertook playworker training. After our first popup in April of 2019, we knew we had discovered something truly special!
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Cofounder
Maggie Willman is a Playworker with a passion for providing opportunities for children to be supported in self-directed play. She is also an Engagement Manager at Coastal Cloud Consulting, supporting the health of the community, and a family photographer, exploring the Tampa Bay area with local families and capturing kids and adults at play. These three passions came together when along with her partner, Ashli Givens, they founded the non-profit organization Rooted in Play.
Maggie holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, She puts this to use at Rooted in Play, developing new programming, managing finances and the budget, and analyzing data. Time with her three children away from structured activities, exploring new places, adventuring in nature, and even encouraging risks are some of her favorite ways to unwind and live out the values of Rooted in Play.
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CofounderAshli Givens is a Playworker and Speech and Language Pathologist who, along with her partner, Maggie Fuller, founded the non-profit organization Rooted in Play. After spending two decades working with children to resolve their communication difficulties, she intimately knows about children’s developmental needs and the importance of play in meeting those needs. Her experience as a homeschooling mother to three boys fostered a passionate belief in the role that autonomy, community, and creativity play in a child’s learning.
Ashli holds a Master of Science degree in Communication Disorders She puts this to use at Rooted in Play, developing programming that provides space, time, and place for children to engage in self-directed play, and collaborating with community partners that seek to make innovation, learning, and critical thinking through play an integral part of the Tampa lifestyle. She passionately advocates for continuous learning and lives out that value by actively participating in Playworker training, researching everything from alternative education to skateboarding techniques, and chasing after her next running personal best.
Natassja | Prose & Company
“Thanks to Rooted in Play for hosting this pop-up playground with all of the fun things for building and using their imagination! The boys had so much fun plus I loved watching them.”
Bailey R.
“I love that organizations like Rooted in Play exist so that families can bring their kids out to play, get dirty, and have fun! Their playgrounds are free and we had such a good time playing in their mud kitchen this morning...it was pure childhood magic.”