Updates

Meet our rockstar coach, Melanie! Melanie, or Coach Mel, to her students, is spending her year of service at Chappell Elementary School, a longtime partner of Playworks Illinois. Coach Mel is…

AmeriCorps Week is when we celebrate and highlight the great work of our AmeriCorps members across the nation. At Playworks Illinois, we want to give a huge whoosh clap to…

This past January, Playworks Illinois staff and AmeriCorps members painted a mural to show love and appreciation for one of our partner schools to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.…

Playworks Illinois hosted its fourth annual Get in the Game: Camp Playworks event on September 28th. This celebratory party was attended by 150+ friends of Playworks Illinois including community, business,…

Playworks Illinois is celebrating AmeriCorps week by highlighting one of our AmeriCorps Coaches, Shamerea Richards. Coach Shay is a first-year coach serving at James N. Thorp Elementary School in Chicago,…

It was in 1996 that Jill Vialet founded Playworks, a national nonprofit providing elementary schools and youth organizations around the country with fun and safe activities. Read the full interview…

photo by GettyImages Why are we so quick to dismiss play as a force for learning? As Playworks CEO and founder Jill Vialet notes, "Consider something as simple as a…

Playworks has teamed up with New Balance to offer the SparkStart Fitness Challenge across the nation. See how New Balance, MLB athletes, and Playworks are getting kids in the game!…

While summer time is the perfect time for kids to get outside and play, there are plenty of distractions around to keep them from getting good exercise such as the…