Playworks Wisconsin had a very successful 2015-2016 due to our amazing AmeriCorps and staff coaches and our dedicated school partners. This past school year we had coaches in 11 Milwaukee public schools. School partners included Brown Street Academy, Neeskara Elementary School, Elm Creative Arts, Albert Story School, La Escuela Fratney, Pierce Elementary School, Hopkins Lloyd Community School, Allen-Field Elementary School, Rogers Street Academy, Siefert Elementary School, and Hartford University School. We also launched TeamUp in eight new schools, four in MPS, and four in the Waukesha Public School District. We had overwhelming success with our TeamUp partners who transformed their school playgrounds through staff invovlement in programing. Our TeamUp schools include Blair Elementary School, Hawthorne STEM Elementary School, Hadfield Elementary School, Bethesda Elementary School, Jeremiah Curtin Leadership Accademy, Gwen T. Jackson Elementary School, Nathaniel Hawthorne Elementary School, and Milwaukee French Immersion School.
Playworks' mission is to provide schools with the information, materials, and support they need to bring safe and meaningful play to all of their students. We are excited for a few of our partners who have "graduated" from our Playworks services. We are confident that Hartford University School, La Escuela Fratney and Neeskara Elementary School will have great success implementing Playworks programing independently next year. In addition, we are thrilled for Brown Street Academy to become a TeamUp school partner. Brown Street Academy staff feels they are ready to take on the responsibility of running Playworks programing mostly on their own with the help of a Site Coordinator.
Looking ahead to our 2016-2017 school year, we are excited to announce that we will be in 22 schools and bringing Playworks Pro Training to the Mequon-Thiensville area. The Mequon-Thiensville school districts already value recess and movement throughout the day but plan on creatively using Playworks Pro Training to empower core faculty members, engage their community members, and partner with Concrodia University athletes.
We are very thankful for the dedication and hard work our school partners put in to ensure successful partnerships. We appreciate everything our partners have done and we look forward to our partnerships with new schools and new school districts in the upcoming school year.
If your school is interested in Playworks Pro Training, please contact james.barenbaum@playworks.org.
