FEBRUARY 2024

More places, new spaces 

Since the New Year, the Playspace Team has opened 6 new Playspaces in Emergency Family Shelters across the state in Dedham, Stoughton, Marlborough, Everett, Gardner, and Westminster. We are thrilled to be providing opportunities and access to playtime for more families!

At some of these larger sites, we are offering staff-led, open play shifts to enhance parent-child opportunities for play. During open play shifts, children attend Playspace with a parent and the support of two Horizons staff.   

Due to the higher volume of children at these shelters, each Playspace shift will require more volunteers than usual. We will roll out traditional Playspace shifts as we continue to recruit volunteers. Volunteer shifts will be as follows:

• Dedham – Morning shifts only 
• Stoughton – Morning and afternoon shifts
• Marlborough – Morning, afternoon, and evening shifts 
• Everett – Morning, afternoon, and evening shifts 
• Taunton – Morning and afternoon shifts   

Shift days will be determined by overall volunteer availability. Please reach out to Megan Nally, Volunteer Recruitment and Outreach Coordinator, with any questions.  

Language resources for PALs

We’re starting to see more non-English speaking children in Playspace. To best support these children and their families, we hope you’ll review the following tip sheets of words and phrases in Spanish and Haitian Creole. 

In the coming months, we will be offering additional PAL trainings and drop-in feedback sessions. More information coming soon! 

Helping parents explore the power of play with Boston Children’s Museum 

We recently completed a two-year project with Boston Children’s Museum! Empowering Play was designed to help parents and caregivers recognize and appreciate the importance of play in their children’s early learning and development, and their own critical role in supporting it. 

As part of the partnership, we developed and led Powerful Playtimes playgroups in family shelters and offered a playgroup at Horizons’ Early Learning Center. We created facilitation guides for staff, organized kits of toys and tips sheets for families, and translated the curriculum into a video series in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. 

Once Playspace began expanding into Emergency Family Shelters earlier this fall, we hosted Powerful Playtimes distribution days to pass out toy kits and introduce families to the curriculum. Between just the emergency shelters in Taunton and Dedham, we distributed over 250 Powerful Playtimes kits!  

Empower homeless children through playtime

Horizons for Homeless Children, headquartered in Roxbury, is an organization devoted to serving homeless children across the Commonwealth. The organization’s Playspace Program is seeking volunteers to play with children experiencing homelessness in shelters throughout the state. Your donated time will help create a safe and nurturing environment for them to find joy and feel empowered. Upcoming volunteer training dates are Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. and Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. 

Horizons’ 2023 Year in Review 

Much was accomplished in 2023 and Horizons continues to extend its impact across Massachusetts. PALs are a vital part of this work! If you missed our year in review, you can read it here.  

Upcoming Closures

President’s Day — February 19, 2024 

HHC Professional Development — March 15, 2024 

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