As we begin thawing out, it’s time to think about spending more time outdoors.  Aren’t we lucky to be living on an island of 1,400 square miles, with 340 miles of coastline, and 52,000 acres of parkland?  People may not be aware of the richness of our island and all of the beautiful spaces that provide the most natural outdoor classrooms in which children can learn, socialize and stay healthy.   Too many children haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy Long Island’s extraordinary parks and their benefits.

Now there’s a way for parents, grandparents, child care providers and teachers to find the best of what Long Island has to offer in its parks.  LINCK, the Long Island Nature Collaborative for Kids, is a groundbreaking effort of The Early Years Institute (EYI) and many partners to promote and create opportunities for children to discover and explore nature.  In addition to creating all-natural outdoor classrooms, training adults about why and how to connect children and nature, conducting a public education campaign about getting kids outdoors, LINCK has developed a searchable database called “Pick-a-Park” to help parents and teachers find parks on Long Island with the features they want.

The Case for Outdoor Play
           
Children today spend much less time outside than they did in the past, largely because adults no longer take them there. Kids are over-scheduled and spend much of their limited free time in front of computers, video games and television. To compound the problem, many parents fear sending their children outside because of the perceived dangers of strangers, the sun, bugs and germs. 
           
The toll that sedentary, indoor lifestyles are taking on children’s health is very clear. More than 15 percent of children ages 6 to 19 and 10 percent of children ages 2 to 5 are considered overweight.  According to the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity, obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 20 years.  This is a particularly serious problem in Hispanic and African-American communities where children are twice as likely as non-Hispanic white children to be overweight.  Studies have shown that time spent outdoors strongly results in increased physical activity in children, and that physically fit children perform better academically. Recent research has also shown the health-promoting impact of everyday green space on child development and on ADHD-like behavior in particular.
           
According to the Help Children Learn Project of the New York City Parks Forum, parks that engage children in informal learning through play and shared experiences with peers, help lay the foundation for effective education.  Furthermore, parks can be a valuable resource for closing the educational achievement gap in communities. Closing the Achievement Gap, a landmark study published in 1998, surveyed 40 K-12 schools in 13 states across the U.S., all of which used off-site open spaces to extend learning options for students.  The results convincingly demonstrate the positive impact of hands-on learning opportunities. The richer the park environment, the richer the learning will be.

While working to create better learning and play opportunities for kids, LINCK heard from park rangers and other environmentalists about their desires to increase park attendance. Towards that end, EYI and LINCK took an inventory of parks across the region.  As the result of a two-year project, EYI has the only list of all 740 national, state, county, town, and village parks on Long Island. 

As we researched, we interviewed parents and educators to find out how much they used the parks and what would make it more convenient for them to visit a park.  We learned that the number one request from parents and teachers of preschoolers was the need for a bathroom.  They were also interested in wide pathways for strollers and wheelchairs, water, food and benches.  Transportation and fees were of greatest concern in high-needs communities.

What Parents Want in a Park

Based on this input, a 120-question inventory was created and used by trained observers we sent to visit all the parks we identified.  We conducted preliminary research to look at park features and how we could organize the data for easy use by families and programs.  

We learned that most Long Island parks offer free admission (81 percent), but only 58 percent are open to everyone.  Many town and village parks require proof of residency before someone is allowed on the property.  The overwhelming majority of parks have their parking lots close to the place where children might play (80 percent).  Parents will find benches to rest on in two-thirds of Long Island parks, but not all are in good condition.  More than half of the parks have paths where strollers or wheelchairs can be easily traveled.  Slightly more than half of the parks have restrooms. However, only a third are clean and in good condition and only 28 percent are close to the play area. 
For parents looking for things to engage their children, fewer than 15 percent of parks offer swimming, boating, bike paths or other climbing and playground equipment, while 22 percent offer walking and jogging trails.  More than half of parks are “passive parks,” which will not have any equipment or facilities. But they offer extraordinary opportunities for family picnics and for children to explore on their own.

In March, go to www.eyi.org and Pick-a-Park.  You’ll be able to enter a zip code and your preferences for bathrooms, parking, playground equipment, or wide paths for strollers and get a print-out of all parks with those features.  You’ll also be able to search any park by name and learn about 25 features of those parks, along with directions and pictures.  The website will also offer you ideas for how to keep safe and what to do if you visit passive parks or those with limited equipment or ball fields.

So this spring, use Pick-a-Park to get outside and enjoy all that Long Island parks have to offer your kids – you.

Dana E. Friedman, Ed.D., is president of The Early Years Institute in Plainview.