Outdoor Play Canada launches new position statement
Outdoor Play Canada has launched the 2025 Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play. Global in scope, the position statement explores the benefits of active outdoor play for people of all ages, cultures and abilities. The three-year process involved an international group of researchers, practitioners, policymakers and outdoor play groups.
The position statement also examines the associations between active outdoor play and indicators related to climate change, nature, education, community connection, health and more.
“The benefits of active outdoor play are far-ranging,” says Dr. Richard Larouche, associate professor in Public Health at the University of Lethbridge and a member of the international steering committee that helped develop the statement. “The evidence for outdoor play is compelling; it helps us move more, learn, sleep better, stay healthy, connect to nature and improve our confidence. As George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.’”
The position statement includes recommendations for promoting active outdoor play — actions that can be taken at the individual, family, school, neighbourhood, local government, and community levels.
Larouche, whose research focuses on physical activity primarily in children and youth, is available for interviews in English or French.
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Contact:
Caroline Zentner, public affairs advisor
University of Lethbridge
403-394-3975 or 403-795-5403 (cell)
Our University’s Blackfoot name is Iniskim, meaning Sacred Buffalo Stone. The University is located in traditional Blackfoot Confederacy territory. We honour the Blackfoot people and their traditional ways of knowing in caring for this land, as well as all Indigenous Peoples who have helped shape and continue to strengthen our University community.