A rich outdoor play space that is intentionally designed to spark and foster the cognitive, linguistic, creative, social-emotional, and physical development of children.
A safe, green, and beautiful space that supports the caretakers of children and their families.
Any space can be turned into a Pogo Park by following these five specific rules:
1) Staff
A Pogo Park has staff who care for and watch over the park like a parent watching over a child. Pogo Park’s “Park Host” is responsible for keeping the park clean and making it safe and welcoming. The Park Host helps to transform the space into a place.
2) Office
A Pogo Park has some sort of an office that stands as a visual symbol that the park has been claimed and is being watched. The office can be as simple as a folding table and chair, umbrella, and a sign – or a shipping container.
3) Basic Amenities
A Pogo Park has a clean bathroom, water fountain, and a place to sit in the shade.
4) Rich Play Opportunities
A Pogo Park offers rich opportunities for children to play. Play is the vehicle for children’s senses to come alive and for them to feel joy. A Pogo Park must offer both natural outdoor spaces for play, as well as loose parts where children can manipulate objects, create and destroy, and engage in fantasy, construction and imaginative play. A Pogo Park is the opposite of a park with a pre-fabricated cookie cutter play structures.
5) Community Hub
A Pogo Park is used as a hub to provide existing community programs to residents such as bookmobile, farmers’ market, community health vans.
