SAVE the DATE – International Playwork Campference
September 24-27, 2021
Presented by Pop-Up Adventure Play
Hosted by Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest’s Children at Play Network
Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest will be the host site for the International Playwork Campference, a biennial gathering of playworkers from around the world presented by Pop-Up Adventure Play, on September 24-27, 2021. This conference is an opportunity for playworkers, free play advocates, and enthusiasts to meet colleagues from around the world to share and learn from leading play experts.
This will be the third Playwork Campference organized by Suzanna Law and Morgan Saxton-Leichby of Pop-Up Adventure Play, a non-profit, based in England and the United States, that works internationally to create a diverse community of professional playworkers through training and campferences.
“We are genuinely excited about this collaboration and look forward to our adventures with the Bernheim team,” said Law.
Children at Play Network’s five professional free play facilitators attended the previous Campference in Houston, TX in 2019. They returned to share their experiences with the entire CAPN community.
“Attending the Campference gave me a lot of confidence in the work that my fellow playworkers and I do,” said CAPN Facilitator Carolyn Waters. “We met people from all over the world who do play work and learned about their different philosophies and techniques.”
“Practicing hands-on skills, like knot tying, added to my repertoire. We had the opportunity to observe other playworkers in action,” said Waters. “More than a year later, I still replay those examples in my head as a way to remind myself of the many different forms that free play can take.”
Participants at the Campference will have the opportunity to camp at Bernheim during the event or stay in nearby accommodations. All food will be provided.
In addition to presenting the Campference, Law and Leichter-Saxby created the Playworker Development Course, which provides introductory training in 25+ countries; the Pop-Up Play Shop and Toolkit; and toured the US (2014), Australia (2015), and the world (2015); and produced The New American Adventure Playground Movement – How Communities Across the USA are Returning Risk and Freedom to Childhood and toured Canada in 2017.
Registration for the Campference will open in early 2021. Additional information will appear on the CAPN website as it becomes available.