CAPN Endorses Position on Active Outdoor Play

Position Statement

Access to active play in nature and outdoors – with its risks – is essential for healthy child development. We recommend increasing children’s opportunities for self-directed play outdoors in all settings – at home, at school, in child care, the community and nature.

Bernheim’s Children at Play Network has officially endorsed the Outdoor Play Canada position statement on active outdoor play that “celebrates a decade’s worth of global evidence on active outdoor play and includes an exploration of the relationships between active outdoor play and climate change, nature and the environment, education, learning, community and human connection, movement behaviours, health and wellbeing, and finally human rights and policy.”

This position statement is based on peer reviewed science, informed by the best available evidence, reviewed by more than 1,600 stakeholders (including Bernheim’s CAPN) and global in scope. Information about the process behind the statement is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

In addition to endorsing this position statement, the CAPN actively explores strategies and actions to help ensure that all children have access to healthy places to play outdoors in nature. Thank you for joining us in that effort.

Outdoor Play Canada provides more information on the position statement including relevant research, infographics, and access to a growing list of endorsing organizations.

— Claude Stephens

10/20/25