The Toy Foundation believes every child should have the opportunity to experience the comfort, joy and benefits of play. Thanks to their generous support, 19 children’s hospitals received play grants that will support physical and emotional health through play.
The Children's Hospital Play Grants Program was created to bring the healing power of play to children's hospitals, especially for those in underserved communities with budget constraints. By making play more accessible, these grants will help strengthen children's emotional, physical, and educational development and have an overall positive impact on their families and caregivers.
2022-2023 Play Grants Program Recipients
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
- $20,000 – All Kids, All Toys! Inclusive & Diverse Play!
- Objective: Combined with diversity training, create play opportunities for normalization, representation, and safety within the walls for minority and LGBTQ communities.
Baylor Scott & White McLane Children's Medical Center, Temple, Texas
- $20,000 – Sensory Toy Program Expansion
- Objective: Expand current sensory processing toys and tools program to laboratory, Emergency Department, inpatient units, and other treatment rooms within the hospital.
Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, New York
- $25,000 – Medical Dramatic Play Enhancement
- Objective: Implement medical play using dolls, puppets and other tool to help educate and normalize medical procedures for child patients.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Orange, California
- $17,500 – Coping Kits for Mental Health Inpatient Center
- Objective: Provide safe and engaging items to increase positive coping skills for child patients.
Children’s Specialized Hospital, Mountainside, New Jersey
- $25,000 – Activity Connection Program
- Objective: Provide recreational activities for children living with special health care needs.
El Paso Children's Hospital, El Paso, Texas
- $25,000 – Play Room Enhancement
- Objective: Enrich patient play with age-appropriate toys to help promote self-management education, trauma-informed education, and age-appropriate play-based activities for children.
Elizabeth Seton Children's Center, Yonkers, New York
- $25,000 – Project OPTIC: Optimizing Play with Technology, Innovation and Creativity
- Objective: Obtain range of specialized, state-of-the-art technology and materials to provide increased positive coping skills for child patients.
Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, Hollywood, Florida
- $25,000 – POP: Power of Play Program
- Objective: Offer child patients support, encouragement and motivation through resources and toys - maximizing the benefits of medical treatment and improving clinical outcomes while enhancing health and well-being.
La Rabida Children's Hospital, Chicago, Illinois
- $15,000 – New Inpatient Playroom
- Objective: Launch an ambitious nautical-themed redesign of the hospital’s inpatient unit: the “S.S. La Rabida.” The dedicated playroom will be designed to make play and therapy services more accessible for patients with complex medical needs.
Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, Loma Linda, California
- $24,890 – STAR: Safety Trauma Assessment Resource Program
- Objective: Expand current sensory-awareness program to include sensory safe spaces in multiple child life playrooms and create after-hours sensory boxes for emergency and inpatient populations.
Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and Health Network, Tacoma, Washington
- $15,000 – Comfort Kits for Traumatic Times
- Objective: Create comfort and distraction kits for at-risk populations: personal possessions for children that have suffered trauma and are relocating to new homes; and kits that will support the mental well-being and self-expression of transgender and gender diverse youth.
MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital, Charleston, South Carolina
- $22,000 – PLAY for Pandemic Recovery: Oncology Outpatient Clinic Playroom Renovation
- Objective: Create a therapeutic play environment that provides sensory features and classic toys for mastery and control, technology touches and expressive outlets for pediatric cancer and blood disorder patients.
Norton Children's Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky
- $15,000 – Inclusive Play
- Objective: Provide our diverse pediatric patient population with safe, appropriate, inclusive toys and activities to help patients feel at home in a place that often feels the furthest from home.
Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital, Maryland Heights, Missouri
- $17,420 – Outpatient Therapy Play Based Toy Lending Library
- Objective: Create a toy lending library that offers age-appropriate play activities and adaptive toys for children with neurologic and orthopedic challenges.
Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children's Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
- $25,000 – PD's Inpatient Playroom
- Objective: Create designated play space for patients and families that will also serve to accommodate organized activities and events.
St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri
- $25,000 – Mobile, Safe, Sensory Toys for Behavioral Health Patients
- Objective: Provide safe toy kits, therapeutic and sensory toys and portable equipment to patients to help de-escalate emotions and soothe when coping with trauma.
The Children's Hospital at Saint Francis, Tulsa, Oklahoma
- $15,000 – Get Up and Move!
- Objective: Install interactive projector game systems to incentivize patients to be physically active after surgery, as well as serving patients with prolonged hospitalizations.
UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts
- $15,000 – Extending Our Reach - Play and Playfulness Through Monthly Theme Days
- Objective: Purchase materials for a variety of hospital-wide celebrations and theme days, including celebrations such as “superhero day,” which help distract from pain and isolation, making hospital staff and settings less threatening.
University of New Mexico Children's Hospital, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- $15,000 – Sensory Kits for Kids
- Objective: Provide sensory items to patients to help reduce fear and anxiety in inpatient and outpatient rooms, operating areas and pediatric emergency departments.
