by Amy Wagenfeld, Affil. ASLA, PhD
On Sunday, October 12, 2025, the Children’s Outdoor Environments Professional Practice Network (COE PPN) hosted an engaging session with two of our very own leadership team members, Sarah Williams, ASLA, PLA, CPSI, and Chad Kennedy, FASLA, PLA, LEED AP. They shared their respective thoughts on strategies for overcoming challenges when building lively and creative outdoor play environments.
Following an invitation for attendees to sign a congratulatory banner for Chad, who was inducted into the ASLA Council of Fellows on Sunday evening, Sarah led off the conversation. Sarah is the Senior Director of the Native Plant Habitat for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Did you know that NWF is the largest private, nonprofit, member-supported conservation organization in the United States, with over 7 million members? Take a look at their website for more information.
Sarah’s talk, “Designing Nature Play Spaces for Communities at Scale: The Interplay of a National Home Builder and a Nonprofit,” began with an invitation to recall a memorable play experience in nature from childhood. This was the perfect place to build the case for bringing more (lots more) nature into children’s lives, today and in the future. The benefits extend beyond childhood development and wellbeing to include fostering connections with nature and on a non-human scale, to benefitting wildlife, such as monarch butterflies and bees during a time of climate and biodiversity crisis (and beyond).
That said, the focus of her talk was about Nature Play Spaces™ and a unique partnership that NWF formed with the land developer Taylor Morrison in 2019. Together, NWF and Taylor Morrison teamed up to restore and protect wildlife habitat in the homebuilder’s communities nationwide while engaging staff, residents, and the public in accessible and effective wildlife restoration efforts. NWF’s role is to provide ecological design and nature-based solutions to increase green space and improve air and water quality. The aim is to reduce pesticide, herbicide, and chemical use (particularly down storm drains), minimize turf and non-native species, reduce mowing and fertilizer practices (large HOA maintenance costs), and increase native and keystone plant species in all of the Taylor Morrison communities. NWF works with the communities to assess their development plans from concept through end results to establish open natural spaces and to include monarch gardens and nature play space areas. NWF certification programs, including Natural Open Spaces™, Monarch Garden Certification™, Nature Play Spaces™, and Community-Wide Habitat Certification™, develop criteria for communities to safeguard open spaces, promote biodiversity, and demonstrate a need for planting natives for restoring habitat anywhere in you live.
Sarah also shared the NWF Natural Play Space™ Principles, which include:
- Authentic natural experiences, habitat creation, and learning through nature
- Multi-generational use
- Diversity of play experiences and full body engagement
- Graduated risk levels
- Unstructured play experiences
Within these experiences, children are afforded myriad opportunities to learn, move, connect with others, and most importantly, to play! The examples of community projects demonstrate how thoughtful design and partnership can go from small incremental changes to large scale impact for humans and wildlife.
To learn more and for educational resources, see:
To discuss a corporate partnership, please email corporatehabitats@nwf.org.
Chad is Director of Landscape Architecture at Westwood PS. His talk, “A New Horizon for Children: Establishing Play & Growth Spaces in East Africa,” took us on a journey through four projects he, in collaboration with a team from Westwood PS and several other non-profits, completed in Uganda.
At the foundation of each of the projects is inclusion. Intended to elevate the role of play in the lives of underserved and often stigmatized children, many of whom are or who have experienced trauma, these four projects exemplify how with determination, passion, and creativity, these children can now do what they need most to help them grow and thrive and play.
The state of play and play standards in Uganda are not comparable to those in the United States and the availability of materials is limited, so Chad and his team’s design task to create safe, fun, and inclusive play spaces was a real challenge, but challenges are there to be overcome. And that they did.
The Ashraf Ability Center in rural Lugazi, Uganda, is a disability resource for families where the focus is on long-term family empowerment for the more than 120 children who receive therapies and education at the Center. Soon, through the generosity of Westwood PS, Unlimited Play, Little Tykes Commercial, and Kids Around the World, a play space will be available for the children and their families.
At Cherish Uganda in Kampala, services are available for women and children. With a design team of three landscape architects, one civil engineer, and one marketing specialist, a master plan is being developed, and a fundraising program is being established to bring more comprehensive services and inclusive play to the site.
In Gulu, Uganda, a Kids Around the World Playground was completed by a team of 20 enthusiastic volunteers whose efforts to make the best of limited resources and access to the village was a huge success. Making use of refurbished playground equipment to create a fun place to play and be with others has been a huge asset to the community.
Completed, and nothing short of a masterpiece, the GEM Village Playground in Kakiri, Uganda, is on the site of GEM Village, an orphanage for children with a wide range of physical, developmental, and cognitive disabilities. Through a committed collaboration with Engineering Ministries International, Chad and his team, including landscape architect Justin Wilson, ASLA, PLA, inclusive, sensory rich, and culturally relevant play is now a reality. It is often hard to tell who is having more fun on the playground, the 65+ children who reside at the orphanage or their devoted caregivers (nannies).
Time passed very quickly during our PPN session, and we are deeply grateful that Sarah and Chad shared what clearly matters to them with us!
For more from the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture:
- Professional Practice Network (PPN) events in review
- Education session recordings, including the general session—free for all ASLA members to access!
- Photo gallery
- Recap video
Amy Wagenfeld, Affil. ASLA, PhD, OTR/L, SCEM, FAOTA, an occupational therapist, therapeutic design consultant, educator, researcher, and author, is faculty in University of Washington’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Principal of Amy Wagenfeld | Design. Amy is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association, holds specialty certification in environmental modifications through the American Occupational Therapy Association, and certification in Healthcare Garden Design through the Chicago Botanical Garden. Amy publishes and presents widely and co-authored the award-winning book, Therapeutic Gardens: Design for Healing Spaces (Timber Press), Nature-Based Strategies for Allied Health Practitioners (Jessica Kingsley Publishers), and The Nature of Inclusive Play (Routledge).