Stress Reduction - Emotional Awareness - Conflict Resolution - Assertiveness - ​Identity Development

PLAAY uses basketball and culturally responsive strategies to teach children the skills to reduce stress in-the-moment and navigate conflict and racially stressful encounters to safer and healthier outcomes in the classroom, the community and on the court. For children who don't love basketball, we play other sports, board games and video games.
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Celebrate each young person's authentic self, honor their stories and play.
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Practice stress reduction, conflict resolution and assertiveness during real life moments of stress on the court.

Building Healthy Environments in Schools and Community Based Organizations One Relationship at a Time

  The Mission
To support children and young people towards developing the skills to navigate racial stress and conflict and make meaningful social, emotional and academic progress.
   The Vision
To build sustainable PLAAY Programs throughout the city of New Orleans and across the country.

Why We Do It

While many children in New Orleans are thriving, many are struggling to survive, falling several grade levels behind in school and finding themselves involved with the youth justice system.  The unfortunate reality is that harmful systems, bias and false narratives contribute to these outcomes and are disproportionally harming Black children.  But we can help.

The Benefits of PLAAY

Engage Children - Increase Academic Engagement
During a study at a behavior academy, participants in PLAAY demonstrated:
  • An increase in student attendance from 62% to 69%
  • A decrease in unexcused absences from 38% to 26%
  • A decrease in suspensions from 328 to 117  (Family Resource Trend Report, 2000)
“Although there were other programs in the school, the principal and the district truancy statistician identified the PLAAY Project as one of the primary reasons for those improvements.” 
Source: Stevenson, Howard C. Playing with Anger: Teaching coping skills to African American boys through athletics and culture. Westport, CT., Greenwood Publishing, Praeger. 2002.
Empower Children - Reduce Physical Aggression
PLAAY empowers children to manage stress, discover agency and use their voice instead of physical aggression to solve problems.
  • 79% of PLAAY participants reported that PLAAY “definitely” helped them learn to reduce their stress. 17% reported “somewhat”
  • 62% of PLAAY participants reported that PLAAY “definitely” helped them make better decisions for themselves when they feel stressed out or frustrated. 34% reported “somewhat”  (Center for Resilience, 2021 -2023)

Voices Tell the Story

“PLAAY helped me control my anger and reply to teacher responses."
                                                                                                                                                                                       - Student Participant

“PLAAY helped save my son as he was trying to find a way to cope with the traumatic experience he encountered, and it
provided an outlet for him to be heard and understood without judgment ...”
                                                                                                                                                                                              - Participant Mother
"PLAAY has had such a great impact on my students. Not only has this made my students realize things within themselves,
but they are now better able to read other people’s emotions and the best part is seeing them...help one another process
their feelings and emotions.”
                                  - Ms. Harris, Classroom Counselor and PLAAY Facilitator, The Bridge EQA Middle School, New Orleans, LA​
"You can learn more about a child in an hour of play than you can in one year of conversation."
​                                                                                                                                         - Plato...maybe

Let's Talk PLAAY

Schedule a meeting with our staff to discuss how PLAAY may be able to support the children and young people at your organization. 
Uptown
New Orleans, LA

504-383-4748
[email protected]
[email protected]
PLAAY South New Orleans is sponsored by the Sims-Fayola Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 47-5349323.