Building Positive Relationships with Play
2024-12-03 12:30 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
The Game Plan webinar series is back with exciting new topics! Playworks invites educators and administrators to join our free, four-part series designed to help bring the benefits of play to your school.
Build stronger student-adult connections at recess with practical strategies for fostering positive relationships. We will explore the importance of adult buy-in and how involving adults in different roles can enhance the overall play experience.
With these strategies in place, you will be able to create a play environment where students and staff thrive together.
Each webinar will begin at 12:30 PST/3:30 EST and last about an hour. The webinar will be recorded for future viewing.
Register

Adapting Play for Every Space
2025-02-19 12:30 - 13:30
The Game Plan webinar series is back with exciting new topics! Playworks invites educators and administrators to join our free, four-part series designed to help bring the benefits of play to your school.
Learn how to make play work in any space, whether indoors, on blacktops or small playgrounds, or in unconventional areas.
This webinar will provide practical strategies to keep kids engaged, safe, and having fun to maximize your available space.
Each webinar will begin at 12:30 PST/3:30 EST and last about an hour. The webinar will be recorded for future viewing.
Register

Youth-led Play Shapes Tomorrow’s Leaders
2025-04-16 12:30 - 13:30
The Game Plan webinar series is back with exciting new topics! Playworks invites educators and administrators to join our free, four-part series designed to help bring the benefits of play to your school.
Unlock the power of youth-led play and see how it can transform your playground!
In this webinar, you’ll discover strategies to encourage children to be leaders during playtime, fostering creativity, confidence, and teamwork.
The webinar will begin at 12:30 PST/3:30 EST and last about an hour. The webinar will also be recorded for future viewing.
Register

Confident Staff, Better Programs: Practical Group Facilitation for Afterschool Teams Webinar
2026-08-19 09:00 - 10:00
Fueled by Kindling Snacks
Out-of-school time leaders know that great programs start with great staff who are ready to lead and facilitate from day one. This webinar is built around the facilitation skills that make a real difference: not just during onboarding, but throughout the program year.
We’ll focus on how the way staff interact with each other in meetings, trainings, and everyday moments sets the tone for the culture they build with the young people they serve. Featuring insights from the YMCA on what developing team culture and group facilitation skills looks like at scale, plus practical strategies from the Playworks team, attendees will walk away with skills and tools they can use right away.
What You’ll Learn

Practical facilitation techniques that help new and experienced staff lead with confidence all year long.
Simple games, icebreakers, and check-in activities that strengthen team culture and staff relationships.
How the way adults interact with each other directly influences the experience they create for young people.
Real-world insights from the YMCA on building a strong, connected team across a large and diverse workforce.
Strategies you can immediately apply in staff meetings, trainings, and everyday program moments to create a more engaged team.

The webinar will begin at 12pm ET / 9am PT and last about an hour. The webinar will be recorded for future viewing.
Register

SPEAKERS

Andrew Fletcher
Executive Director, YMCA School Age Branch / Youth Development
Treasure Valley YMCA
With 16 years of experience in the Out-of-School Time field, Andrew is the Executive Director of Youth Development for the Treasure Valley Family YMCA, where he combines his passion for leadership, youth development, play, and creating life-changing experiences for young people. He believes that every interaction with a child is an opportunity to build confidence, belonging, and a lifelong love of learning. When he’s not at the Y, you’ll find him training for his next marathon, coaching youth sports, inventing games with kids, or chasing adventures with his wife and two sons.

Curtis Lemieux
Director, Strategy & Quality Practices ‑ Out of School Time Network Experience
YMCA of the USA
Curtis Lemieux works with YMCA leaders across the country to develop practices that strengthen afterschool, early childhood, and day camp programs. Before joining YMCA of the USA, he spent 13 years with the YMCA of Greater Houston and previously served at Camp Hazen YMCA, building a career focused on youth development, program quality, and community impact.

Danielle Rudic
Executive Director
Greater Philadelphia YMCA
Danielle Rudic is a nonprofit executive with more than 20 years of experience leading youth development and out-of-school time (OST) programs. Throughout her career, she has built and led high-performing teams, developed emerging leaders, and helped create workplace cultures where staff feel connected, valued, and empowered to make a difference. Drawing from her experience leading YMCA child care and school-age programs, Danielle is passionate about sharing practical strategies that strengthen teams and create exceptional experiences for both staff and the children and families they serve.

Elizabeth Cushing
CEO
Playworks
Elizabeth Cushing is the CEO of Playworks, a national organization leveraging the power of play to transform children’s well-being. Recognizing that play is vital in learning to relate to each other, Cushing works to ensure all kids have equitable access to a safe and healthy recess experience at school every day. Elizabeth joined Playworks in 2004 and was named CEO in 2020. During her tenure, she has played a lead role in designing Playworks’ national scaling strategy, growing from a San Francisco Bay Area focus to a national organization that reaches nearly 1 million children every year. For more than 30 years Elizabeth has served in leadership roles in nonprofit organizations focused on youth development, children’s advocacy and women’s issues. Elizabeth is a product of Oregon public schools, Stanford University, and the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs.

Rhett Etherton
Pro Trainer
Playworks
Rhett Etherton is a Trainer with Playworks who has dedicated his career to helping children thrive through play. He began his career working in before- and after-school programs, spent six years as a classroom teacher, and has spent the past 12 years supporting schools and out-of-school time providers in using the power of play to bring out the best in every kid.
