TOY LIBRARY INVESTMENT FUND
by Worldwide Orphans
Worldwide Orphans’ (WWO) Element of Play® transforms the lives of children and families in communities impacted by trauma, disaster and poverty in the USA and around the world. Our beneficiaries include children without parental care, with disabilities, with HIV, on the streets, homeless, displaced, in crisis, as well as migrant and refugee children and the adults in their lives.
Element of Play® is a trauma-informed, evidence-based, innovative program, combining play skills for children and workforce development for adults/mentors. It includes an umbrella of services: Toy Library, Music in Motion, SoundsFun!, dance, camp, art, youth club, sport and afterschool programming for children, ages 0-18, youth and the adults in their lives.
Toy Library is the culmination of 15 years of professional research and development by occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, pediatricians and educators. This play intervention consists of 120 scientifically curated toys, board games and books selected on the basis of play value and contribution to cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being of the child. Toy Reference Cards, written in the local language, match each toy and guide the adult/mentor in developmental play with the child, fostering listening and language skills and attachment.
WWO’s 62 Toy Libraries are located in preschools, elementary schools, children’s hospitals, shelters, libraries, rehabilitation centers for children with disabilities, food pantries, faith-based centers, daycares, orphanages and refugee integration centers. In 2018, we served more than 9,000 children and families through Element of Play® in Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Haiti, the United States of America and Vietnam. In the next 10 years, we look forward to scaling and deploying our toy libraries in at risk communities in the USA and abroad through the Toy Library Investment Fund, an endowment, renewed annually to build capacity and sustainability.
First year start up costs: $60,000; cost per year after initial year: $20,000.