SYSTEMS IMPACT
The Play Equity Collective
The Play Equity Collective is ShareWaves' field leadership initiative, convening cross-sector partners to build the systems, relationships, and shared leadership needed so every child has equitable access to the life-changing benefits of play.
The Continuum of Opportunity — three programs that reach children directly.
Direct Impact
The Play Equity Collective — the work that strengthens the systems around every child.
Systems Impact
The Play Equity Collective and the Kansas City Play Equity Coalition (KCPEC) are one and the same body. It is the cross-sector table where schools, parks and recreation, health systems, nonprofits, civic leaders, and funders align around one goal: making play a public good every child can reach, not a consumer product sorted by zip code and income.
It is not a program children enroll in; it is the infrastructure that makes ShareWaves' direct-service programs more effective and more durable.
What it is
What it does
Research
Commissions and shares the data that shows where play access breaks down across Kansas City, and for whom.
Coalitions
Holds the standing table where schools, parks departments, health systems, and nonprofits plan and act together.
Policy
Turns coalition consensus into the local and state policy changes that make equitable access the default, not the exception.
Shared Measurement
Gives every member the same definitions and dashboards, so progress on play equity can be tracked as one city, not a dozen programs.
Communications
Carries the coalition's shared evidence and story to families, funders, and decision-makers with one clear voice.
Funding
Aligns funders around a shared strategy so dollars build lasting systems instead of duplicating one-off programs.
Membership is earned through commitment, not affiliation.
Organizations join by helping build the coalition, not by lending their names — a working body of builders, not a wall of logos.
Aspen Institute- Project Play
If your organization is building play equity from a different angle — funding, direct service, policy, research, or storytelling — there's a seat at this table for builders.
THE INVITATION