The Opentree Foundation (Toybank)

Opentree Foundation, The Toybank focuses on nurturing at-risk children's behavioural and mental growth through play. Believing in the power of toys and games for cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, Toybank emphasizes the importance of both education and extracurricular activities. Their vision is a world where all children are empowered through Conscious Play.

The Toybank Model:

The NGO sets up play centres in the premises by collaborating with institutions. Play centres are spaces where children can have play sessions. These sessions consist of playing with educational games, which instruct as well as amuse and stocked keeping in mind the developmental needs of the children. The games are regularly replaced because of wear and tear and the children outgrowing them. A play session takes place twice a month resulting in successfully reduced absenteeism, boosted cooperation among children and helped them learn better.

Conscious Play is a structured play programme for children between the ages of 6-14 years that focuses on developing Critical Thinking, Communication, and Socio-Emotional skills within children. The framework of competencies is developed based on extensive research on play, aligned with these skills.

Play2Learn is a semi-structured play programme for children between the ages of 3-14 years that focuses on providing them access to carefully curated play material and play sessions. The key focus is to increase the reach of children having access to meaningful play experiences. The digital Play2Learn Programme uses play as a preventive tool, helping teachers connect with students and overcome challenges like language barriers and disinterest. Play2Learn activity sheets, developed by a curriculum specialist, cover literacy and numeracy. These user-friendly, color-coded sheets include learning objectives, age groups, and step-by-step instructions, making them easy for teachers to use.

Play Practitioner Programme: A first-of-its-kind model that focuses on the capacity building of teachers to transform them into skilled play facilitators who understand the value of play and use it to address children’s developmental needs. It helps develop skills, attitudes and knowledge among school teachers, empowering them to bring more play to their classrooms and communities.