Underutilized spaces in your community can be a gathering place for fun activity. Stage a pickup game of shinny on a frozen pond, an obstacle course in a fallow farm field, or ball hockey on an empty city lot. Think about organizing a neighbourhood scavenger hunt in your local park or through each other’s backyards, away from city traffic.
You can use the stairs in apartment buildings or condos instead of the elevator or plan a fun stair-climbing challenge for family members and neighbours. Use nearby schools, parks, and playgrounds to play as a family or with a group of neighbours if you don’t have a front yard.
Include sports and other recreational activities from a variety of cultures such as cricket and badminton. Programs aimed at specific groups such as Indigenous women helps to motivate participation and provides a sense of belonging. Community parks with swings, slides and other equipment are free for everyone to use. Many activities can be played with homemade equipment.
When hosting a large event, ensure that people of all abilities can access the spaces. Are there curb cuts where you plan to host an event or activity? Are signs written on a white background in large, dark letters? Are there opportunities to adapt a game or sport, such as sledge hockey, to everyone regardless of ability? Work with your local community organizations who serve people with a disability, or parks and recreation to borrow adapted equipment for people of all abilities to use (e.g., hand cycle bikes, sledges, balls that make sounds).
Choose activities that are easily adaptable and popular for people of all ages such as yoga or walking. Provide benches in front of your house or apartment for rest, and to sit and chat with someone who may also be walking/wheeling by. Provide opportunities for young and older to play together. Use balls and other equipment that is bigger, softer and easier to hold (e.g., beach balls, fuzzy balls).
As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. Arrange a neighbourhood clothing swap or donation program to ensure that you and your neighbours have the right attire to be active in any type of weather. For really cold days, online yoga or fitness classes are a good alternative.
Turn any park, playground or open space into a workout space! Search some activity ideas and workout plans to get started, all without equipment and through any season. An urban exercise trail using what exists in nature and the built environment can create equitable access to play and fitness. Do step-ups on fallen logs or the curb, push-ups using a park bench, skip down the sidewalk and jump over the cracks. The possibilities are endless!
Many outdoor activity kits can be purchased online for low to medium cost. Do it yourself, or work with your neighbours to create different activities at different houses.
Practice your balance outdoors where all you need is a slackline and a few trees. Check out this YouTube video to learn how to slackline for beginners.
Try something new like skateboarding and invite others to join you. Learn about how to get a skatepark built in your own town and the Public Skatepark Development Guide.
Just like Park(ing) Day in the Naturalize Strategy, that transforms parking spaces into parks, this same concept turns parking spaces into fitness spaces. Organize a Park(ing) day for Fitness any time or join the international event during the third week of September.
Organize a community walk and roll outing for social connection and exploration that ensures people of all abilities can participate.
“If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy. But still the same amount of snow!” So, use the snow and cold to have fun in ways you may have never thought of before. Consider winter weather activity ideas or stick to the tried-and-true activities such as ice skating, ice and sledge hockey, team snowball fights and tobogganing. Try these winter weather tips to ensure you are equipped in the great outdoors when it gets cold. Find resources online for kid-friendly activities and action planning worksheets, best practices in helping newcomers adapt to winter, fire pit policies, snow management, and winter life surveys.
For more information on activating winter:
With some coordination and low-cost equipment, you can create an urban exercise trail featuring simple, equipment-free activity stations to create equitable access to play and fitness.
You can use what exists in nature and the built environment to create your own fitness path. Do step-ups on fallen logs or the curb, push-ups using a park bench, skip down the sidewalk and jump over the cracks. The possibilities are endless!
Try out a climate-friendly walking/wheeling group if you live nearby a mall. Some organized groups meet before the stores officially open while others arrange to walk/wheel with friends on their own. Walking in the mall can be great for all ages and a source of physical activity and friendship!
Enjoy your decorated pumpkins just a little bit longer. Following Halloween, neighbours can take their carved pumpkins to a local golf course or park and host a lighted path for everyone to view their artistry. Once the display is over, the pumpkins find a new use as feed for farm animals (so no waste)!
Public spaces are perfect locations for fitness classes. Consider Tai Chi, a mix of yoga and meditation. Check your local municipality website or consider starting your own at your local park!
If you feel like getting out on your own or can’t find anyone to play with, try these activities that you can perform solo:
You can also brush up on your skills by inviting other neighbours to a friendly game of:
Encourage friends and neighbours to visit you using active transportation. Ask your building owner, municipality, and/or local businesses to provide and/or install bike racks at business locations or in residential neighbourhoods! Use your imagination and create your own bike rack for your driveway.
Introduce your youngest neighbours to Indigenous Games.
Do you have a special walking/wheeling route or places you like to visit in your neighbourhood? Create a Points of Interest map and guide your neighbours on a virtual tour by simply sending them a link!
Brighten your neighbours’ day with a little activity. Set up some equipment in your front yard and a sign inviting people to use your lawn games whenever they want!
You can also set up badminton nets and leave out a bocci ball or croquet set. Heck, consider building your backyard ice rink in the front yard, instead!
Connect with others to create creative programming in your local park, like pop-up adventure playgrounds, or think about making a proposal for some permanent, accessible equipment in your park! Some equipment appeals across generations — take a look at some age-friendly equipment designs and the WHO checklist of essential features of age-friendly spaces.
Open a local street to everything but car traffic and play and enjoy the space safely. Play Streets and Open Streets have been a huge success in many areas. Be sure to coordinate with your municipal/town council.
Socializing with your dog is a great way to meet your neighbours and get active. Consider starting a neighbourhood dog park with this AKC Guide. Truitt Bark Park is an example of a dog park that went from a pop-up gathering space to a permanent fixture in the area. Plan a daily time and location where dog owners can meet in a local park (that allows dogs). You will probably know the names of the dogs before the owners … but it’s a great way to socialize for both people and dogs. More information is available here.
If creating a whole dog park makes you … paws … organize dog walking events in your neighbourhood instead.
For more information: Designing a destination dog park
Encourage community members to walk/wheel to their destinations and interact with the city space along the way. In the City of Mount Hope, West Virginia, neighbours have created a wayfinding program, “Walk (Your City).” Meet up with others and show them how easy it is to walk/wheel to meaningful places! The City of Vancouver has a wayfinding initiative to encourage walking and exploration, as well as transit integration. You can also show off your neighbourhood like the City of Ottawa does by inviting people to participate in Jane’s Walk.
You may remember seeing this on the news. Draw a “racetrack” on your driveway for bikes, strollers, walkers, scooters, or anyone!
Create an interactive and interpretive trail to tell your area’s history in an innovative way and encourage getting active outdoors. The Tsútswecw Provincial Park is an example of a story trail with signs offering up a wealth of knowledge about the trail. Follow the Tsútswecw Provincial Park example on the BC Parks website.
Biking, hand cycling (or use of another adapted bike), or mountain biking can be a great way to challenge yourself while enjoying nature. If your area does not have any trails, think about starting a group to build some with wood, including jumps. This can also be done in an open field with more equipment if you don’t live in an area featuring trails or forests that can accommodate mountain biking.
Organize with your neighbours to set up sprinklers on your front lawns at the same time during a hot summer’s day and coordinate a sprinkler run (or wheel) through the neighbourhood.
Work with your local library or community centre to establish a sport equipment lending program or create a neighbourhood sport equipment swap program using a cabinet like the “little free library” boxes.
