Recess Guardians

Recess Guardians is a registered charity whose sole focus is to teach kids how to play. This grass-roots initiative started in Saskatchewan in 2008 to resolve the increasing social and bullying problems impacting students’ recess. Brock University recently completed a 3-year study on the massive increase in children’s inability to actively engage in recess activities and as a result the children separate into “cliques”, causing a huge divide on the playground. When researchers provided children with the skills and resources to start their own games, they found a significant decrease in school yard fights, more inclusion across different grade levels and less segregation among “cliques”. With the increasing number of dual income homes, youth are no longer gaining the social and emotional skills needed to form relationships with their peers to engage in healthy, active play. For nearly a decade, Recess Guardians has been successful at inspiring youth to become strong, active, responsible leaders by empowering them with the tools and skills they need to initiate healthy play. By teaching peer-to-peer leadership, we are able to build strong leaders for the future. To date, Recess Guardians has worked with over 400 schools in 5 provinces inspiring more than students and is looking forward to increasing our reach across the country.