On a 20,000-square-foot fenced plot on Governors Island in New York City, children wield hand saws, drive nails into lumber, and scramble up wooden towers of their own making. Operating under the nonprofit play:groundNYC, the space—known as The Yard—resembles an organized junkyard where young people are given broad autonomy to saw plywood, romp in mud pits, and construct climbing structures.
Steph Skaff serves as the executive director of the organization. When not managing administrative duties, she can often be found walking the grounds, inspecting child-built forts, and occasionally hammering loose nails back into place. Banners at the perimeter outline the space’s core philosophy, separating children from what organizers view as a primary barrier to independent development: parents. Signs posted near the entrance declare, “For safety reasons, all adults must be accompanied by their inner child,” and “Better a broken bone than a broken spirit.”
The framework draws on traditional ideas regarding risk management in youth development. Ms. Skaff notes that children across the United States frequently navigate highly structured schedules, which can hinder self-discovery, resilience, and personal trust. Inside The Yard, children regularly debate material choices, platform stability, and division of labor. On a recent Saturday, a 13-year-old local named Oscar coordinated the construction of an eight-foot-tall fort featuring two access ladders and a hidden compartment.
For parents, the enforced separation removes the daily pressure of constant intervention. Arien Garber, whose children frequent the space, describes it as an environment that encourages manageable risks without being dangerous, noting that scraped knees are an accepted part of the experience. While supervisors known as playworkers monitor the area to handle emergencies, they generally refrain from interfering in children’s activities.
Ms. Skaff’s approach is informed by her upbringing in Perrysburg, Ohio, during the 1980s and 1990s, where unsupervised outdoor exploration helped her understand her physical environment. After earning a theater degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree in creative writing from Hunter College, she pursued a career in nonprofit arts programming and development, including work at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Staff members, such as Rowan Dahlin, emphasize that her leadership consistently prioritizes youth empowerment over adult control.
Over the past decade, The Yard has served more than 100,000 children, with camp waitlists stretching months ahead. Seeking to expand these principles beyond Governors Island, Ms. Skaff and her team have initiated partnerships with six public elementary schools in New York. The initiative trains teachers and administrators to modify recess supervision, identifying when to step back and allow students to take calculated risks.
Additionally, the nonprofit launched family workshops in 2025 to help parents foster independent play. Twenty-eight families have participated in sessions where facilitators ask adults to recall their own childhood memories—frequently involving unsupervised outdoor activities such as bike riding or exploring sand dunes across various countries. Ms. Skaff, who is the mother of a seven-year-old, observes that her professional work has influenced her daily parenting, helping her embrace spontaneous moments like pausing during a rush to let her son climb a row of Citi Bike rentals.
