Community Play & Café Offers Vital Connection

For two years Grace Community Christian Reformed Church in Ancaster, Ont., has used its large open foyer filled with natural light as a community play space on Thursday mornings. Called Community Play &Café it's a drop-in for caregivers and young children with no agenda but play and connection and it has already developed a spin-off for homeschoolers and a once-a-season clothing exchange.

“This is a place where anyone may drop in to play, meet people, and build relationships,” said co-founder Mary-Jo Steenbeek, who along with Melanie Burnip brought the plan to the church’s council in July 2023.

“We started with approximately seven attendees in September 2023 and very quickly grew to an average of 30 people—adults and children—by June 2024,” Steenbeek said. Renee Bouwman, a member of Grace Community CRC who attended with her son, 4, and daughter, 1, saw an opportunity to expand the basic play scheme so homeschooling families could attend with older children. She started “The Village Hub”— with spaces for coloring, board games and puzzles, climbing mats, and active equipment like hula hoops, jump ropes, and balls—at the same time as Play &Cafe.

“I mainly wanted to include an older age range as I noticed many drop-in programs in the city only range from the ages 0 to 4 years old. So in the homeschool community, there is a lack of regularly scheduled programs that allow you to bring your children aged older than 4 along with you, which means you just don't end up going to any of the programs,” Bouwman said.

Steenbeek said the group started by using the toys from the church nursery and have supplemented and replaced some of those with donations from the congregation and from Play &Café attendees.

“We have comfortable seating in the foyer and lots of space to spread the toys around. Everything comes out of the nursery and gets set up by volunteers,” Steenbeek said, including often by the youth group after their meetings on Wednesday nights. Community Play &Café also uses screened volunteers who host, provide snacks, and visit with participants during the 90-minute play time.

“Our Thursday morning hosts are required to have their police check and comply with our Safe Church Policy,” Steenbeek said. The unstructured play time ends with a 15-minute formal closing when caregivers and children help clean up and then join to sing a few generic songs.

Steenbeek and Burnip modeled their community play proposal on a project running at Crosspoint Community Church in Tillsonburg, Ont., where Steenbeek’s brother is the pastor. Encouraged by stories of transformation seen in that group Steenbeek wanted to offer the same kind of opportunity.

“We have moms, dads, grandparents, and nannies who bring the children in their care. We have learned that for some of our friends, this group has become a very important part of their week. One woman even credits the group with saving her life. She moved to the community as a new mom with no family or friend connections in the area. She saw our sign and dropped in. She has been with us for the full two years so far and we have shared in some of her life journey.”

Steenbeek said other churches considering offering such an experience might think about their volunteer demographic, suitable open play space, and location. Grace Community CRC is located near a residential area and is on a bus route which makes it possible for participants to walk or bike and one family does come by bus.

Bouwman, who runs the Café area on Thursdays and cleans up after clothing exchange days, taking leftover items to the local Mission Thrift Store, said it has been helpful to share the program in mom and homeschool groups on social media. “We did notice a significant rise in numbers once we started posting on Facebook and getting word of mouth spread around,” she said.