🌿 Welcome to The School of Play

At The School of Play, we believe stronger communities are built through connection, inclusion, creativity, and a shared sense of belonging.

We work with nonprofits, schools, community organizations, coalitions, and municipalities to turn ideas into meaningful and sustainable community impact. Our work includes grant development, strategic planning, coalition and partnership building, program development, and support with moving projects from concept toward implementation.

Inclusive play remains at the heart of our work, but our vision extends beyond the playground. We are interested in the many ways people connect, learn, create, and participate in their communities — through inclusive sports and recreation, nature-based learning, sensory-rich environments, cultural storytelling, creative making, and shared community experiences.

We also help bring organizations together around common goals. Through initiatives such as regional coalition building, we are working to strengthen connections between programs, identify gaps in services, share resources, and expand inclusive opportunities within the communities we serve.

The School of Play continues to explore a long-term vision for a place where these ideas can come together — blending inclusive play, nature, learning, creativity, culture, therapeutic experiences, and community gathering. Until then, we are building that vision one partnership, program, and community project at a time.

ABOUT our founder:

Tracey Lydon is the founder of The School of Play, bringing together a multidisciplinary background in education, landscape design, operations, community development, and inclusive recreation.

Tracey began her career as an educator, working as an elementary science teacher and with the Native American Studies program in Fremont, where learning extended beyond the classroom into outdoor and culturally connected experiences. She earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Barbara and later completed a certificate in Landscape Architecture through UC Berkeley Extension.

Her career expanded into public-space planning and design, including work with San Francisco Public Works and Callander Associates on parks, streetscapes, wetland restoration, recreation facilities, and community improvement projects. Through this work, she also developed experience securing public funding and helping transform community priorities into implementable projects.

Tracey later spent more than a decade in the playground industry as an operations leader, designer, and partner at Miracle Playsystems. There, she helped build the systems and teams responsible for delivering thousands of playground and recreation projects throughout the western United States.

Today, Tracey brings those experiences together through The School of Play — helping charitable organizations and community partners secure resources, strengthen programs, build collaborations, and create more inclusive opportunities for people to play, learn, create, connect, and belong.