Thematic Brief – Building Resilience Through Play: Evidence-Based Approaches for Children in Crisis Settings

Play is a vital yet often overlooked component of response for children affected by emergencies and protracted crises, supporting healing, learning, resilience, and psychosocial well-being.Despite growing recognition of its value, systematic evidence and frameworks for play-based interventions—especially for children with disabilities—remain limited.

This brief provides examples of effective play-based models from crisis and low-resource settings, highlighting strategies to advance play in humanitarian contexts through cross-sector collaboration and evidence-based approaches for lasting impact.

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Written and designed by Lola Ayanda, reviewed by Elana Banin and Tricia Young, with inputs from Mercy Karumba, Priyanka Upreti, Camilla Wøldike, Emilia Sorrentino, Sayed Mahmud Sunny and Viktoria Sargsyan