TSC’s Six Pathways
Tire Swing Collective’s work is shaped by six trauma-informed, experience-based Pathways — practical ways of bringing life, healing, and connection to foster children and their caregivers through time outside.
These Pathways guide how we design Backyard Makeovers, lead Open Play Days, support foster families, and partner with agencies, ministries, and businesses across the community.
What It Is:
PLAY is the child-centered space for movement, imagination, and shared joy. It gives children the freedom to explore, express themselves, and experience connection in ways that feel natural, safe, and fun.
What’s It Look Like:
Swinging, climbing, running, imaginative games, sensory-rich exploration, animal interactions, and open-ended outdoor activities that invite creativity, laughter, and movement.
Why It Matters:
Helps children rebuild safety and regulate stress
Gives caregivers easy, low-pressure ways to connect
Creates shared joy that strengthens trust and belonging
Supports healthy brain development through movement and imagination
What It Is:
PAUSE is intentional calm — a grounding space to breathe, reset, and find emotional balance. It creates gentle moments of rest where children and caregivers can slow down, feel safe, and reconnect with themselves and each other.
What’s It Look Like:
Quiet corners, hammocks, shaded seating, peaceful pathways, cozy spots with animals, and simple outdoor nooks that invite stillness, reflection, and steady breathing.
Why It Matters:
Helps children self-regulate without overwhelm
Gives caregivers a moment to recharge and stay grounded
Supports calm rhythms that make home life more sustainable
Strengthens connection by offering shared moments of rest
What It Is:
Grow nurtures curiosity and care by inviting children to engage with the beauty, wonder, and rhythms of nature. It gives them space to notice small details, tend to living things, and experience the steady, grounding presence of the natural world.
What’s It Look Like:
Flower beds, trees, gardens, planting and watering, nurturing plants for beauty and wonder, and simple nature-based moments that spark observation and gentle responsibility.
Why It Matters:
Builds observation skills, stewardship, and a sense of wonder
Creates simple, meaningful tasks caregivers and children can do together
Encourages a sense of rootedness and connection to place
Supports emotional steadiness through calming, sensory-rich experiences
What It Is:
HARVEST celebrates progress — helping children experience the full cycle of tending, growing, and enjoying what they’ve nurtured. It gives them a hopeful storyline where their effort leads to visible, meaningful results they can take pride in.
What’s It Look Like:
Vegetable gardens, fruit trees & vines, herbs, and other edible plants — growing food you can cultivate, pick, taste, and share, along with simple harvesting tasks that highlight growth and reward.
Why It Matters:
Helps children experience accomplishment and capability
Gives caregivers natural moments to affirm growth and identity
Builds gratitude, hope, and shared achievement
Reinforces that consistent care leads to positive, tangible outcomes
What It Is:
RAISE builds empathy, responsibility, and connection by helping children care for creatures that depend on them. It invites them into gentle rhythms of nurturing, offering a sense of importance, consistency, and relational warmth.
What’s It Look Like:
Caring for animals — feeding chickens, grooming goats, collecting eggs, gentle animal interactions, and simple daily routines that invite steady engagement and relational care.
Why It Matters:
Helps children develop nurturing skills and a sense of importance
Gives caregivers shared routines that deepen connection
Creates predictable, joyful structure that supports healing
Strengthens empathy, confidence, and emotional regulation
What It Is:
GATHER brings people together — creating belonging, connection, and shared joy through meaningful outdoor moments. It opens space for families, volunteers, and neighbors to build relationships that feel supportive, welcoming, and real.
What’s It Look Like:
Shared meals, fire-pit time, outdoor gatherings, community celebrations, simple visit moments, and relational experiences that bring people closer in ways that feel natural and warm.
Why It Matters:
Helps children feel included, supported, and part of a community
Reduces caregiver isolation through peer connection
Builds relationships that sustain families over time
Expands a circle of care that fosters long-term belonging
