Summer is a simple season to start positive childhood experiences

Published 1:30 am Thursday, June 25, 2026

SOMETHING SHIFTS IN summer. The pace slows. Kids spill outside. Evenings stretch long enough to linger. For families across the Olympic Peninsula, the coming months offer something rare: unstructured time, warmer air and the natural invitation to simply be together.

Those moments are exactly what researchers call Positive Childhood Experiences, or PCEs.

These are the nurturing relationships, meaningful activities and supportive experiences that help children build skills to cope with life, challenges and live beyond adversity.

Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, auntie, neighbor, coach or mentor, we all play a role. And it’s never too late to start.

While this may feel familiar, the science behind it is worth knowing. Studies from Tufts Medical Center show that children with more positive experiences have significantly better mental health outcomes as adults, lower rates of substance use, stronger educational outcomes and greater resilience in the face of adversity.

Even among adults who had a pretty hard childhood, those who also had more positive experiences show dramatically lower rates of depression. Positive experiences don’t erase hardship. They buffer it. Research also suggests the absence of positive experiences may be more damaging to long-term health than the presence of adversity itself.

PCEs are not necessarily complicated or expensive. They happen in the home and out in the community, across the lifespan, for children and for the adults who show up alongside them. Researchers from Tufts have identified 10 ways to build positive experiences any time of year.

Here’s what they can look like on the Olympic Peninsula this summer:

• Stay cool together. Find a creek, Lake Crescent or a community pool. The shared adventure matters more than the destination.

• Spend a day at the library. Local libraries, like Jefferson County Library District, offer free summer reading programs, events and activities for all ages, and they are already underway.

• Plan a movie night. Borrow a DVD from your local library, make popcorn and watch something together. The ritual matters as much as what’s on the screen. Cheering together for the World Cup counts too.

• Be in nature. Olympic National Park offers free entrance July 3-5 for Independence Day weekend and again on Aug. 25 for the National Park Service’s 110th birthday. Walk a trail, sit by a river, notice what lives under a rock.

• Visit a local nature center. Our region has remarkable places to explore the natural world together. In Clallam County, you can borrow a Feiro Marine Life Center pass from the local library for a free visit.

• Stay connected with family and friends. Call a grandparent, a cousin, a neighbor. Make it a weekly tradition. Let kids lead the conversation.

• Give back to the community. Volunteer together. The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center welcomes volunteers to help maintain one of our most beloved outdoor spaces. Visit pafac.org/volunteer to learn more. While there, you can check out backpack kits that can be used while visiting Webster’s Woods. These kits contain storybooks, field guides, watercolors, paper and a community nature journal so that those who check out the kit can leave some art behind. Free or by donation, find information at https://pafac.org/programs/independent.

• Add a fun spin to family visits and outings. Catch a local summer baseball game and cheer on neighbors and schoolmates. Or make a grandparent’s visit an event: “Camp Grandma” or “Poppy’s Adventure Week.” Ordinary time becomes something a child looks forward to.

• Explore your neighborhood. A walk becomes a scavenger hunt. How many birds can you spot? How many wildflowers can you name?

• Appreciate the moment. Pause. Notice. Put the phone down for 20 minutes and be where you are. Research tells us that felt connection, not just physical presence, is what makes the difference.

Small moments add up, and this summer is another opportunity to create them. The conditions for children and families to thrive are already here on the Olympic Peninsula. We get to use them.

For more information about Resilience Project frameworks and partnerships, contact me at clallamresilience@gmail.com.

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Minnie Whalen is the director of the Resilience Project, a hope ambassador and a certified facilitator of the Tufts PCE Framework on the Olympic Peninsula. The Resilience Project is a regional consortium that is fiscally sponsored by the Olympic Peninsula YMCA and brings together sectors to coordinate action, share learning and build collective impact.