After watching Steve Gross’s inspiring presentation during the Engaging Exchange online Protecting Play Conference in December, 2025, I wanted to learn more about his organization. I knew that The Life is Good Playmaker Project is a nonprofit dedicated to helping kids heal from childhood trauma. From their website I could see that the organization is over 20 years old and has helped over 30,000 early childhood professionals build healing, life-changing relationships with children whose lives have been impacted by trauma.

But I wanted to learn about how it all got started, what Steve believes some of the organization’s most important principles are, what our Exchange Community members can learn from his work, and where he sees the Life is Good Playmaker Project going in the future.