If children feel welcome in their local adventure playgrounds, they know their voice is being heard within the community
Our aim is to make it easy for people to find out where they can volunteer or get involved in making their own neighbourhood a better place to play. The campaign – Love Outdoor Play – is backed by the Get Involved in Play pro- gramme, which will generate more than 20,000 opportunities to get involved – ranging from an afternoon helping out to long term volunteering placements. I think that society is changing, but
there’s a recognition that we went too far with the ‘health and safety gone mad’ brigade. Increasingly it’s acknowl- edged that children need challenge and opportunity – but they also need to be part of a loving community. We all know plenty of single mums who have good, strong networks and we also know two- parent families who don’t. If children and young people feel
welcome in their streets, in local adven- ture playgrounds and parks; have places where they can climb trees, try parkour and learn to skateboard – they know their voice is being heard and that mas- sively reduces the likelihood of anti-social behaviour. This is further enhanced by
Issue 1 2012 © cybertrek 2012
police support and the introduction of play rangers into parks that make places playful, and increase children’s and young people’s sense of shared ownership. We’re also very aware of the success of
intergenerational projects. There’s a gen- uine warmth about the place when the
“It’s important that
young people feel secure in these community
environments to help them build better relationships in the future“
whole community gets involved in a proj- ect – such as people volunteering their website expertise or gardening skills. It’s important that young people feel
secure in these community environments to help them build better relationships in the future and many older people find it a real lifeline to engage with youngsters.
We launched Love Outdoor Play, the
public-facing campaign in January and already have more than 1,000 new sup- porters. The
loveoutdoorplay.net blog site is developing as a community space, providing examples and encouragement to all those who believe children should be outside more. We’ll be putting up stories about the difference volunteering around play can make to communities and individuals – including blogs about celebrity volunteers including P Diddy at Toffee Park in Islington, London and the singer from Alabama 3 at the Triangle Adventure Park in south London.
How is the play sector coping with the government’s funding cuts? The play sector as a whole is facing a very difficult time. This was made harder when the funding for the evaluation of the previous investment in play was cut, so we can’t show the hard evidence of the difference it is making. We know that children are using
neighbourhood play areas, playgrounds and child-friendly parks more often and that they’re making the communities feel
Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 63
ALL PICS: PLAY ENGLAND
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