Sports Management Issue 1 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

If children feel welcome in their local adventure playgrounds, they know their voice is being heard within the community
ALL PICS: PLAY ENGLAND
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 programme,
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 acknowledged
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 twoparent
families who don’t.
If children and young people feel
welcome in their streets, in local adventure
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 massively
reduces the likelihood of anti-social
behaviour. This is further enhanced by
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 genuine
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 project
– 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 supporters.
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
Issue 1 2012 © cybertrek 2012 Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 63