Funder: City Bridge Trust
OK, so WE KNOW that adventure playgrounds are worth their weight in gold. But the Play Works project aimed to make sure potential funders could see this too!
Play Works was an exciting joint project between London Play and adventure playground organisations – developing tools, techniques and resources to monitor, evaluate and sustain London’s unique and precious adventure playgrounds.
Phase I of the project kicked off in 2015 and supported staff in 12 of London’s adventure playgrounds to develop their own systems of monitoring and evaluation. Useable, fun and most importantly, work for adventure play staff, they have been able to demonstrate the huge positive impact they have on the communities they serve.
Play Works II was originally envisaged as a face to face training programme for managers of adventure playgrounds, taking the monitoring and evaluation tools developed during the first phase of the project and embedding them at a senior level.
However it soon became apparent that this was not what was needed most. Management staff across the sector lacked the capacity to take time away from the very immediate pressures of operations and neverending funding applications. So the question became: “How can this project best equip and support adventure playgrounds while demanding very little in terms of commitment from time-stretched staff?”
A new website, which celebrates adventure playgrounds, their value to their communities and London as a global leader for adventure play, is now in development. Scheduled for launch in spring 2021, the site will also feature a members’ area where play workers, volunteers and other adventure playground staff can access online training resources, tools, information and support. With many of these resources commissioned from playgrounds that have successfully used them in practice, we hope that the site, as it develops, will become a valuable source of support and inspiration to anyone with an interest in adventure play.
Find out more by getting in touch with Chrissy Baxter via chrissy@londonplay.org.uk.
And watch this space!
