The North East Wales Community Play Project – a three year initiative financed by the Big Lottery Fund – is holding two launch events in Wrexham and Flintshire, on 21 and 28 January.
The Community Play Project is a regional scheme across Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham, and is being run by Flintshire County Council’s Play Unit. The Unit were the recipient of a £964,850 grant over three years from round two of the Big Lottery Fund Child’s Play Programme. This pioneering project will encourage more children to play out in their local communities, and ultimately aims to leave a legacy of children playing freely in communities across the region.
The project provides three peripatetic playwork teams, one in each of the three participating counties. Each team consists of three professionally trained playworkers, supported by a Resource Officer and a Project Manager. These teams will target 15 play deprived communities across the three counties over the three years. The project will deliver play sessions in communities for children and young people aged 5 – 15 years.
The North East Wales Community Play Project will not only provide rich play opportunities for children, but will also comprise a significant element of play and community development, to ensure that barriers to children’s play are addressed and that the Project’s intended legacy – of children playing freely in their local community – is achieved.
As a key part of monitoring and evaluating the project, there is an integral research element that has been developed in partnership with Glyndwr University. The research will investigate the effectiveness and impact of the provision for children’s play in the community on individuals and communities.
The first identified communities benefiting from this project are Coedpoeth in Wrexham and Higher Shotton in Flintshire. To mark the beginning of the regular weekly play sessions, we are holding two launch events. All are welcome to come along. This is a great opportunity to meet the team and join in the many fantastic play opportunities on offer, such as: den building, rope swings, junk modelling, and much much more!
The launch of the Wrexham play sessions is this Saturday, 21 January, 12pm – 4pm, at the Coedpoeth skate park.
The launch of the Flintshire play sessions will take place on Saturday 28 January, 12pm – 3pm, at Central Drive playing field in Higher Shotton.
For more information about the project, contact Gareth Stacey, Play Project Manager, telephone 01352 702477, [email protected]
