Local groups and community organisations

Promoting the idea and supporting more streets to start playing out is best done locally by people who know their community well.

This could be an existing community group or local organisation like a play association or residents’ association or – as has happened in some places – a local Playing Out group set up by resident activators. We have produced a Toolkit for use by organisations who are supporting play streets in areas facing greater disadvantage. We can also provide training and guidance for any groups or organisations who want to support resident-led street play locally. Please get in touch to let us know how we can help.

Local organisations supporting street play include:

• Play Wales are working to support the playing out movement in Cardiff and beyond.
• Play Scotland are committed to increasing opportunities for outdoor play for children across Scotland.
• Hackney Play Association have a street play project, offering peer support to residents.
• London Play are supporting local authorities and streets in London to play out.

Some existing local ‘Playing Out’ groups:

• PlayMeetStreet is a voluntary group set up by North Tyneside residents to promote/support street play;  they started with 10 streets back in 2017, and now over 90 streets have joined the play streets movement in North Tyneside!
• Sustainable St Albans do amazing work to support play streets in the St Albans district.
• Play Streets Norfolk support residents in Norwich and Norfolk to apply to play out.
• Six Streets Derby run a play street in their neighbourhood and are happy to support others locally.

Many other places also have support in place from local organisations or groups – find out what’s happening Near You.

If you want to take action as an individual to help children play out more there are also plenty of ways you can get involved.