Kate in Bristol

Kate started by running a play street on her own street and now has years of experience in helping others to do the same, including in tower block estates and communities facing disadvantage or other challenges.

She’s also become an expert in pop-up (also known as ‘just do something’) play in settings outside of streets, such as a carpark or under-used space around a tower block estate. Here’s her inspiring story and top tips…

My first play street

I applied for our first play street with a neighbour, Emma, back in June 2014. One day we met for a chat and both mentioned Playing Out. It was a sign! We thought it would be a fantastic way to bring the street community together and a positive thing for our own children. We applied together – which made the process easier and actually enjoyable – and waited for approval from the council. Our first session was a great success and we were the 50th street in Bristol to Play Out! We had support from the local activator on the day and also invited people from neighbouring streets to join us. 

How it changed our community

We ran a weekly play street on Fridays after school and during the colder months, we often still closed the road but for a shorter time. I think because we were so consistent with our sessions, it had a real impact on our street in a very short space of time. Children and parents got to know each other and it was something we looked forward to every week, so we reapplied for a second year.

When it came to our third year, we decided we didn’t need to officially shut the road any more! The children were playing out at various times independently across the week, our street community had grown, and we didn’t need the cones and high vis any more. We had made a positive change.

Growing things beyond my street

In 2015 I became an Area Activator, helping other local residents to start a play street. I met people at community centres, local events and by word of mouth. At events I would usually draw a hopscotch and encourage people to chalk or join in with some skipping. It was the best way to start conversations and showed how simple and easy it is to play –you don’t need much to get people engaged. It was also nostalgic. I had police officers skipping, grandparents sharing their hopscotch techniques and children making up their own games with chalk!

I also reached out to council development workers and community workers locally who had identified areas where there was a bigger need for children to play out, and also a spark of interest from parents interested in helping their children to play out freely and safely. 

Supporting play in communities facing more challenges

I also wanted to reach people who don’t live on streets and who might face more disadvantage or other challenges in playing out. I had this vision of using the pop-up play model to help it work well.  In 2015/16 I had short consultations with some communities that had shown an interest. We checked in on when to hold the sessions and what was manageable. I wanted to make sure we ran a session quickly after those initial discussions to build on interest and keep up momentum – and show that things are actually happening. 

We also had to identify a suitable location – whether it was a car park, pavement or another space – and whether we needed to cordon off the space with cones and signs or get any permissions. Once I had done all this, I promoted the events with posters to local residents and asked the council development workers to share it with their networks.

Finally I prepared what we would need on the day: some pavement chalk, hula hoops, skipping ropes and other ideas for promoting free play. It was all about giving children the chance and space to play out and for their parents to chat and get to know one another. It was handy to have local support workers who could help with any issues. The eventual aim was to hand over to local residents and parents, providing them with kit to make it happen and bringing communities together.

Examples of positive change

There are a couple of positive examples from that work that are helpful to share, each with their own challenges and learning. One is an office block that had been converted into housing with 650 residents including 200 who had previously been homeless. It wasn’t officially ‘supported living’ but support workers and agencies were working there. There were lots of families and young children and although there was a small playground and soft play, it wasn’t well used. The families also had to deal with a lot of divisive negativity from others about their housing development. 

The council development workers had such GREAT ideas but they were so limited on resources and energy. Together we needed to find out the key things to offer so we held a coffee and play session, inviting residents to complete a short survey. 

With support from the Council Development team, we then ran regular after school two hour sessions including some for the summer holidays – all in an unused part of the car park. When it was wet, I gave a presentation to the parents about the wider Playing Out movement. This was somewhat of a lightbulb moment for a lot of the parents and made them feel part of a bigger movement. It also sparked good conversations and memories of when they used to play out as children. 

Another context I worked in was a huge inner city 17 story tower block with a large park outside the block where lots of children played. However there was still interest from some residents about different types of play and ways to bring the community together post Covid. 

Working with residents and a council development worker, we decided to run playing out sessions directly outside the flats, after school, a couple of times a month. It went really well. A wide variety of residents and parents came along to show their support, as well as the caretaker. Off the back of this, a small group of Somali Mums were keen to apply for a street party by themselves to bring the community together. Myself and council workers set up a meeting to all discuss this. We also identified a storage area for play equipment and started a network of residents who live in tower blocks to share experiences about playing out sessions, so that there was a kind of peer to peer information sharing. 

Creating opportunities for pop-up play (AKA “Just do something!”)

In both these contexts, the early conversations and work to understand the challenges for children and their parents around accessing local, outside play were really important. This also helped to build up a network of parents who wanted to be involved and to change things for the better.

Many of the communities we were trying to reach have been badly let down for years. They are constantly ‘consulted’ but never see any change. It is very understandable that they may not wish to engage with something new. In this context, we found that there is a simple power in ‘just doing something positive’ – which can help people imagine or realise that change is possible. 

The ‘pop up play’ idea is one approach that worked to spark interest in this – just turning up in a shared space as families are coming back from school, with lots of pavement chalk, a long skipping rope, some hula hoops and bubbles! I’m not a play worker, my role was simply to create a space where I could chat to parents whilst their children play. And so much came from that.

Kate’s Top Tips:

• Link up with community development workers to identify potential communities and good locations known to them. 
• Attend local events and community centres to spread the word. 
• Connect to groups of residents, either formally through residents’ associations or informally through groups of parents (usually mothers).
• Work with on-site caretakers/managers to identify and secure a suitable space.
• Connect residents across neighbouring blocks to share experiences of reclaiming space for play.
• Care for shared community or play space (litter-picking, bulb-planting) to create space for conversations. 
• Bring your own children along, if you have any, to break the ice!
• Provide simple play ‘loose parts’ and keep play child-led: chalking, skipping, hopscotch, putting up a swing-ball or basketball hoop.
• Offer tea and biscuits as an encouragement for adult participants too.
• Once the concept and value of reclaiming a space for play is established (by demonstration), you can work on the relationships and trying to make it more community owned.