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'Changing the State of Play with Mud between your Toes', a Big Lottery
funded project, connects children to nature through play. Many of the
project's ambitions were realised through its work with community groups and
organisations, working with them to design and create innovative, inclusive
nature-based play spaces and places. Other areas of the project involved
facilitating participatory activities with children and their parents,
collaborating with artists and manufacturers in the design of play
structures, and supporting children's access to natural, wild spaces through
the provision of resources, activities, events and people. The project ran
from 2008 to 2010 but its work lives on through the community.
The project connected with a diversity of people with varying needs, ranging
from social housing estates, schools, nurseries, play schemes, parks,
respite centres, children in care and traveller and gypsy sites. Some of the
highlights included direct face-to-face playwork in both natural spaces and
the built environment, including den-building in various parks, making rafts
on beaches, making shelters in woods, and also making participatory
documentary and campaign films. Many of the playful ideas were tested within
the Eden site. This involved collaborating with numerous individuals and
organisations, including universities, playground manufacturers, artists,
landscape architects, designers, local authorities, disability advisers, and
national and international play organisations. Designs established and
tested within Eden were and are used as exemplars for community groups to
replicate in their own environments.
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