Newsletter: 2024 Highlights

Here are some of our highlights from 2024

Newsletter December 2024

“It was great to engage with children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) and their parents and carers, about the Diana Memorial playground. By watching them play, we learned so much specific detail–what works and what doesn’t work for all kinds of people.” Anna

“I’ve enjoyed developing the toolkit for Anglesey County Council- its been particularly fascinating to identify different barriers and opportunities that arise in co-creating play spaces. We’ve been identifying small tweaks that might improve how people’s voices, in this particular instance, young people’s voices, can be best positioned within the design and commissioning process for maximum impact.” Malcolm

“I’ve enjoyed being part of designing the workshops. For Spin Lab, we needed to communicate the research topic, the funding process, and help participants to develop ideas. We made ‘impossible Inventions’, played mini hide and seek, and wrote collaborative poetry. With West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL) we needed to design a process that generated a list of guidelines for designing inclusive green and blue infrastructure. So we created an awards ceremony, did scrap-modelling, had mock-radio interviews and made a large scale map across the floor.” Amy

“So many highlights! Developing the Bristol Urban Forum, formulating that into a manifesto, launching it out into the world, and observing thee impact has felt really exciting.” Malcolm

“When we were doing the Quakers Friars Pop Up, I noticed some 12 and 13 year old girls having a bubble tea under the tree. And I just went up to them started a conversation. I offered some pieces of fabric and invited them to play. Without any guidance, they tied the fabric together, and created trails and snails and ran and chalked all over the place. They thanked me profusely, but all I had done was make the invitation.” Anna

News

We’ve been shortlisted!

We are over the moon to announce that our youth engagement in Anglesey has been selected as a finalist for the ThorntonEducationTrust (TET) 2024 Inspire Future Generations Awards’ in the ‘Youth Long-Term Programme’ category! The outcome will be announced in January. Whatever the outcome, we are so pleased to be part of a wider community of people working for the to ensure that children and young people’s voice is heard within place-making and play provision.

OK to Play

Our associate (your faithful newsletter editor), Amy Rose, with Jenny Sanderson , Lydia Collinson and an interdisciplinary team researchers from University of Bristol, has secured funding from Brigstow Institute’s Seedcorn funding for ‘Ok to Play’: What is the role of hyper-local, resident-led, creative action in addressing barriers to children’s outdoor physical activity, play and independent mobility in their everyday, urban neighbourhood environments? The year-long project will be co-designed with households from a single neighbourhood in Bristol. It builds on Amy and Jenny’s previous, hyper-local projects about developing playable, social neighbouhoods, and involves exploring the University archives of community arts pioneers Welfare State International. Please contact Amy if you’d like to know more.

Sharing Space

We were recently asked to write a ‘Think Piece’ for Glasshouse Community Led Design’s 2024/2025 WeDesign Event Series, Sharing Place. We’ll tell you more about that when it’s published, but meanwhile, have a look at the events in their series. They are intended to bring people together to propose more equitable ways of sharing our places and spaces, as well as creating places to share experiences, skills and other things we value, through thoughtful placemaking.

Also on our radar

Fabulous Fabric Fancies, one of our co-researchers from our Expressive Pockets project, is offering Recycling / Repurposing Fabric Scraps Workshops in Whitehall, Bristol. The last one is this coming Monday, 16th December at 10:00 – 12:00
Beehive Centre, Stretford Road, Whitehall BS5 7AW
For more in formation and to reserve a place, contact Fanny

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We are eager for this newsletter to inspire thinking and doing around the topics that are important to you. Please contact amy@playdisrupt.com there’s anything you’d like to see covered here— maybe we could do a ‘reader’s questions section! Why not?

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Here are some of our highlights from 2024 Newsletter December 2024 “It was great to engage with children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) and their parents and carers, about the Diana Memorial playground. By watching them play, we learned so much specific detail–what

Jenny April 8, 2025