Right to play awards

• Increase mental health literacy
• Enhance emotional resilience
• Develop self-help and coping sills
• Encourage inclusivity and acceptance of difference
• Increase knowledge of community

The programme, funded under the European Unions PeacePlus Programme, involves staff training and children’s play sessions. 

Our Generation – PlayBoard NI

Archie Bear, our Play Champion mascot, explains how important play is for children and adults, and how it can help build resilience and bridge divisions. It tells the story of how PlayBoard NI was founded to promote play at a time of conflict in Northern Ireland and how the OUR Generation Spaces To Be programme has sought to address the impact of the conflict through play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B_ghLlO8qk

Playtopia is a grassroots loose-parts play space in Brisbane, Australia. Playtopia offers children a dynamic, self-directed environment shaped by curiosity, creativity and community. Grounded in playwork practice, Playtopia protects and promotes children’s Right to Play within the school day, recognising that school is where children spend much of their time and deserve access to joyful, meaningful play. The space evolves through children’s ideas, mark-making and constructions, creating a living landscape that reflects their cultures, identities and stories. Low-cost, sustainable and inclusive, Playtopia shows how child-led play can transform school environments and strengthen wellbeing, belonging and joyful learning.

Happy Welcome is a clown and circus project for children of all ages living in refugee reception centres in Germany and worldwide. Because often there is no time, no space and no material to play. Delivered by Clowns Without Borders Germany in cooperation with federal and local governments, local intercultural associations and social workers at the centres it offers clowning, juggling, acrobatics and magic in an almost non-verbal, trauma-sensitive way. Children shape the workshops and bring their own cultures into the activities. The simple, low-cost format can easy be replicated in other communities and countries.

For more information see www.clownsohnegrenzen.org

Within the “Play and Nature” intervention area, the Education Division of the Municipality of Barcelos, Portugal, develops an integrated strategy to promote Children’s Right to Play, bringing together complementary initiatives such as “Recreia-Te”, the “Learning to Play, Playing to Learn” workshop and Traditional Games Box, the “Timeless Play” event, the “Playground is Nature” pilot project and the “School-Nature Network”. This approach promotes free, unstructured, active and creative play, combining traditional games, contact with nature and the transformation of school outdoor spaces through the integration of natural elements and Nature-based Solutions. By recovering and valuing traditional games and creating more diverse and stimulating environments, the strategy encourages exploration, imagination, physical activity, autonomy and social interaction, while strengthening children’s connection with their cultural and ecological heritage. Children are actively involved in transforming the spaces they use, being encouraged to express their ideas, participate in decision-making and contribute to the implementation of solutions that respond to their needs and aspirations. In this way, the Municipality of Barcelos adopts a holistic approach that goes beyond promoting the Right to Play, also fostering children’s rights to participation and education, enhancing their well-being and strengthening relationships between schools, families and communities. Ultimately, the strategy seeks to embed play into everyday life, transforming spaces, practices and relationships while promoting more inclusive, participatory and nature-connected educational environments.

Palestine Play Projects (PPP) exists to help make play and creativity part of the lives of Palestinian children. We previously built playgrounds in schools and community settings across Palestine, but that is no longer possible. With unrelenting trauma, loss, and need, we focus our efforts on supporting play opportunities, rather than building physical structures. We do this by working together with local Palestinian partners to deliver staffed play and creative programmes.

“Every activity supported through Palestine Play Projects creates moments that help children rebuild confidence, reconnect with others, and recover pieces of the childhood that conflict continues to take away.” (PPP partner in Gaza)