Making play for accessible in Invercargill
In 2015, Healthy Families Invercargill spoke in-depth to people working in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector about play.
The overwhelming feedback was that locally there were few low-cost existing play opportunities - both indoor and outdoor - across the city. Teachers also reported that whānau lacked confidence and motivation around enabling play with their tamariki. These insights prompted the question, “How might we help tamariki and their families to play more?”
Healthy Families Invercargill’s response was a series of strategic community-based initiatives to remove barriers to play, encourage co-design, and teach the importance of play for physical and mental health and wellbeing. Activations included the creation of “Let’s Play Southland” a network for play advocacy, the creation of Play Pods as a resource to support play in communities and activating play in unused spaces around Southland.
A once in a lifetime opportunity for input into the redevelopment of the Invercargill CBD has also meant Healthy Families Invercargill has been able to advocate for play as an important factor in creating vibrancy and supporting the wellbeing of families when they engage in the CBD.
The Play Pods have provided an environment that made it easy for families and young people to play, supporting community physical and mental wellbeing. Healthy Families Invercargill has made it easier for community groups to access funding for their own Play Pods, which has also allowed communities to develop play resources which are relevant to their community.
Healthy Families Invercargill continues to build strong relationships with community stakeholders, schools, ECEs, recreation facilities, Police, social agencies and local government, using initiatives such as Play Week to build momentum. We’ve learnt that something as simple as a piece of chalk can unlock a raft of rich play experiences. Play has proven to be an ideal platform for hauora. Our local Councils increasingly understand the role they can play in creating quality play environments beyond just playgrounds. Invercargill City Council now has Local Play Advocate on staff. The Gore District Council was a major supporter and contributed investment into the Neighbourhood Play System pilot which ran in East Gore.
Healthy Families Invercargill worked with ACC for a funding grant through its Regional Injury Prevention Fund for a “Play Pack Initiative” for families living in daily crisis due to family harm. The investment enabled the delivery of 20 Play Packs to support vulnerable families in the Southland region. Active Southland worked with Invercargill Police, Plunket and Awarua Whānau Services, who all work with whānau in high-risk situations. This represents a specialised initiative through which vulnerable whānau are supported to provide tamariki with the permission to play, within high-risk or crisis environments. This is critical given recent research highlighting the role that play has in helping tamariki to cope with trauma or crisis situations (International Play Association, 2017). Having an inter-team approach at Active Southland has also created some exciting opportunities in the play space for tamariki and rangatahi by utilising the reach of the regional sports trust, including through the Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa fund. The stronger these relationships become, the more impact there is for enabling intergenerational play opportunities for our community.
When we activate and design spaces for play, we can improve social connectedness, community wellbeing and create opportunities for movement in a fun way.