Play Parks

Play Parks offers free and accessible physical activity sessions once a week for children, fostering their fundamental movement skills, social connections, and engagement with their local community.

The Play Parks initiative is a community-centred programme that aims to provide free and accessible weekly physical activity sessions in a local park or community space. The initiative brings children together for an hour every Saturday from 9-10 and helps them play together in a way that is healthy and educational, fostering their fundamental movement skills, social connections, and engagement...

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The Play Parks initiative is a community-centred programme that aims to provide free and accessible weekly physical activity sessions in ...

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Join the communities already benefitting from starting a Play Parks

You'll get guides and resources on how to bring this idea to life.

There is no funding available for this idea, but these resources will still help to make your project happen!

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Start a Play Parks

Play Parks made a tremendous impact in our community with its introduction in George Hay Park, Johannesburg, South Africa in 2020. The initiative provided children with a fantastic opportunity to engage in play and interact with other children in ...

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Play Parks
Play Parks Parent (Johannesburg Sept 2020)

How to start a project on ChangeX

  • 1

    Create your project page

    Click the green start button to register and set up your project page. It’s quick, free and easy.

  • 2

    Complete a 30 Day Challenge

    Complete simple steps in 30 days to get your project off the ground.

  • 3

    Activate your project

    Follow the 5 Step Guide and your action plan to bring the project to life.

  • 4

    Share impact

    Share impact by posting a summary and photos and completing a survey.

Great for

  • Parents or caregivers who want to be actively involved in their children's development and well-being
  • Volunteers from community organizations dedicated to children's welfare and empowerment
  • Early childhood/ primary school educators passionate about holistic child development
  • Sports coaches or trainers with an interest or experience in working with children
  • Community members passionate about children's physical activity and well-being

Play Parks project essentials

5 Step Guide

  • Find your Play Park Location
  • Organize and Mobilize
  • Get Informed with your team
  • Spread the Word
  • Launch and Lead

Time

Suggested: Overall, being a Play Park leader requires a total time commitment of approximately 4-5 hours per week, divided between marketing and outreach, volunteer coordination, accessing the Kids Collab platform for weekly lessons, and the one hour Play Park activation itself. This investment of time is essential to ensure the success and impact of the Play Parks initiative in your community.

Resources

More information on how to get started and any resources shared by the Play Parks

49 Play Parks projects have already been started

See where

Meet the Social Innovator

Welcome to the Play Parks Initiative by Kids Collab! Are you ready to create a vibrant and exciting play space in your community?

Imagine a neighborhood park, a local community centre, or even a vacant lot filled with laughter, exploration, and boundless energy. With Play Parks, you have the power to reimagine and revitalize these spaces into playful learning landscapes that inspire children's curiosity and unleash their creativity.

Whether you're a parent, educator, or passionate community member, this is your chance to make a difference. Join us in this exciting adventure and discover how you can transform your community into a vibrant hub of playful learning.

Together, let's create a world where every child has the opportunity to thrive through play. Get involved with Play Parks today and be part of a movement that is reimagining the power of play in our communities.

Whitney Richardson and Rachel McMahon - Kids Collab Co-Founders

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Why a 30 day challenge?

    The 30 Day Challenge was developed by our Team based on our experience working with communities. We’ve learned that the first weeks are critical to build momentum and get off to a good start with any community project. Teams who complete these steps within the first month are much more likely to successfully complete their project!

    The Challenge is a series of simple steps that each applicant has to complete to get their project off the ground and unlock funding, if there is funding currently available for that idea in your region. Steps include watching a video and/or reading content, having a call with a ChangeX team member, forming a team so that you have support, having your first team meeting, sharing a team photo, and sharing a project action plan.

  • What can funding be used for?

    Once funding is received it can be used to cover direct set-up costs of the new community project. For example space rental, insurance fees, seeds and planting materials, tools, training fees; pretty much any materials you might need for a project that benefits your community.

    Funds cannot be used for the costs of work that has already been carried out, costs unrelated to the setup and maintenance of the new project, payments to group members for their work on the project. Funds can’t be used for the promotion of religious causes, non-charitable activities, sponsorship or fundraising events. Please read the terms and conditions for further details.

  • How do I know if there is funding available?

    On idea pages, if there is funding available for the idea in your region you will see “Funding available” and the region listed in the turquoise box. When you first login you will also see a green banner at the top of the screen saying “live funds near you” if there is funding available in your region. The ChangeX homepage will feature those live funds near you.

    A note on the waitlist: when all the funding has been allocated to applicants, new applicants will go on a waitlist. If some applicants that are in the fund don’t successfully complete the 30 Day Challenge their funding will be released and can be then allocated to those on the waitlist. To see if you are going on a waitlist check the main fund page, ideas fully allocated will have the note “Join the waitlist” instead of “Apply to start”.

  • What is ChangeX?

    ChangeX is a platform that connects communities to proven ideas and funding.

    By empowering local changemakers with proven ideas from social innovators and accessible funding from our partners, we aim to build healthier, more inclusive and sustainable communities. Our work is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and together with our partners, we aim to impact 1 billion people globally by 2030.

    • Communities: Get the funding, resources and support you need to start impactful projects in your community.
    • Social innovators: Connect with local changemakers, access funding to scale your idea, and impact more communities globally.
    • Funders: Fund the themes and regions they care most about, with measurable impact, and at global scale.

    We believe that by bringing the best social innovations and the world’s changemakers together in a shared community, we can accelerate the spread of innovations across the world and have a bigger impact. Together we aim to unleash the potential of changemakers by enabling collaboration, by sharing knowledge and resources, by connecting changemakers across different disciplines and innovations and by opening up access to the world’s best proven social innovations to everyone.

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  • Fighting Words

    Unleash the creative potential of kids in your local community

  • Map My Day

    Organise an event to map the accessibility of public places in your community and raise awareness of the topic

Start a Play Parks
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