Nature-based play is important for children’s development and wellbeing and growing children’s climate action and social activism interests and capabilities.
Children need nature, and nature needs children who will grow up and value the resources, services and amenities it provides.
However, access to play in natural spaces is diminishing, and more and more children are lacking an emotional connection to nature. For example, only one in four UK children (24%) play outside for over an hour a day, with even fewer playing in natural areas (less than 10%) or visiting wild spaces regularly (12%), and four out of five UK children (80%) lack a connection to nature.
Nature contact seems to be especially supportive for more disadvantaged children who are also the children who spend the least time outdoors.
Playful Green Planet transforms green spaces into ecologically thriving outdoor playrooms and classrooms that grow children’s (0-10) ecological citizenship.
Playful Green Planet is committed to growing, connecting and supporting a movement of Playful Green Planet Stewards (from the RSA Fellowship) who are co-creating and co-producing nature-based play and learning experiences for all children and the early years, community and school settings in their neighbourhoods.
The change we want to see:
The RSA, in partnership with the Eden Project and Bath Spa University, has been developing since 2022, supported by a wider network including Grant Associates, House of Imagination, HundrED and Land Trust.
Critical to the success of this intervention, are our Playful Green Planet Stewards: place-based individuals or organisations who have the capacity to bring together coalitions of citizens, businesses, anchor institutions and community-led initiatives in deprived urban neighbourhoods.
Playful Green Planet is committed to growing, connecting, endorsing and supporting a movement of stewards whose creative play spaces and experiences are founded on the following principles:
The National Lottery Community Fund has generously funded the first two pilots founding Playful Green Planet Stewards in Dundee and Hull, and we are now looking to set up and test a movement-building approach through a growing network of PGP Stewards from the our Fellowship.
Playful Green Planet aims to reach 2,000 children after the first year, with a view to expanding this reach to 100,000 by 2030.
We are inviting five new PGP Stewards to join the network per quarter to co-create their own Playful Green Planet in their community. Stewards will have access to the Playful Green Planet and RSA brand and endorsement, a playbook of resources, the opportunity to platform their initiative through our channels, their own private space on Circle to connect, hosted learning circles with other stewards, and a dedicated community manager to support and connect them.
Stewards should be based in our strategic cities across the UK and Ireland: Belfast, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Cardiff, Dundee, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool and Newport.
The attributes of a successful Playful Green Planet Steward (whether an individual or an organisation) include:
Either have access to a local, latent green space, or be in proximity to one of the land sites that the RSA can connect stewards to via land partners.
Some interest and experience in supporting accessible, equitable and inclusive nature-based relative play for children and their families.
Connected to and trusted within the local community and among local institutions, so your PGP can get buy-in from the local community and thrive.
Whilst there is no set timeframe for stewardship, successful stewards should be able to dedicate time to the kick-start and sustain the co-creation of a local PGP in the next 3 months, at a minimum and working at their own pace.
If you’re interested in finding out more, please reach out to our Community Manager Rachel Grice at rachel.grice@rsa.org.uk.
We’re also seeking knowledge, land and funding partners to help us realise this bold vision.
If you’re interested in finding out more, please reach out to our Strategic Partnership team.
In partnership with the Eden Project, Bath Spa University, House of Imagination and HundrED, we’re seeking funding partners to help us realise this bold vision.
Are you a Fellow? Join the Playful Green Planet Circle community. Help us create spaces and experiences that support nature-based creative play for young children in urban areas.
Thanks to funding from The National Lottery’s Community Fund, we have launched the first pilots of Playful Green Planet in partnership with the Eden Project and Bath Spa University.
Read our press release to find out about the first pilots in Dundee and Hull that will help transform green spaces in those towns.
The RSA announced that it will kickstart a pilot of its radical Playful Green Planet intervention, supported by The National Lottery’s Community Fund.
Could the RSA’s Playful Green Planet intervention help create a world where every child has access to nature-based play spaces?
Becoming a nation with children at its centre in 10 courageous steps.
