Islington Play has been supporting adventure playgrounds for over 35 years. The kind of help provided has changed over the years and has varied depending on the resources available to Islington Play and the needs of the playgrounds.

 

Currently the Islington Play Association (IPA) offers the following kinds of help:

1. The Islington Play Association has been awarded a £245k grant from the Big Lottery's 'Playful Ideas' fund for their 'Treehouses for Islington' project, which will run from March 2009 to early 2012. The project will enable children at 24 sites across the borough to build their own treehouses, shelters and dens under the guidance of specialist play professionals. All structures will be approved by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA). The Islington Play Association will also share know-how with other play providers regionally and nationally through a ROSPA-designed ‘how-to' manual so that children across the country will be able to safely share this thrilling experience.

2. The IPA has been awarded £123k from Natural England through Access to Nature for their ‘Finding Nature Through Play' project, which will run from October 2010 to October 2012. This project will be delivered at Islington's twelve adventure playgrounds, where children will create mini nature reserves providing homes for birds, insects and other native wildlife. Playing in nature creates opportunities for discovery, solitude, imagination, fantasy, exploration and an understanding of life cycles, all of which help children to discover their own human nature.

3. The Islington Play Association provides help for voluntary sector playgrounds so that they can achieve, improve and maintain 'quality assurance' measures, specifically the nationally recognised Quality in Play quality assurance scheme. To achieve this, the IPA provides a range of support, helping adventure playgrounds with both short and long term challenges.

4. Play Forums: The Islington Play Association provides regular forums for workers on the playgrounds to come together and discuss issues that are relevant to the work. The forums are linked to wider borough networks including the Islington Community Network.