Changing the State of Play with Mud between your Toes
'Changing the State of Play with Mud between your Toes', a Big Lottery funded project, connects children to nature through play. Many of the project’s ambitions were realised through its work with community groups and organisations, working with them to design and create innovative, inclusive nature-based play spaces and places. Other areas of the project involved facilitating participatory activities with children and their parents, collaborating with artists and manufacturers in the design of play structures, and supporting children’s access to natural, wild spaces through the provision of resources, activities, events and people. The project ran from 2008 to 2010 but its work lives on through the community.
The project connected with a diversity of people with varying needs, ranging from social housing estates, schools, nurseries, play schemes, parks, respite centres, children in care and traveller and gypsy sites. Some of the highlights included direct face-to-face playwork in both natural spaces and the built environment, including den-building in various parks, making rafts on beaches, making shelters in woods, and also making participatory documentary and campaign films. Many of the playful ideas were tested within the Eden site. This involved collaborating with numerous individuals and organisations, including universities, playground manufacturers, artists, landscape architects, designers, local authorities, disability advisers, and national and international play organisations. Designs established and tested within Eden were and are used as exemplars for community groups to replicate in their own environments.
Connecting children to nature through Mud
Changing the State of Play with Mud between your Toes, funded by the BIG Lottery Fund, is a project that is part of the Mud programme. It has given us the opportunity to take the ethos of our Mud programme to all sorts of community groups in all sorts of ways
The MUD play project uses playful means and approaches to encourage and support children on a lifelong relationship with nature. Our methods are diverse and different.
Working with communities
A sense of community is created through collaborations between people - play can be a catalyst for community cohesion.
Defining ‘community’ is difficult; we know when there’s a ‘sense of community’ when we see people working together for collective goals. We know communities are not created by bricks and mortar, but people. We also know most communities feature a diversity of people with a diversity of ideals and beliefs, and while it can be challenging to bring diverse people together, we know play can be the mechanism by which this happens.
Designing and animating nature-based play spaces and places
Most natural environments are already bursting full of playable materials and landscapes. However, not all children get the opportunity to access natural environments so there’s a need to incorporate natural artefacts into the design of community play spaces.
Enabling inclusive play
All children, regardless of ability, disability, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, race or creed, have the right to play and the right to an enabling play environment.
Eden works closely with a diverse range of people, listening, collaborating and co-designing projects and structures that serve the needs, rather than the perceived needs of communities. This way, we can all create enabling environments that are truly inclusive for all.
Consulting children
The views of children and young people are vital in the creation of a successful play project. We always consult with children before designing play spaces, places and projects and try and test different methods to find those that are the most effective.
Researching and evaluating
A smile is a good measure of a child’s enjoyment of play, but if we want to know why they’re having fun, we have to delve a little deeper.
There’s a particular expression that children hold when they are fully immersed in play. We call it the ‘play face’. For the most part we see this when children are engrossed in adventurous types of play, and while it’s a good indicator of a child’s enjoyment, it doesn’t tell us enough about the child’s play or the project.
'Mud between your Toes' aims to connect children and young people to the world they live in - to experience, understand and celebrate their sense of place and purpose in the natural world and in their communities.
Eden is a charity and we need help to fund our work. Making a donation will enable more children and young people to take part in our Mud between your Toes programme.