RSA kickstarts Playful Green Planet: connecting children to nature and community

Today the RSA is delighted to announce the start of its landmark Playful Green Planet programme, thanks to generous support from The National Lottery Community Fund.

Playful Green Planet, which is being run in partnership with the Eden Project and Bath Spa University, will transform how children connect with nature and community through outdoor creative play. It responds to the current sizeable gap in children’s connection to nature, particularly in cities and urban areas.

The project is the first of its kind in the UK and will identify areas of land in urban and economically disadvantaged areas, drawing on the expertise and talents of local individuals, coalitions and communities to transform those spaces into ecologically thriving outdoor playrooms and classrooms that grow children’s capabilities and social activism.

As it stands, more than one in ten children do not visit a natural environment annually, four out of five lack a connection to nature at all, and three-quarters of children spend less time outdoors than what is recommended for prison inmates.

The programme’s first two sites will be in Coldside, one of Dundee’s most economically disadvantaged areas, and a set of sites across Hull. These will be transformed into nature-based play spaces inspired by Forest of Imagination and mini Edens.

Each of these areas' transformations will be led by Playful Green Planet Stewards - local environmental and social experts - to ensure spaces and experiences are co-created with local children.

They will be supported by the Eden Project, which will bring its experience and expertise in developing nature-based spaces and activities for children. Together they will work closely with local communities to co-design these spaces to best work for them; be that scaling up existing community programmes, providing training, adding biodiversity, transforming a neglected space or making spaces more accessible to all.

In Dundee, the stewards will be a coalition between the Maxwell Community Centre and Garden, and ‘Toadstool Trails’ – a project led by local artist Suzanne Scott and the Dundee Medical School Healthcare Improvement Team.

In Hull, the transformation will be led by leading experts from the University of Hull’s School of Education. Their aim is to support young children's learning through the creation of ‘environments of inquiry’ across the university’s green sites, drawing on a strong network of pupils, teachers, schools and local authorities.

The first phase of this project will aim to reach 2000 children after the first year, with a view to expanding this reach to 200,000 in five years as the initiative secures partnerships for more sites around the country, working in partnership with the charity Land Trust.

Joanna Choukeir, Director of Design and Innovation at the RSA, said:

“We are so excited to begin work on Playful Green Planet and are enormously grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund for the support to make this work happen.

“With our partners, we want to equip a generation of young leaders with the confidence and capabilities to connect with, care for, and regenerate people, places and planet.

“We look forward to announcing more detail as we put plans into action over the course of the next year”.

Melissa Eaglesfield, Deputy Director of Funding Strategy at The National Lottery Community Fund, said:

“We’re delighted to support Playful Green Planet through our Climate Action Fund, a £100 million commitment over 10 years to support communities to take action on climate change. We’re thrilled that this project will enable thousands of children and young people to access green spaces in urban neighbourhoods across the UK, thanks to National Lottery players.”

Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project, said:

"We are delighted to work with the RSA on this landmark project which puts nature at the heart of a radical new approach to education. Playful Green Planet will start by transforming locations in Dundee and Hull, creating thriving outdoor classrooms to reach those children left behind my traditional education routes. We look forward to seeing this go from strength to strength in the years ahead".

Alan Carter, Chief Executive at the Land Trust, said:

“This pilot study has the potential to be a game changer, and it’s all the more exciting to be working on plans with the project partners at this early stage to implement the learnings coming forward from this pilot. We’re committed to helping create a world where children and young adults know and value the environment around them, enjoy accessing the many benefits which they can receive from it, and in turn work to protect and enhance it.”

Playful Green Planet is a pillar of the RSA’s Design for Life mission: to enable people, place and planet to flourish in harmony, and to create a world where everyone can fulfil their potential and contribute to a more resilient, rebalanced and regenerative future.