Children’s Links was awarded a grant from the Playful Ideas fund to deliver fire and water based play activities across the East Midlands.

Nearly 40 settings had fire or water play sessions completely free of charge benefitting hundreds of children in the region. Not only that but Children’s Links delivered a series of workshops to train playworkers and playrangers to be able to deliver these activities confidently and safely.   All of the risk assessments and health and safety procedures were shared with participating organisations to ensure the continuation of these vital activities for children.

Some of the activities we have promoted have been.

• Outdoor cookery
• Fire Sculptures
• Fire jumping
• Water relays
• Pirate days
• Water slides
• Water fights
• Balloon splash

The project has been great fun and has been incredibly popular with both children and organisations alike. Whilst the funding for free sessions has ended these are sessions are available to be purchased. The cost will depend on the location, activities wanted and number of people attending so please contact play@childrenslinks.org.uk or 0845 3730645 for further details.

Xtreme

Xtreme was designed as part of the West Lindsey playranger project. Although the project was aimed at children and young people aged 5-15 years, many young people aged 10 plus are put off by the work “play”.

The playrangers visited groups of young people at youth clubs, performing arts groups and in areas they congregate and carried out consultation to find out what they could do to include them. The young people decided they would like a day of extreme activities, which they would not normally be able to access.

The event was a fantastic success, with activities including zorbing, climbing wall, bucking broncho, bungee run, street dancing, outdoor cooking, skate park and parkour.