It’s a surprising realisation many adults across the country are hit with every year: There’s no playground nearby for my kids. Growing up, we’re fortunate to live in a country that is crammed with a large number of playgrounds and parks, making it an understandable assumption to think that there’s always going to be one within convenient distance of the house.
Sadly, it’s not always true. All is not lost, however; today we’re going to help describe to you how you can apply for funding from charitable organisations and local authorities to get one built yourself. It’s an important part of your child’s development, making Play Equipment a wonderful benefit to your community too. Let’s take a look at how to get it done.
Funding and grants: What to expect.
To the surprise of many adults, it’s perfectly possible to get full funding for a local playground. The downside, as you might expect, is that it’s often a drawn-out process that can be confusing to navigate.
There are numerous charities available for contact, but it’s important to be mindful that each will have its own process, requirements and funding limits. The Big Lottery Fund grant scheme, for instance, is available to town and parish councils and schools, but has a limit of up to 10,000. The Aviva Community Fund, by comparison, is available to community groups and has an average grant amount of 25,000.
Scope out your ideal playground.
Because of these varying grant amounts, it’s extremely important you begin with planning sessions to help get an idea of how much your playground will cost to purchase and install.
At this stage, you’ll also need to consider accessibility; having your playground be usable by differently-abled children is not only extremely important to any community but is also helpful when you apply for your grant. The more inclusive your playground is to the different demographics of children who might need it, the more likely you are to be favourably answered by charities and funding bodies.
Get those signatures.
While we can’t specifically list every funding body’s requirements for grants, it’s important for all that you have some way to prove the interest in the playground from your community. Your local authority may be able to help you here by giving you time at local town hall meetings to discuss your plans, or to give you guidance on how to best canvas your local area to get signatures.
Always keep in mind how things are from the perspective of the bodies and charities that give out funding. They have more requests than they can often help with, meaning that the better you can convince them that there is a demand for a playground, the more they’ll be willing to help make your dream happen.
Good luck!
A few pointers to help get you started; we hope they help. It’s a wonderful thing to get involved in your community and enrich children’s lives by adding a local playground. We wish you the best in making it happen for your community.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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