On March 23, some 30 Wageningen professionals came together to consider how outdoor play in Wageningen can be further stimulated. The professionals came from diferent areas; child workers, public space officials, social domain officials, researchers, health care, child care, playground work, politics, etc.
The initiative of the meeting came from SpelenmaaR (Empowerment by Playing and Creatiefhuis) and the child workers of Solidez.
Wageningen is a green municipality and has more than 80 public playgrounds. You would think that all children in Wageningen play outside. Yet in Wageningen, as in the rest of the Netherlands, this is not the case. Children are playing outside less and less; one in six children never even play outside anymore, with all its consequences.
To change this it is necessary that politics, policy and practice meet, understand each other and together share and propagate a vision on outdoor play.
This meeting was a first step towards a joint Wageningen outdoor play vision and integrated outdoor play policy.
Johanna Schröder, chairman of the day, invited Alderman Guido van Vulpen to open the meeting. Van Vulpen told that the current plan dates from 2013 and needs to be revised. He expressed his wish that the meeting would produce workable ideas and invited the organization to share the results of the conference with him.
After the alderman, director of Jantje Beton, Dave Ensberg took the floor. He told how important it is to pay attention to outdoor play and challenged Wageningen to participate in the Jantje Beton election for the most Play-Friendly Municipality in the Netherlands. Then “chef” outdoor play of the municipality of Leiden, Saskia van Hoore, explained how to go about it. Leiden won the 2021 award for most play-friendly municipality in the Netherlands.
Gemeenten in Beeld – Vlog #46 Leiden – YouTube
After these very inspiring introductions, the children of Wageningen were given the floor. Through a video, made by the child workers of Solidez, the participants heard the opinions of the children of Wageningen about playing outside. Among other things, children indicated that they love to play outside but that their parents do not always allow them to do so, that playgrounds are sometimes unsafe or that there is no time to play outside.
And then it all went wild :-). Together we looked at what is already available in Wageningen in the field of outdoor play. After that we thought together that we would like to win the prize of Jantje Beton and what is needed for that. Finally, we made an initial impetus for a plan of action. An important first step is that politicians agree on the need to revise the current Play Area Plan and agree to the realization of an integrated outdoor play policy. A policy and implementation plan that the municipality draws up together with professionals, children and parents. We will work on that in the coming time!
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