Hi, my name is LynnR! We're looking for funding to make an accessible play area in our park

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LynnR

Do you know of any local parks in the UK that have been developed to afford accessible play/exercise resources for young people and adults with disabilities and non-disabled people alike. Where access is integral and unobtrusive and nobody sees anyone’s participation as different or ‘special’?  We have a local green space that would be ideal and want to approach our LA to see if we can work together to make this happen. We already have a smaller area dedicated to younger children and so we are keen to provide resources for older youngsters and adults.   I am a volunteer for The Friends of Spencer Park, a small charity that helps to maintain our local park in Coventry.  I am struggling to find anything like this anywhere.  I am currently researching the possibilities, including funding/grant opportunities and any suggestions you may have or can signpost us to would be most helpful.  Thank you

Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community @lynnr It's great to have you with us!

It's fantastic to see that you'd like to see the accessibility of playgrounds improved. This is certainly an important issue. You may already have seen, but we've just launched a new campaign about this very topic called Let's Play Fair. I'd encourage you to keep a close eye on it, and get involved where you can. 

You might want to start off by looking at larger funding bodies, such as The National Lottery Community Fund, or the People's Postcode Lottery. There are plenty of websites that list large funding bodies, so it's worth taking a look online. They usually have priorities that can change over time, so I'd recommend looking to see whether what you'd like to achieve fits in with their aims. 

There are also usually local grants for specific areas. It might be worth taking a look to see if any organisations where the park would be are looking to give out grants, or having a general Google to see if there are any local funds. This gov.uk page on applying for community funding may help.

Approaching your LA sounds like a good idea. As a 'Friends of' group, do you have any contacts at your LA's parks department? Have you put together some evidence to prove that this project is needed? This could include a petition, or case studies of parents whose children have been excluded, for example. 

Local councillors sometimes have a small pot of money that they can use to help fund community projects (or at least they used to) too, so you couldtry asking them to see if they're interested in helping out. It's often good to have their buy in either way, so that they can help to promote the project.

Crowdfunding could be another option. As you're a 'Friends of' group, I imagine that you have a decent deal of influence in your local area? This can be an effective way of raising money, and can also help the community to feel more invested in the project.

You could also see whether there's anyone in your local area who could draw up a draft playground design for you, so that you can show potential funders what your vision for the playground is. Again, it'd be good to have disabled children and young people, and their parents and carers, feed into this. 

Edit: 

You may find these two pages helpful for local funding opportunities:

• UK Funding Opportunities in Coventry (Funding Grants)
• Funding Opportunities and Resources (Coventry City Council)