We’re pleased to announce that ParkPlay has been awarded funding from the Sport England 2024 Pilot Fund!

Sport England has been a key partner for ParkPlay since our formation in 2020. This funding for the next 2 years shows our continued alignment with Sport England’s #UnitingtheMovement strategy and ParkPlay’s proven ability to transform lives and communities through being more active outdoors. The investment will fund increased capacity to support our growth plans, help us develop key elements of the ParkPlay experience and help us keep the costs to expand into more communities low.

“Sport England have been with us since the very beginning and we’re grateful and pleased to receive their continued support, helping us build happier, healthier communities nationwide through the life-changing power of play” said Rick Jenner, CEO ParkPlay.

“We’ve grown, learnt and developed so much with Sport England’s support in the last 3 years. Their continued backing will support our growth into the communities with the greatest need, enable us to train and support more brilliant local people, and deepen our positive impact.”

In recent months Active Essex and independent research company State of Life have been conducting research into ParkPlay’s impact and social value. These are the key findings from their work:

• ParkPlayers report higher levels of physical activity, higher levels of wellbeing and resilience, increased neighbourhood trust and lower levels of loneliness (than non-players),… the more frequently someone attends ParkPlay, the higher their life satisfaction is likely to be.
• The highest positive effect is found in the 20% most deprived areas, where ParkPlay is mainly focused.
• State of Life used the Wellby to calculate the social value of ParkPlay. They very cautiously estimated that in terms of wellbeing improvements, ParkPlay could be worth between £4.6m – £18.2m annually (based on current scale and investment) with a potential social return on investment of £30 for every £1 spent.
• ParkPlay is effectively engaging deprived communities, those with limiting disabilities, those from minority ethnic backgrounds and people of all ages.

Sport England’s support reinforces ParkPlay’s ambitious plans for the coming years to:

• Positively impact the lives of people living in more disadvantaged communities, improving health and wellbeing and personal and community development
• Grow substantially the number of sustainable community events taking place across the country, reaching 200 new communities
• Train more local people to become Play Leaders and deliver a positive, welcoming, safe experience for all

Find your local ParkPlay

Please visit our ParkPlay Parks page to find your local ParkPlay and come and join us for your ParkPlay session. We play every Saturday morning.