Youth Engagement Success through Green Spaces

        

      Plymouth Community Homes Stepping Stones 2 Nature girl on swing

Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) has had success with youth engagement through using green spaces!  Plymouth Community Homes is working in partnership with a lottery funded 4 year project called Stepping Stones to Nature (SS2N) which is an exciting new project to get more Plymouth residents enjoying our parks and natural spaces in and around the city.  It’s a great opportunity for PCH to use innovative ways to engage with its tenants on a local level through using green spaces.  Here are details of some of the green space events below: 

 
  • ‘Woodland Woods’ day was held in the Summer holidays in the woodland valley between two housing estates in North Plymouth.  The event was an opportunity for children, young people and families to meet PCH staff and partner organisations and have an enjoyable day in an informal and fun setting.  There were a whole range of activities for children, young people and families to get involved from making goblins with the Plymouth Play Association to having monkey-fun in the trees with nets, swings and play ladders.  The Eden Project organised a nature trail and, if completed, the under 5s were given a special children’s book.  The Resident Involvement Team was joined by staff volunteers from across the organisation.  Free refreshments were provided from Trevor the Trailer and also information was provided on Decent Homes works, PCH tenancy sign ups and Tenant Profiling.
 
This event was a success and more than 200 local people came along, getting very involved with the activities, the surveys and/or accessing the information that was available. Woodland Wood was a hive of activity, noise and fun.
 
       Stepping Stones 2 Nature Plymouth Community Homes boys on tree swing
 
  • During the October half term there was a Wild about Woods day when a range of activities took place all day, including designing entrance signs, family lantern making and a dusk walk with spooky woodland stories.  Over 100 local families and youths came along and got involved.
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  • In March, PCH hosted a Wild about Woods fun day at Ham Woods in North Prospect together with a local primary school and SS2N.  The Eden project took part to encourage children to have fun in the woods using nets, swings and ladders. Events such as this provide a tremendous opportunity to encourage community building for all age groups in a fresh and fun way.  

          

For further information, contact the Resident Involvement team at Plymouth Community Homes on residentinvolvement@plymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk or by telephone on 0800 917 9457.