Helping communities through interactive play

Interactive Play – The Pod Squad

We have recently installed an interactive Sutu Sports Wall and a Sona Play Arch at the Millennium Green Play Park in Withernsea for Withernsea District Council. Not only has this equipment allowed local children to train their brains and have fun it has also helped 18 teenagers go to university, gain apprenticeships or go into fulltime employment!

Withernsea has an aging population demographic and with this came the closure of the local community college – with the nearest college 1.5 hours away in Hull. This meant that local teenagers could struggle to get to university or gain employment after school.

The team at SHoRes (Southern Holderness Resource Centre) and their CEO Jayne Nendick raised funds to help build this playground and reengage with the younger community by providing 18 jobs on site. These teenagers joined the Park of Dreams (POD) employment squad and gained valuable work experience, after going through safeguarding training and working with Streetwise to become playground activators. Once all the training was complete, all 18 of the POD Squad entered fulltime employment, got an apprenticeship or went to university.

Going forwards the POD squad will continue to be rolled out over several phases of the park’s development and during the Withernsea Olympics, which will take place alongside the Olympics in 2020. Jayne and her team took inspiration from another Yalp Interactives Olympic day held in Holland – read more here.

The incredible work SHoRes are doing is not only getting the local community more active but it is creating job opportunities, creating community ownership of their local play spaces, bringing the community together and it is also creating funds for further development of the park of dreams.

What a fantastic way to bring communities together!