PLAYZONES
In 2024, Young H&F led a borough-wide community engagement and research project exploring what local communities need from public spaces when it comes to sport, movement and connection.
Funded by the Football Foundation as part of its national PlayZones initiative, the project brought together a consortium of youth, sport and community partners to understand the demand for physical activities within the borough and identify areas of need.
Together, we gathered 696 responses through surveys, focus groups, and taster sessions with a clear focus on engaging residents with disabilities, global majority, communities, lower-income families, women and girls, and young people.
Our aim was to generate robust, community-led insight that could shape future investment in accessible local outdoor spaces multi-use games areas (MUGAs).. Whilst the PlayZones build itself didn’t progress, the research remains a valuable data set, offering rich insight for anyone working to improve youth provision, access to sport, or public health outcomes across the borough.
Our Findings At a Glance
Overall Sample
696 responses to our online survey
>50% of respondents were female.
41% described themselves as average or less active.
52% preferred to be active on weekends.
