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Children's Voices: Playground Enhancement Project

About the project

The Children’s Voices: Playground Enhancement Project consulted with children from four schools in the City of Hume to plan enhancements to Rotary Park, a playground near the Central Activity District of Broadmeadows. With a strong emphasis on child engagement and consultation, the project demonstrates the importance of children having a voice in decisions that impact on their lives.

As a joint research and practice project, the process will be documented to develop guidelines for child consultation in future projects. See the Brotherhood's research on the early years for information on the progress of this documentation.

Future work relating the project includes:

construction of the playground based on the children’s ideas
continuation of the work of a local reference group developed through the project with a focus on community arts projects involving children
contribution to the development of a youth advisory committee in Hume
a children and youth conference in 2011.

Partners

We acknowledge the following partners for their valuable contributions:

Broadmeadows UnitingCare – facilitating partner

Broadmeadows Valley Primary School

Campbellfield Heights Primary School

Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Dianella Community Health – facilitating partner

Hume City Council

Hume Early Years Partnership

Meadows Primary School

Orana Family Services – facilitating partner

Rotary Club of Broadmeadows

Contact us

Brotherhood of St Laurence
Children's Voices: Playground Enhancement Project
Craigieburn Centre
120 Hothlyn Drive
Craigieburn Vic. 3064
Phone: (03) 9305 5100
Email: craigieburn@nullbsl.org.au

Involving Children

On International Youth Day, Thursday the 12 August 2010, the Brotherhood conducted a student workshop with representatives from four primary schools in the City of Hume.

Students were given the opportunity to present their ideas to their peers, teachers and local community members, as well as to the Mayor of Hume, Councillor Geoff Porter.

The process involved:

a workshop to translate ideas into artwork
grouping ideas into three possible enhancements
children voting to decide on the enhancement to the park.

Hume City Council supported the children’s decision of installing a flying fox and launched the enhancement on Thursday 16 December 2010.

The launch celebrated the importance of recognising children’s right to be included in decisions that affect their lives, and their contribution to community life.