What we do

Currently we are delivering the following projects:

Antony Lillis Project for Vulnerable Children (Previously the Palace Adventure Playground)
 Following the closure of Palace Adventure Playground by the national charity Kids, PAHF worked closely with parents, the Local Authority and funders to enable the site to remain a free open access site for children with disabilities. We took over the permanent management of the project in December 2008. The project is currently run from Queensmill school in West Kensington and runs at weekends and school holidays. Children between the ages of 8-17 from the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea currently attend. The service facilitiates engaging interesting and stimulating play whilst also caring for the range of additional needs that many of our children have. The project is a playscheme that caters to children with a range of additional needs but almost all of the children that currently attend are looked after on a 1 to 1 basis and all have their own specialist playworker that works with them. For further information contact Rachel on 02077 363699.

Merton Complex Needs Project
In January 2011 we were invited to be one of the London Borough of Merton's partnership organisations in order to deliver a service for the complex needs children of Merton from the Acacia Adventure Playground. We support them in a number of ways; we operate a Stay and Play family service on Sundays, a holiday scheme, provide development staff and also support some children to access the playground during mainstream sessions. We also provide play advice and best practice training for other service providers in Merton. For further information contact us on 02077 363699.

Holiday Fun
We believe all children in the borough have a right to access free play opportunities. Our Holiday Fun outreach project supports this aim through visiting a range of estates and offering free play opportunities. The project supports local people to understand the importance of play and is open to chidlren from the ages of 8-13. Under 8s are always welcome as long as they come with a parent or carer. In the future we intend to work more closely with parents and carers to support the play needs of their children. For further information regarding Holiday Fun venues and dates see Places to Play or News.

Support

Play Association Hammersmith and Fulham is a support organisation. This means that any agency that works with children or young people in Hammersmith and Fulham can receive support from us, for free. Becoming a member is free and easy! Simply fill in our membership form. We work to support our members by providing free resources and opportunities for them to improve the quality of their provision.

We see partnership working as a key part of our core work and projects can arise in this area from the needs defined by our users. The projects have changed and developed over the years and some are short term. The projects on the following pages form our current work however these do evolve regularly. For more information about other projects please contact us.

We support our members is a variety of ways. Membership to the Play Association is free, see Membership for how to join.

As a member you can:

• Receive one-to-one support and guidance for your organisation (by phone, email, or mentoring meetings)
• Access our on-line and in-office resources library
• Receive our Newsletters and email updates
• Access jobs and volunteering opportunities in playwork
• Support us with campaigns to retain and extend the play provision available in Hammersmith and Fulham

You can receive support around Fundraising, HR and Recruitment, Quality Assurance, Playwork support / mentoring, Staff development, Management Committee responsibilities, Becoming a registered charity or company, Children’s participation, Inclusion, Policy development or Ofsted Registration / standards.

See feedback if you would like to tell us different ways we could support you better.

Play network
PAHF has developed a forum for all our members to meet and share knowledge and experience within the sector. The forum also provides workshops on pertinent issues and training. In the future this network will be developed further to support youth groups and those interested in play work, as well as providing a consultative forum and platform for the sector to voice opinions. For further information on upcoming Play Network dates see News and Events.

Newsletter
PAHF has been sharing pertinent information concerning play, funding and local issues with members through our newsletter. In the future we plan to provide more regular newsletters, which respond to members' key issues, challenges and concerns around play. To see back issues of the newsletter click here.

Quality Assurance
Play projects benefit from implementing quality assurance schemes as they support their sustainability. We can support individual projects to achieve accreditation. Click here for more information on Quality in Play the recognised quality assurance scheme for play provisions.