Make Space for Girls Broomfield Park is a collaboration led by Friends of Broomfield Park and The Palmers Greenery Community Cafe (who also provide seed funding) and supported by national charity Make Space for Girls and Enfield Council. The project was conceived early in 2022 when Sarah from The Palmers Greenery, concerned about her observations about how teen girls in particular never seem to ‘hang out’ in the park, invited Make Space for Girls to meet her and FoBP for a walk around Broomfield after hearing about their great work on a podcast!
We are planning a two-phase project in Broomfield Park to create an area designed to be welcoming to teenage girls, non-binary teens and boys for whom the standard provision in parks (MUGAs, pitches, fenced areas etc) don’t work.
Phase One - Spring/Summer 2024
Funded by profits from The Palmers Greenery Community Cafe, five after-school workshops for local girls, young women and non-binary teens:
Phase Two - Summer/Autumn 2024
Funding to be determined, with a contribution from The Palmers Greenery Community Cafe:
● Develop the design brief to final design
● Secure additional funds
● Additional workshops with phase 1 participants and others to agree final design
● Tender and installation
WHY IS THIS PROJECT NEEDED?
When facilities are built for teens in parks, they tend to be Multi-Use-Games-Areas (MUGAs or cages), Skate Parks or BMX tracks which are often dominated by boys.
Girls don’t use them because they don’t feel welcome or safe. Make Space for Girls have collated lots of evidence for the case for change which you can read here.
WHY ARE YOU ONLY TALKING ABOUT GIRLS?
It’s a fair question and it’s not about excluding boys or creating gender segregation, it’s about taking positive steps to ‘design in girls’.
Again, Make Space for Girls have put together a really useful Frequently Asked Questions document which you can read here.
Image from Unsplash www.unsplash.com
