Case Studies

Edinburgh Play Rangers

Inspiring Scotland has created an innovative collaboration between three charities and a local authority who are working together to reach the most vulnerable neighbourhoods in Edinburgh and engage children and families through play.
As part of the citywide Edinburgh Play Ranger project, Community Play Rangers facilitate outdoor play in communities. Play Rangers bring ideas and free resources and the kids bring their energy and imagination.
Kids can join in games, construction tasks, messy play, scrap play and use resources provided by the rangers. Or they can choose to come up with their own play during the sessions. Either way, they are in their element.
Play Rangers are a catalyst for positive change in their communities; the collaboration in Edinburgh is driving the change.
As part of Edinburgh Play Rangers, Smart Play Network is the lead partner working in collaboration with Edinburgh Leisure, North Edinburgh Arts Group and Canongate Youth; all experienced and dedicated providers of play services.
The Edinburgh Play Rangers programme is funded by Inspiring Scotland’s Go2Play Fund. Inspiring Scotland is not just the funder. It helped kick-start the programme and developed the Play Rangers toolkit to support the growth of the initiative nationally.
Originally the organisations approached Inspiring Scotland as four separate bids. With a bit of encouragement they opted to put in a joint bid and work together and there’s been no stopping them since.
Julia Abel, Performance Advisor at Inspiring Scotland said, “The collaboration is paying off in many ways: joint training sessions, setting high quality play standards, better reach, more hours for part time staff, and economies of scale with a central admin support and purchasing. It’s helping the partners make an impact in their communities.”