The 2024/25 Outdoor Community Play Fund portfolio will provide a range of free outdoor play sessions throughout Scotland for children and families, using the Play Ranger Model. This funding continues to support outdoor play opportunities for all children, and has expanded in recent years to provide targeted support for children with additional support needs.
Funded charities will work with children and their families to encourage them to play outdoors together to improve attachments, strengthen bonds, and increase parents’ confidence in supporting their children’s play. Outdoor play is recognised as being increasingly vital, for parents and children alike.
The fund, delivered by Inspiring Scotland, builds on the previous years’ which have supported thousands of children and families. Sessions will take place in community spaces such as streets, parks, nature spaces, playgrounds, and woodlands.
The sessions are unstructured and child-led, enabling children to use their creativity and imagination to develop their own games and ways to have fun.
Children and families in some of the country’s most deprived areas benefit from free outdoor play activities aimed at improving their health, wellbeing, and connection to their local outdoor spaces.
The Outdoor Community Play fund supports 33 organisations
Download the full list here
In 2023-24, the Outdoor Community Play fund supported 16,192 children and families across Scotland through 32 community-based play charities. You can read more about Thrive Outdoors’ impact in 2023/24 in our Impact Report.
Read our Impact Report here.
Outdoor Play has a vital role in supporting better health and wellbeing for children, aiding in connection to nature and in building resilience.
We can aid this by creating opportunities for as many children as possible to access quality outdoor play opportunities – and Play Rangers are the ones who can help make this happen.
Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit has been developed by Thrive Outdoors, in collaboration with a number of Scottish charities who use the Play Ranger model throughout their delivery of outdoor play provision.
Download our free Play Ranger Toolkit below to help you get started.
Download the Play Ranger Toolkit
We work with experts from the voluntary, public, private and academic sectors. Get in touch if you want to help us build a better Scotland.
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