Working with Australia’s most innovative companies, social enterprises and community organisations we proudly share a common mission:
To create a world of
play & belonging for all.
The G.R.O.W Program
The G.R.O.W program is an innovative pathway-to-work model that empowers and equips Australians with a disability in practical gardening skills. Designed by PFAA in collaboration with Fighting Chance we are excited to partner with Avenue, a social enterprise of Fighting Chance Australia. The launch of this project was proudly supported by the Northern Beaches Council.
About
The G.R.O.W program is structured into three phases –
pre-training, commencement and completion. It is designed as a pathway model supporting Avenue
Co-Working participants to acquire a series of core gardening skills over 5 key milestones. As a ‘pathway model’ the program will support and empower participants to achieve gardening skills in line with their Individual Skill Development Plans.
To find out how you can participate or get involved please contact us below or visit fightingchance.com.au
The Avenue co-working team at the G.R.O.W Program launch with Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan
The team with their gloves in the dirt!
About
The G.R.O.W program is structured into three phases –
pre-training, commencement and completion. It is designed as a pathway model supporting Avenue
Co-Working participants to acquire a series of core gardening skills over 5 key milestones. As a ‘pathway model’ the program will support and empower participants to achieve gardening skills in line with their Individual Skill Development Plans.
To find out how you can participate or get involved please contact us below or visit fightingchance.com.au
The Avenue co-working team at the G.R.O.W Program launch with Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan
The team with their gloves in the dirt!
Tumbalong Lights Playground, VIVID Sydney
As expert contributors for the past 3 years, PFAA have proudly collaborated with Cushman & Wakefield to bring inclusive play to Vivid Sydney. This saw the launch of ‘Tumbalong Lights’ in 2018. A magical & inclusive playground, it attracted more than 60,000 visitors in it’s first 3 weeks of opening and was the 2018 winner of The Australian Sport, Recreation and Play Innovation Awards. Tumbalong Lights came back in 2019 with the launch of playSPACE – an ‘inclusive play experience that celebrates the art of play and the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing’. Watch the video below to find out more about Tumbalong Lights at Vivid Sydney from Cushman & Wakefield and their sponsors
About
2017
Caroline and Tim from PFAA proudly worked with Cushman & Wakefield the inaugural Access and Inclusion sponsors of Vivid Sydney 2017. This journey has seen them share their very personal family story. Together they designed and facilitated Cushman & Wakefield’s Vivid Ideas workshop on June 13th 2017 at the Museum of Contemporary Art which saw a diverse range of minds come together to innovate and imagine how we can create sensory rich experiences where all children can play, participate and belong.
Tim and Caroline facilitating 100+ attendee workshop at Vivid Ideas Sydney
Marcus’ Story: Vivid Sydney 2017
In 2017 Caroline and Tim publicly shared the personal story of their family, and son Marcus for the first time. They talked about how it inspires their work to bring social inclusion to every child – no matter their ability. Click here to watch the video of Marcus’ Story.
2018-20
The team are excited to continue the journey with Cushman & Wakefield as Expert Collaborators:
2018 saw the launch of ‘Tumbalong Lights’, a magical inclusive playground at VIVID Sydney. This inclusive play space ran from 25th May – 16th June 2018. You can read more about this fantastic initiative by clicking here
Tumbalong Lights 2018 was a collection of four interactive-play installations that formed an inclusive and accessible Vivid Lights experience for both children and the young at heart. The four under-the-sea-themed installations allow children and their families to interact with creative, awe-inspiring light experiences that help produce a sense of empowerment, a sense of control and a sense of community, while at the same time inspiring fun and playfulness.’
In 2019 through workshop facilitation and overall Customer Experience Design for the 2019 VIVID Sydney Inclusive Play experience. We are proud to continue the journey as Expert Contributors for Cushman & Wakefield’s into 2020.
The Story of Tumbalong Lights at Vivid Sydney 2018
Cushman & Wakefield’s vision is to make Vivid Sydney an inclusive experience for as many different community members as possible.
About Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield Australia are the Access and Inclusion sponsors of Vivid Sydney. Vivid is a 23-day festival of light, music and ideas that features many of the world’s most important creative industry forums, a mesmerising free public exhibition of outdoor lighting sculptures and installations and a cutting-edge contemporary music program. Vivid Ideas offers a global forum for ingenuity and innovation where fresh concepts and trends are shared. It focuses on innovation, creativity & community. Click here to find out more about this year’s ‘Tumbalong Lights’ by Cushman & Wakefield.
About
2017
Caroline and Tim from PFAA proudly worked with Cushman & Wakefield the inaugural Access and Inclusion sponsors of Vivid Sydney 2017. This journey has seen them share their very personal family story. Together they designed and facilitated Cushman & Wakefield’s Vivid Ideas workshop on June 13th 2017 at the Museum of Contemporary Art which saw a diverse range of minds come together to innovate and imagine how we can create sensory rich experiences where all children can play, participate and belong.
Tim and Caroline facilitating 100+ attendee workshop at Vivid Ideas Sydney
Marcus’ Story: Vivid Sydney 2017
In 2017 Caroline and Tim publicly shared the personal story of their family, and son Marcus for the first time. They talked about how it inspires their work to bring social inclusion to every child – no matter their ability. Click here to watch the video of Marcus’ Story.
2018-20
The team are excited to continue the journey with Cushman & Wakefield as Expert Collaborators:
2018 saw the launch of ‘Tumbalong Lights’, a magical inclusive playground at VIVID Sydney. This inclusive play space ran from 25th May – 16th June 2018. You can read more about this fantastic initiative by clicking here
Tumbalong Lights 2018 was a collection of four interactive-play installations that formed an inclusive and accessible Vivid Lights experience for both children and the young at heart. The four under-the-sea-themed installations allow children and their families to interact with creative, awe-inspiring light experiences that help produce a sense of empowerment, a sense of control and a sense of community, while at the same time inspiring fun and playfulness.’
In 2019 through workshop facilitation and overall Customer Experience Design for the 2019 VIVID Sydney Inclusive Play experience. We are proud to continue the journey as Expert Contributors for Cushman & Wakefield’s into 2020.
The Story of Tumbalong Lights at Vivid Sydney 2018
Cushman & Wakefield’s vision is to make Vivid Sydney an inclusive experience for as many different community members as possible.
About Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield Australia are the Access and Inclusion sponsors of Vivid Sydney. Vivid is a 23-day festival of light, music and ideas that features many of the world’s most important creative industry forums, a mesmerising free public exhibition of outdoor lighting sculptures and installations and a cutting-edge contemporary music program. Vivid Ideas offers a global forum for ingenuity and innovation where fresh concepts and trends are shared. It focuses on innovation, creativity & community. Click here to find out more about this year’s ‘Tumbalong Lights’ by Cushman & Wakefield.
Inclusive Local Play Spaces
By bringing together a talented and multi-disciplinary project team – including Northern Beaches Council, Play For All Australia developed a universally inclusive, sensory-rich and sustainable play-space system that can be activated into local communities and schools – cost-effectively.
About
Children with disabilities are routinely excluded & isolated from neighbourhood and local playgrounds because these spaces are not universally designed from the start, to be inclusive.
We wanted to change this.
The challenge
Research shows ‘children with disabilities experience significantly reduced participation in play and leisure’ and are at ‘higher risk of health and social difficulties’. Reasons for this include ‘physical inaccessibility, attitudinal barriers and poor social support’. To reduce social isolation, communities, designers and policy-makers must have cost-effective, realistic approaches for making local playgrounds fun and inclusive.
Our approach
The issue of exclusion is particularly the case for smaller playgrounds which typically make up the majority of play spaces across communities – yet receive the lowest funding support. Having the opportunity to access and participate equally in these spaces is vital to the emotional & social wellbeing of children in our local communities. Being unable to do so puts these families & children at greater risk of social isolation.
Through the application of Design Thinking our aim was to produce a play experience that would be equitable, sustainable, sensory rich, cost effective and most importantly, fun for all children regardless of ability.
We set ourselves a clear problem to solve:
How could we make smaller local playgrounds inclusive – on a budget?
Led by Play For All Australia, the primary project team included representatives from Northern Beaches Council as well as local parents, specialist educators, child development experts and creative industry & manufacturing experts. Aside from their professional expertise, the majority of this group were also local residents and parents too.
Maple Reserve Sensory Play Space design was inspired by the sense of smell
The project team brainstorming ideas
Outcomes
By working together with 19 local businesses and the Northern Beaches Council, PFAA designed, locally manufactured and installed an entirely new system of sensory play across five local play spaces. Known as ‘The Belrose Inclusive Play Spaces’ start to finish took 9 months. The aim was to create positive social, economic and environmental returns to local community:
- Signifies to ALL children and families, no matter their ability, that they belong and can participate equally alongside their siblings, peers, new friends.
- Activates community spaces using our sensory-based play equipment universally and cost-effectively.
About
Belrose is a suburb on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. This Inclusive Play project was run by Play For All Australia in partnership with the Northern Beaches Council. It forms part of the $6.3m “Connecting All Through Play” program announced by the Council in December 2016.
We proudly collaborated with Designer/ Artist M-lon
Please visit his online portfolio to read more about him and see his inclusive play project gallery. Also visit Lateral Studio for more about the project.
More information
Caroline Ghatt, Play For All Australia:
caroline@playforall.com.au
Mayor Michael Regan, Northern Beaches Council:
michael.regan@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au
Please click here to see more about the project on the
Northern Beaches Council’s website
About
Children with disabilities are routinely excluded & isolated from neighbourhood and local playgrounds because these spaces are not universally designed from the start, to be inclusive.
We wanted to change this.
The challenge
Research shows ‘children with disabilities experience significantly reduced participation in play and leisure’ and are at ‘higher risk of health and social difficulties’. Reasons for this include ‘physical inaccessibility, attitudinal barriers and poor social support’. To reduce social isolation, communities, designers and policy-makers must have cost-effective, realistic approaches for making local playgrounds fun and inclusive.
Our approach
The issue of exclusion is particularly the case for smaller playgrounds which typically make up the majority of play spaces across communities – yet receive the lowest funding support. Having the opportunity to access and participate equally in these spaces is vital to the emotional & social wellbeing of children in our local communities. Being unable to do so puts these families & children at greater risk of social isolation.
Through the application of Design Thinking our aim was to produce a play experience that would be equitable, sustainable, sensory rich, cost effective and most importantly, fun for all children regardless of ability.
We set ourselves a clear problem to solve:
How could we make smaller local playgrounds inclusive – on a budget?
Led by Play For All Australia, the primary project team included representatives from Northern Beaches Council as well as local parents, specialist educators, child development experts and creative industry & manufacturing experts. Aside from their professional expertise, the majority of this group were also local residents and parents too.
Maple Reserve Sensory Play Space design was inspired by the sense of smell
The project team brainstorming ideas
Outcomes
By working together with 19 local businesses and the Northern Beaches Council, PFAA designed, locally manufactured and installed an entirely new system of sensory play across five local play spaces. Known as ‘The Belrose Inclusive Play Spaces’ start to finish took 9 months. The aim was to create positive social, economic and environmental returns to local community:
- Signifies to ALL children and families, no matter their ability, that they belong and can participate equally alongside their siblings, peers, new friends.
- Activates community spaces using our sensory-based play equipment universally and cost-effectively.
About
Belrose is a suburb on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. This Inclusive Play project was run by Play For All Australia in partnership with the Northern Beaches Council. It forms part of the $6.3m “Connecting All Through Play” program announced by the Council in December 2016.
We proudly collaborated with Designer/ Artist M-lon
Please visit his online portfolio to read more about him and see his inclusive play project gallery. Also visit Lateral Studio for more about the project.
More information
Caroline Ghatt, Play For All Australia:
caroline@playforall.com.au
Mayor Michael Regan, Northern Beaches Council:
michael.regan@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au
Please click here to see more about the project on the
Northern Beaches Council’s website