Poverty, Play & Toys
In the midst of a cost of living crisis where essentials such as travel, heating our homes and feeding our families are growing worries for many families, it may feel a bit strange to be talking about play and toys.
But, that’s exactly what we are doing at Fife Gingerbread.
Toys are an essential part of our children’s development – their health, wellbeing and enabling them to achieve important milestones. They provide children with entertainment, problem solving skills and joy. However, they are often overlooked and not classed as essential for many low income families.
It is easy to forget that just the essentials (heating and eating) are not enough to lead a fulfilled life, and that this simply equates to survival. Children deserve full happy lives.
Last year we commissioned research by The Collective Scotland focused on lone parents and recovery from the pandemic. One of the recommendations included “providing a toy bank” (click here). This led us to reflect on Poverty Alliance research completed a few years ago in partnership with Fife Gingerbread to understand the impact that Poverty has on Play (click here) This research talks about play deprivation. The notion that not playing may deprive children of experiences regarded as developmentally essential, and the concept extends not just to toys but hobbies, trips, holidays and birthday.
With this in mind we took the toybank idea to staff development days, leadership team and our parents forum. Through these sessions we shared ideas, thought about need and considered barriers.
Overall there was great enthusiasm and support for the concept, although we did decide that the phrase toybank could create some stigma for families so language is important as we develop this idea.
We have explored different ways of taking this concept forwards and so far we have considered…
Community Toy Chest: where families can access toys for free
Toy Swap Shop: facilitating opportunities for families to swap toys
Partnership with Foodbank: integrating a toybank in foodbanks
Work with local Libraries: integrating access to toys in local libraries
Gingey Play Bus: getting a bus which travelled to communities to promote play and provide toys
Toy Membership Social Enterprise: charging as a toy library, and making this free for low income families
Toys available at our Tea Time Clubs: making toys available within our weekly tea time clubs, and encouraging families to swap
The benefits of these ideas extend beyond play. There is huge environmental benefit to recycling high quality toys, rather than buying new ones. Especially plastic toys. If we were creating opportunities for re-use then this would promote sustainability.
So, we are asking you (families, partner organisation, staff and volunteers) to comment on social media posts and complete our really short four question survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/999ZLFG
Our Parents Forum are keen to gather up different views and ideas over the Summer holidays, and then start to plan an approach to toys and play locally. We would also like to set up a partnership meeting after the holidays to begin discussions.
If you would like to contribute to the conversation then get in touch either through social media, complete the survey or email us at info@fifegingerbread.org.uk