News from the Play Australia team...

Hello everyone!

By now you are probably immersed in the silly season, wrapping up projects, commencing celebrations and juggling the work-life-play balance!

This is our last eNews for the year and we are sending it out to all our members and subscribers. It has been a busy year and we have enjoyed working with you all.

On reflection there are several things 2023 will be remembered for!

Barb Champion, our long serving Executive Director retired at the start of the year and Robyn joined the team as CEO. We celebrated globally in 2023 with our IPA colleagues in Glasgow at the IPA Triennial World Conference. Our 1000 Play Streets movement grew, and we welcomed new councils into the program. We played host to international experts like Professors Sergio Pellis and the wonderful Tim Gill. We co-hosted the first National Children’s Week oration with the Children’s Week Council of Australia! And we launched two new online training courses - see New Resources below to find out more.

We also announced this week that our Projects Officer, Kieran Brophy is leaving us. The challenge of working on projects that are dependent on funding hits hard for all NGO's when those funding streams come to an end. We have been blessed to have had Kieran for 5 years and his work on the Play Today campaign and 1000 Play Streets in particular has been incredible.

Kieran’s departure brings mixed feeling for us, while we are sad to lose Kieran, we are delighted with his new appointment as Project Lead at Outdoors Victoria. Play Australia has strong ties to this fantastic organisation, led by CEO Andrew Knight, and whose offices sit right next door to ours! So for us, it is a little like Kieran is going to stay with family – and we know he will be well cared for and do great things!

On behalf of all the team – we send our love and best wishes for a playful and happy festive season. We are looking forward to welcoming you back in 2024, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated for a year where Play Australia will celebrate our 110 year anniversary!

Yours Playfully,

Robyn, Joanne, Peter and for one last time … Kieran xxxxx

We’ve certainly achieved a lot of good work together to help build play in Australia for those who need it most…probably no surprise, but my personal highlight has been delivering the 1000 Play Streets movement and our streets-for-people work (even though we’ve just scratched the surface in terms of potential growth here).

In terms of next steps, I’m pleased to say that starting this month, I take on an exciting role as Projects Lead for Outdoors Victoria, where I will be advocating for both recreation and play, in support of the Outdoors Sector.

Keep a look out for my first project, called Active in Nature which is a brilliant initiative providing greater opportunities for Victorian young people to be active in our parks, for better health and wellbeing.

If you haven’t already, please connect with me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-brophy

Thanks for everything and I wish you all my very best.

Stay playful,

Kieran

Wendy will be kick starting the 2024 PD program and presenting for us on Wednesday 7 February at 7pm (Syd/Melb time). Thereafter we're planning to have free member webinars each week across a broad range of subjects, presented by our incredibly skilled and talented members.

In 2024 we are bringing International Playwork training to Australia and delivering this as an Industry certified course, as well as new self-paced online learning modules across a spectrum of subjects of relevance to our members.

We will introduce a host of new membership benefits that are currently being negotiated and have been asked for by our members. We really are going to make 2024 a BIG year of playful growth, expansion and knowledge transfer!

Look out for our first member eNews in 2024 for more announcements!

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 19 December 2023 at 4pm on Zoom. All members are invited to attend.

Agenda

• Approval of Minutes of 2022 AGM
• Approval of Financial Reports 2022-2023
• CEO Report
• Election and Ratification of Board members 2023-2024

Look forward to seeing you online!

Our new self-paced learning modules on Playspace Development and Maintenance have had great reviews! Thank you to members who have shared their opinions on LinkedIn.

A reminder that you have 12 months to work through the 7-hour course and it is a great PD to start in the slower months of January.