Road to recreation: Uncovering the work of Possibilities for East End Kids (PEEK)

Many parents are afraid to let their little ones outside to play as they did when they were young. But the traditional image of children playing on the street may not be a thing of the past, finds Nick Drainey

STACEY BRADLEY is in no doubt about the dangers lurking outside her home in the East End of Glasgow. “The streets aren’t safe; there is glass all over the place, there is gang fighting and there are local teenagers about this area drinking,” she says as fog draws around the rows of flats in the Gallowgate on a bitterly cold February evening. It seems no wonder that she won’t let her eight-year-old daughter Cayce out to play, unless there are special circumstances.

Those circumstances involve a street project that encourages children to go outside, have fun, take risks and enjoy being with their friends. The Street Peek Project – run by PEEK (Possibilities East End Kids) – aims to stop children being glued to television or computers and instead have them playing outside. But is the traditional image of children playing on their street really a thing of the past and, if so, what can be done to overcome the issue?

The statistics seem to bear out the extent of the problem – a recent ICM survey found that 90 per cent of adults played out regularly in their street as children, yet nowadays 29 per cent of children say they don’t play or hang out in their street at all.

David Leitch lives in the East End and only allows his ten-year-old son to play within sight of their flat. He says simply that “there are too many dodgy people about,” pointing to a homeless hostel across the street and adding that there is a lack of playing fields and playgrounds for children to go to anyway. It is a far cry from his Glasgow childhood, he says: “I was never in but I don’t think the streets are safe nowadays.”

Anna Grzeda’s children are also kept in, especially during the dark nights of winter. She says: “Sometimes the children don’t go out because I am scared for them. It isn’t my neighbours; it is people from other areas.”

But amid fears of antisocial behaviour, parents can be prone to be too protective of their children, according to Michaela Collins, a play ranger with the Street Peek Project. She was brought up on the street where she is currently supervising a group of children and has seen a fall in the number playing outside since she was at school.

She says: “Cotton-wool culture is definitely a problem because a lot of parents want to keep their kids inside; they want to give them computer games and keep them from getting dirty.

“You need to bring back the whole culture that used to be ten, 15, 20 years ago when kids were allowed to go out on the street and when they were allowed to play, even when the sun had gone down.”

On this particular evening, a kickabout with a gate for a goalpost is replaced with an insect hunt after a shovel is produced by the play rangers. Much scraping around a patch of waste ground produces a beastie which one child promptly drops in horror beneath a fallen tree. That is the cue for a dozen or so primary school-age children to swarm up the branches, all watched and encouraged by the watching adults from Peek.

Stacey’s daughter Cayce was straight up the tree like a child from a 1950s annual, albeit in a rather smart fur coat. The eight-year-old said: “I wouldn’t normally climb a tree; I would just be in the house. Street Peek is good because it gets us all up and playing instead of being inside.”

That view of being able to do something usually out of reach is echoed by nine-year-old Jamie: “I like playing football, climbing trees and drawing. They (the play rangers) do everything with you … I feel safer when they are here. I wouldn’t play out as much if they weren’t here.”

Risk-taking may not sound like a priority for an organisation which looks after children but that is the heart of what the Street Peek Project aims to achieve.

Play ranger Ashliegh Thomson says ‘deep play’ is a great way to improve a child’s outlook. She says: “Deep play involves children taking risks – so climbing a tree is risk-taking – and it encourages them to strive to get up there, but we are here to supervise. The whole point of street play is for children to take risks and to risk-assess themselves.”

Ashliegh believes there are too many children being warned not to do things, rather than try something new. She said: “When I was small I fell about a million times and I have the scars to prove it, but I am still here. Let children be free and get dirty – they are going to learn from it.”

The perception that danger lurks round every corner, adding to parental fears of letting the children out on their own, is often overblown, says Ashliegh.

She adds: “I think the danger is more made aware of now than what it was – it is more publicised. I don’t think it is any more dangerous now than when I was small. The fear is in people more.”

For Michaela Collins the enthusiasm of the children is what drives them to play, which is why they choose what to do. Suggestions are made, but children can do anything from kicking a football and drawing with coloured chalks on the pavement to building dens and playing hide and seek.

She says: “It is always up to the children, they are the decision makers. It is their street; we can’t come on to their street and tell them what they are going to be doing. We are here purely to support the children, to be there so that adults can see that their kids are out playing and they are safe. The children wouldn’t get the chance to do it if we weren’t here.”

Each session starts with play rangers knocking on doors to see who wants to come outside, while parents of new children are given consent forms to fill in with emergency contact numbers. Being from the area helps Michaela encourage the children to go outside. She says: “I know the kids very well and I know their background, what they like and don’t like. I can encourage them to try something new – like climbing up a tree – and they trust me.”

Part of Michaela’s drive is for children to reclaim the streets and avoid the stereotypes they read about and see on television. She says: “There is such a negative image of children and young people where if they are seen hanging about the streets they are seen as doing bad, negative things and wanting to cause trouble, which is not the case; the kids are looking for something to do.”

When they do go outside, it can change children, says Michaela: “They get to laugh, genuinely laugh, they get to play, run about, get dirty, learn things, make friends – the barriers come down. It does genuinely change the lives of children in the East End.”

But what of those who don’t want to take part; don’t they continue to cause trouble? Not so, says Michaela: “More than anything they have a wee kickabout with the kids and then leave. They know we are here … they don’t come and try to cause any trouble – we never have any issues.”

For Natalia Grzeda, ten, the project is about having “lots of fun”. She says: “Everybody is friendly and you don’t get hurt. It would be boring if it wasn’t here. I wouldn’t go out as much.”