P4Play Newsletter Issue 2 October 2022
P4Play Newsletter ISSUE 2 Oct 2022
We are very excited to launch the second issue of the P4Play project newsletter!
Since the first newsletter was published in January of this year, we have seen Europe’s first Doctoral Programme in Occupational Science flourish.
Our 8 Early-Stage Researchers are delving into work with their partner organisations, they have defined their research questions and begun collecting data. Our partner organisations, committed to the principles of our research, form the backbone of the data collection on the ground, and this issue is dedicated to them.
The rationale for P4PLAY is to combine the needs of those who work with children at risk of play deprivation, with the research skills of academics who are experts in occupational science. Without the support of our industry partners, we could not bring People, Place, Policy and Practice together. Later in this issue we will highlight three of our partners and the important work that they do.
In addition to taught courses on Play and Occupational Science, we have held two training schools for our Early-Stage Researchers in 2022. We have treasured the opportunity to share our journey with some of today’s pioneers of the Occupation of Play as an Occupational Science.
P4Play Supervisors from four universities (University College Cork in Ireland, Lulea University in Sweden, Queen Margaret University in the UK and ZHAW University in Switzerland) have held space, online and in person, for the difficult questions facing our research: the absent presence of children in our playgrounds; the challenges to unpack play deprivation particularly in low resourced communities; resistance to children’s use of public spaces – balancing risk and safety.
We have formed our identity as a group, solidifying our ties as truly European team of researchers at the World Occupational Science Conference (WOSC) in Vancouver in August. All 8 of our researchers presented at WOSC and they found that our reputation preceded us. The excitement around a truly inter-disciplinary study on Play Occupation was palpable…more on this later.
Our ESRs have attended 11 conferences, and published 30 posters, presentations, articles and conference papers, all now freely available on Zenodo.
We would like to extend our thanks to the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. With this funding of €2.2 million, we are able to build on an emerging network of academic, policy and NGO organisations who are committed to children’s rights, social inclusion and play, and employ 8 full-time researchers to address issues of play deprivation across diverse communities.
We hope you enjoy this newsletter and if you want to know more about the project, please follow us on:
Twitter @P4Play_EU Instagram ‘p4play_EU Website https://www.p4play.eu/
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