We are 5!!

Playful People, Playful Places

In January 2024 we were delighted to be awarded £238,000 by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities Fund to deliver the Playful People, Playful Places Project, which is borne out of all of the engagement in playtimes, learnings and conversations with caregivers of early years children in the city over the last 5 years.

Celebrating with friends

We had two wonderful weekends celebrating Wolves Play Cafe's 5th Birthday in February and the launch of our project. We had an outdoor celebration at beautiful Boundary Way on 17th February and an indoor party the following week at All Saints Workspace on 24th February. 

Over the 2 mornings we were joined by 126 play friends, community partners and guests including The Mayor and Mayoress of Wolverhampton who came to play, share stories, memories, laughter and all range of emotions over cakes and cuppas!

Thanks to West Midlands Combined Authority's tree donations, over our week of celebrations, we were able to plant and give out as Take Home presents a total of 150 trees to flourish in our city

Building a safe, fun and supportive city for children of Wolverhampton to grow up in

Our mission was set just over 5 years ago, ​in 2018, with Mum and Daughter, Helen and Lisa , and now Wolves Play Cafe has grown to a team of 8 staff who are local caregivers who’ve been to play sessions and are now a part of the team facilitating the sessions and shaping the organisation.

At our birthday sessions, we reflected on Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. We celebrated memories of play sessions, how they have developed and grown into the city-wide play programme we have today. We thought about tomorrow, our Play for All Team and what the next 5 years of Wolves Play Cafe looks like.

​The team at Wolves Play Cafe, always make time to come over and speak to me and O. Not every parent has the knowledge, resources or personal experiences of how to help and support their child, we’re all just trying our best. What I have observed from the ladies is how they themselves are not only supporting the
children, but are supporting us, the parents." Carys, 2023 

What will we do over the next 5 years?

Play sessions are delivered across the city of Wolverhampton weekly at 3 main play locations, Gatis
Community Space in Whitmore Reans, Boundary Way Community Garden in Warstones, All Saints
Community Centre in All Saints. In addition to this a Play in the Park’ summer holiday programme across
all 3 areas in our city parks.

Playful People, Playful Places will deliver 525 Pay As You Feel play sessions across 3 areas of Wolverhampton over 3 years, equating to 1322 hours of vital early years play and friendly support spaces, benefitting 1440 under 7s across 4800 engagements, and 738 caregivers of under 7s across
2460 engagements.​

We are delighted to secure 3 years' funding to help achieve our mission of a safe, fun and supportive city for children of Wolverhampton to grow up in. This is vital investment in accessible early years play in our city, and we are so grateful The National Lottery Community Fund understand the value of this for little ones and their caregivers today and tomorrow."
Lisa Stallard, Co-Founder/Director

Share your vision for early years play in our city

Whether you've only been once or 100 times before, your feedback helps to inform us about the future development of our contribution to supporting families and championing play in our hometown!

If you have a little one under 7 and live in Wolverhampton or surrounding areas we'd love to hear from you!

Share your thoughts here with us about play in our city!

Come and play!

You can get involved by coming to play at a session near you! Book your next session here.

Or perhaps you'd like to be involved by being part of our Play for All team, contributing to shaping the project and feeding back on your experiences of parenting and play in the city. Email us at [email protected] to find out more.

I want to play!