Better Place on Tour
09 December 2024
Better Place Bradford have been working their magic across green spaces in the Better Start Bradford area with adventurous play equipment and structures and flora and fauna sprouting up for families with 0-3s to enjoy for years to come.
While the Better Place Team focus their energy in the Bowling and Barkerend, Little Horton and Bradford Moor areas of Bradford, they take inspiration for the work done from areas across Yorkshire.
Over the past couple of months, the Better Place team have been taking local families with 0-3s outside of the Better Start Bradford area to inspire and stimulate their creativity and outdoor experiences.
At the end of September, the team took a group of families to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to get their creative juices flowing to inspire sculptor John Merrill. John has been consulting with many community members as he is about to create a large-scale spherical sculpture in partnership with The Leap.
The sculpture will be constructed from large oak branches to represent the diversity and strength of the Bradford community and the need to embrace and to look out for each other, while being welcoming and open to everyone. The sculpture will be placed on a green space opposite the Laisterdyke Youth and Community Centre.
The families enjoyed a lovely walk seeing, feeling and climbing the different sculptures. They built dens in the nature playground and after lunch they took part in a workshop creating their very own sculptures using clay and homemade lavender scented playdough.
John Merrill said:
It was a great day - I am often asked to work with communities who have little experience of large contemporary sculpture in the landscape, so to take a group to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park was just fantastic.
I think everyone enjoyed the day and hopefully had a greater understanding of sculpture. It gave me an opportunity to talk about and ask what a piece of public sculpture for Bradford might look like whilst presenting some of my own thoughts and ideas.
In early November, Better Place also organised a family-foraging trip to Golden Acre Park in Leeds, after an idea from a parent.
The families learned from an independent forager, Lousie Bloomer, how to handle nettles and that they are natural antihistamine, they discovered the many benefits of rose hip, meadowsweet, bracken fern as well as the dangers of giant hogweed.
They enjoyed hot chocolate, pumpkin spice tea and homemade lavender biscuits. They also got to taste a natural cough medicine. Families were given a free foraging book and recipes to make their very own foraging treats and supplements back home.
The families hadn’t visited this site before, so they had a chance to explore the woodlands after the session had finished. Due to the positive feedback, Better Place have organised another foraging session for the end of March 2025 in Bradford.
Lousie, said:
How exciting that families with very young children are enjoying the outdoors and learning about how to feed themselves from nature, create their own clothes dyes, make herbal teas and other health beneficial remedies.
It was lovely to see the youngsters really noticing the plants and asking questions about what I had said and I was really pleased that they all tried and liked the lavender biscuits we had made for them. I can't wait to run another family foraging class and work with Better Place again. It was cold, but that didn't stop the parents and children getting involved and asking questions.
Summy, one of the parents attending, said:
Thank you for providing my family with an enlightening experience at the park. The children and adults really enjoyed finding out about the different beneficial properties the wild plants have! The hot chocolate and the lavender infused shortbread went down a treat at the end of the walk. I’m looking forward to attending another session.
About Better Place
Better Place is identifying and overseeing improvements to local parks and outdoor spaces with the aim of providing a healthier and happier environment for expectant parents, babies, young children and families. The project is also finding ways to reduce exposure to harmful traffic fumes for pregnant women and small children.
The Better Place project is a Better Start Bradford project that is being delivered in collaboration with Bradford Council, Bradford Trident, Groundwork UK, Public Health, voluntary and community sector groups and local people.
Check out our events and activities page to find out what the Better Place Activities team are doing in Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton.
You may also like to look at...
The Better Place project is working with local people to create safer, healthier and fun places across the Better Start Bradford area. Where will your next adventure be?
Whether you’re expecting a baby, have children aged 0-3 or work or volunteer in health, maternity or early years, we've got an event or training session for you.