ABOUT US
OUR STORY
Project Play was founded in August 2018 by volunteers working in northern France to support displaced communities. Friends Claire and Col realised there was a stark lack of support and protection available to children and young people living in these informal camps in Dunkirk.
From this, Project Play was born - aiming to fill this gap by providing safe spaces and play for children, with the goal of supporting their all-round well-being.
Project Play ran its first session in November 2018. To date, we have worked with nearly 8000 children across twelve different sites in northern France - including community centres, independent safe houses and informal living sites.
SINCE 2018:
THE CONTEXT
Since the demolition of the Calais ‘Jungle’ in 2016, French and British policies have aimed to prevent new camps from forming — through constant evictions and routine police violence.
The children we work with live in informal camps or temporary accommodation centres, enduring inhumane conditions with no access to essential services, state protection or support. They have undergone difficult journeys and now find themselves experiencing police harassment and violence in France.
For many families, the UK represents a last hope for safety and sanctuary and the only option to give their children a safe future. Many of the children we work with attempt regular crossings to the UK, with further negative impacts on their physical and psychological wellbeing.
Our 2025 report, We Want to Be Safe, documents the sharp rise in police violence and child fatalities in 2024, and calls for urgent policy change to protect children’s rights.
THE POWER OF PLAY
“Play promotes creativity, imagination, self-confidence, self-efficacy and physical, social, cognitive and emotional strength and skills, and, as a protective process, can enhance adaptive capabilities and resilience”
- “Children’s Right to Play and the Environment”, The International Play Association, (2016),
Play is essential for any child’s well-being and development. For some of the most at risk children in Europe, it can be a lifeline. Through play, children practice essential life skills; they learn to interact and communicate, to express their emotions and to explore their creativity. Play also simply allows children to create positive memories; a fundamental part of any childhood.
Play helps young people become strong and independent individuals. Through play, children practice the skills for later life; they learn to interact and communicate, to express their emotions, to explore their creativity and to grow their physical abilities.
Play helps them figure out what they like and don’t like and what they are good at. With a strong sense of identity and self-belief, children are far more resilient to trauma and adversity.
Playing with others teaches children to relate to those around them, to understand themselves and the impact of their actions, as well as how other people’s actions make them feel. The children we work with need a space where they can build this social and emotional awareness, to help them cultivate healthy relationships and process and respond to distress. Imaginative and pretend play lets children try out different roles, reenact real-life scenarios and process fears and anxieties.
Through imaginative play, children are offered the space to work through traumatic events in their lives, by re-enacting and reframing these events in play.