Roam Kids

Are your childhood memories dominated by those outdoor adventures you had till the sun set and it was time for tea? Today's children are rarely experiencing such free play and our mission is to do something about it. It is a freedom which we believe children are entitled to, and a natural instinct that is being suppressed. This inspired us to set up the ROAM project. Over 30 years, it has now become ‘the norm’ for children not to play independently in the public realm. Typically, children are not experiencing any such unsupervised time until an average age of 10.5 years old, whereas even for their parents, it was 7.5 years old. The impacts of this deficit on children’s wellbeing are emerging in the findings of many academic studies, but just as importantly, it is our belief that children have a right to roam. Whilst we can’t turn back the clock, the ROAM project facilitates this kind of free play in our sessions by putting a degree of structure in place for parents to feel comfortable to let their children participate. Sessions are intentionally arranged to closely mimic the type of play children experienced in the past, by mixing children of various ages; boys and girls together. Our very first session was held in south Birmingham in December 2017, and since running regular sessions, the results have been astonishing. We could never have predicted the positive impacts and unintended consequences such play would bring to children, parents, and even on the wider community. ROAM is now broadening inclusion to this type of play by facilitating access to a wider range of children, through different session types. We are also campaigning for such freedoms by sharing academic research, with a mission to shift the norm by empowering parents to once again see such play as the healthy and essential part of childhood that it is.