Upper Hutt City Council’s coordinated approach delivers another successful U-PLAY

The success of Upper Hutt City Council’s three-week-long summer holiday event, U-PLAY, was due to its coordinated approach and collaboration with sports and theatre organisations and aquatic centres.

Activation, Upper Hutt Libraries, H2O Xtream Aquatic Centre, and Whirinaki Whare Taonga (Upper Hutt's superb public art gallery, theatre and recreation hall) worked together to put on more than 50 events across different venues in Upper Hutt.

U-PLAY was also supported by Special Olympics New Zealand who joined Activation staff to demonstrate and facilitate inclusive play indoors. The team from Special Olympics were pleased that the Council had included inclusive play in U-PLAY and indicated that they would continue to support U-PLAY holiday events.

Mike Ryan, Director of Community Services noted “It’s part of our commitment to support keeping tamariki engaged and active over the holiday period.  Council also collaborated with sports organisations and invited them to put on their play events for our tamariki (children).”

The Activation team had community support from Totara Park Softball Club, Wellington Touch Association, SkateEd, Total Pursuit and Upper Hutt Floorball Club. Upper Hutt Floorball Club took the opportunity and delivered their first Summer Floorball Tournament and more than 70 children registered to play in the tournament.  Total Pursuit put out a social tennis event for parents and children to play at the Maidstone Park Tennis Courts.

Activation trialled “Outdoor Games Days” at four parks and reserves around Upper Hutt – from Kaitoke Regional Park to Pinehaven Reserve – and the community turned up to play. The team also put on their first Maidstone Meltdown where they invited children and youth to take on one another in 3-on-3 street basketball or skateboarding competitions, and had games, music and food around Maidstone Max for casual play.

The events at Upper Hutt Libraries were a ‘sold-out’ success. Registered events like the Escape Room and others had requests from the community to be waitlisted and open events like the Box Maze were well-attended by more than 70 children and their families at Central Library. The Libraries even set aside three afternoons for teens to play board games like Carcassone, Wingspan and Spot-it.

Image: Activation and Community Development teams with the Special Olympics staff at U-PLAY “Inclusive Indoor Play Series " (left to right: Jayden Richards, Special Olympics New Zealand; Brent Hayward, Activation; Cat Hamlin, Activation; Jane Braun, Community Development; Whero West, Community Development; Cole Gwilliam, Special Olympics New Zealand)