Playing Out

Celebrating Greater Manchester Histories and Heritage, Manchester Histories is a growing and dynamic charity (charity number:1151944).We work collaboratively with people, organisations and partners to reveal and celebrate the stories of the people and places that make up Greater Manchester. We connect people together to explore the past and shape the future through histories and heritage.

Manchester Histories

Walk Ride GM / Living Streets panel explores initiatives to  enable safe play on our streets and the positive impact on children's heath.

Manchester Central Library

A history of streets as a place for children to play and socialise, whether near the home or walking to school and how and why that has changed over the years. We want to explore the importance of children being able safely play and move on our streets and why it is so important to their health, happiness and development. We want to look at what has changed to make this no longer part of everyday life for children, both from a cultural and policy perspective. And most importantly we want to explore the initiatives (such as School Streets and Play Streets) and changes that are happening to try and reverse this decline to give children back the safe spaces they need for their physical and mental wellbeing.Join Cazz Ward from Walk Ride GM, Jane Rickwood and Alice Ferguson from Playing Out.This is a hybrid event so you can join in person or via Zoom. A link to the meeting will be shared just before the event.

Cazz WardCazz is a passionate environmental campaigner, believing that supporting change in the places you live is as important as making changes at a policy level. As part of WalkRide GM, she has supported a number of schools to put in place School Streets – closing the school zone to traffic and encouraging walking and riding to school – proven to make children more independent, happier and healthier.

Alice FergusonIn 2009, Alice and her neighbour Amy Rose came up with the idea of temporarily transforming their Bristol street into a safe ‘shared space’ where children could play freely outside their front door, simply by closing the road to through-traffic for a short time. They saw this as a step towards restoring children’s freedom to play out in their communities as a vital part of a happy, healthy childhood. Alice is now co-Director of Playing Out CIC, supporting the growing national parent-led play streets movement of over 1000 street communities across 100 local authority areas.

Jane RickwoodJane Rickwood is a project manager at Living Streets, part of the team delivering the Walk To School Outreach project, helping achieve the Government target of 55% of primary aged children walking to school by 2025. She has worked in active travel and behaviour change for just over twenty years, starting as a School Travel Plan officer. She was part of TravelWise Merseyside delivering travel plans and engagement and marketing campaigns across Liverpool City Region, and oversaw the Bikeability contract which was the largest in the UK at the time.Jane walks, rides a bike or uses public transport for every journey she makes. Pre covid, she helped run a playstreet in her local neighbourhood for 18 months (pre covid), speaking with neighbours and finding volunteers to take over the streets and enable up to 30 children to enjoy the freedom and joy of playing out.

Jane DuttonJane Dutton joined Mums for Lungs as a volunteer over four years ago and has been running their successful social media campaign, amongst other campaigning elements, ever since. Becoming a parent and living near one of the most polluted roads in Europe galvanised her into action. As a core member of Mums for Lungs, she has been campaigning for School Streets since 2018, and is very pleased to have seen the numbers rise from under 100 to 500 across London over the last two years.

AccessWe endeavour to ensure that Festival events are accessible to all and welcome you to contact us regarding any specific requirements you may have before the event: info@manchesterhistories.co.uk or 0161 306 1982.The venue is fully accessible and there will be a BSL (British Sign Language) signer present at the venue.

Thanks to our funders.Enormous thanks go out to all our festival supporters, partners, and funders. Without their contributions, the festival would not take place. It is a  FREE festival, with only a few paid for events. Making it as accessible to as many people as possible. It costs in the region of 100K to put on the festival and the following partners and funders have all contributed to make this festival happen. Thank you.

DonateThe event is free of charge but as a small charity we welcome your donations as your help will enable us to continue our work. Suggested donations from £3.00 - £10.00. All donations gratefully received.By donating to Manchester Histories you can help us fulfil our mission to shape our future by exploring our past. We’re looking towards the future, to our next fabulous festival in 2024, and to the new and creative projects that will make your stories heard.Thank you.

Data GatheringWhen registering for this event we will ask you some questions about your age, gender, ethnicity, disability and postcode. Gathering this information helps us to report back to our funders and enables us to better understand our audiences so we can ensure we reach as many people as possible now and in the future. The information is given anonymously.

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Playing Out

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Ticket sales have ended

Playing Out

More events from Manchester Histories

Discover more events from Manchester Histories, from Community to other experiences you might love.

MHF 2026 | Threads of a City: The Manchester Tapestry Project | 4 - 6 June

MHF 2026 | Histories Slam | 4 June

MHF 2026 | Films and Talks | 5 & 6 June

MHF 2026 | Champs Camp Open Day | Sat 6 June

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