More Than Just a Place to Play: How Neighbourhood Backyards Are Rebuilding Childhood and Community
- admin37680
- May 13
- 4 min read
By Dr Sara Branch, Senior Research Fellow Communities for Children – Logan | Griffith University
This conversation is a record of Dr Branch's interview for the Neighbourhood Backyard documentary.
Play is often spoken about as something nice for children — a bonus, a break between the “important” parts of life. But decades of research, and now lived community evidence, tell a very different story. Play is not optional. It is foundational.
My work as a Senior Research Fellow focuses on child wellbeing, community development, and social connection, with a particular interest in how place‑based initiatives support children’s agency, resilience, and mental health. Again and again, play emerges as one of the most powerful — and most underestimated — mechanisms through which children build social, emotional, and community capacity.
One place where this is especially visible is Joomunjie Land, a neighbourhood backyard that has become far more than simply a place to play.
Why Neighbourhood Backyards Matter
Across many communities, childhood has become increasingly over‑structured. Children move from school to organised activities, often spending long stretches indoors and on screens, with little opportunity for free, local, child‑led play.
Neighbourhood backyards like Joomunjie Land restore what is missing: everyday opportunities for children to play on their own terms, connect with others, and develop a sense of belonging. These spaces do what formal systems often struggle to do — they create environments where agency, resilience, creativity, and social competence can grow naturally.
The More Than Just a Place to Play Report
In early 2024, following 18 months of Joomunjie Land’s operation, I completed the report More Than Just a Place to Play. The research was commissioned to understand the impact of the space on children, families, the school, and the wider neighbourhood.
The study used a mixed‑methods qualitative approach. Interviews and surveys were conducted
with children, parents and carers, and school personnel, collected by AIP. I independently analysed the data and then engaged in a structured sense‑making process with playworkers. This ensured credibility, triangulation, and contextual accuracy — grounding the findings in both evidence and lived experience.
The title emerged directly from the data. Joomunjie Land is not just a playground. It functions as a place of belonging, identity, regulation, healing, learning, and connection. For many children, it is a sanctuary.
A Sanctuary in Children’s Own Words
Children consistently described Joomunjie Land as a place where they feel safe, calm, accepted, and free. It is somewhere they can be themselves, without excessive rules, pressure, or judgement — something increasingly rare in their everyday worlds.
For many, it is emotionally and socially protective. Not just a recreational space, but a place where they can regulate, experiment, and recover.
What Children Told Us
Children spoke clearly about the impact Joomunjie Land has on their lives. They described:
Increased happiness, confidence, and courage
Better emotional regulation and social skills
More physical activity and creativity
Reduced boredom and screen time
Improved mental wellbeing
When asked what they would be doing if they weren’t at Joomunjie Land, the answer was almost universal: they would be bored, indoors, or on devices. Several children shared that they feel more tired, less motivated, and less happy on days they can’t attend.
They also identified barriers to play elsewhere — limited neighbourhood options, lack of flexible spaces, and too much time spent at home with “nothing to do”.
Outcomes for Families and the Wider Community
Families noticed changes too. Parents and carers described children who were calmer, more socially confident, better able to regulate emotions, and more physically active.
They also valued the space as a safe, supervised environment where children could thrive while parents attended work, study, or other responsibilities. For many families, Joomunjie Land fills a gap that simply does not exist elsewhere.
Beyond individual households, the neighbourhood itself has been transformed. Joomunjie Land has strengthened local connections, built familiarity between families, and fostered a shared sense of ownership. It operates as a community anchor — increasing trust, visibility, and informal social support.
What Makes a Neighbourhood Backyard Work?
Several critical success factors emerged consistently:
Genuine child voice, agency, and leadership
Skilled playworkers and supportive adults
Physical and psychological safety
A constantly evolving environment with loose parts
Clear but minimal rules developed with children
Strong relationships across schools, families, and community
Together, these elements build a strong psychological sense of community — a feeling of belonging, mattering, and shared purpose that extends beyond the space itself.
Playwork Team from Joomunjie Land - Zoe, Jimara, Tyana & Tahnie
Play as Cultural Change
Many of the challenges facing children today — rising anxiety, social isolation, disengagement, and behavioural difficulties — are closely tied to the erosion of everyday play.
Play underpins learning, mental health, social competence, and resilience. Yet it continues to be undervalued, treated as optional rather than essential. The result has been over‑managed childhoods, reduced independence, increased screen time, and declining wellbeing.
Neighbourhood backyards offer a powerful counter‑narrative. They challenge adult fears, restore trust in children’s competence, and normalise play as a central part of community life.
Is This Model Replicable?
Yes — with the right principles. Replication is not about copying a playground design. It is about replicating values, relationships, and practice frameworks. When done well, neighbourhood backyards become the heartbeat of a healthy community.
Future research should examine long‑term outcomes, impacts across diverse contexts, and cost–benefit comparisons with traditional intervention approaches. But the evidence so far is clear: these spaces are making a demonstrable difference.
What I See at Joomunjie Land
When I look around Joomunjie Land, I see creativity in motion. Children building, negotiating, imagining, resting, leading, and collaborating. I see pride, care for place, and shared ownership.
No two visits are ever the same — and that is precisely the point. The space evolves as children evolve. It grows with them.
If I had to describe Joomunjie Land in three words, they would be:
Freedom. Belonging. Transformation.
Freedom to play; belonging to place and people; transformation for children, families, and community.
And perhaps the most important lesson it offers is this:
"When we trust children, listen to them, and give them space, they show us exactly what healthy communities can look like".
