Make Space for Girls In Broomfield Park
Broomfield Park project featured in national fundraising campaign
The next stage of a campaign to make Broomfield Park a more welcoming and inclusive space for everyone in our community is underway. The "Make Space for Girls" project, with a special focus on teenage girls, is a collaborative effort between the Palmers Greenery Community Cafe, the Friends of Broomfield Park, Enfield Council, and the national charity Make Space for Girls. The project will create a dedicated youth space within the park, designed with the specific needs of local girls in mind.
It's a fact that many public spaces, including parks, are often dominated by males. Facilities like skate parks, BMX tracks, and caged pitches are overwhelmingly used by boys, which can leave teenage girls feeling excluded and without a place of their own.
The issue is outlined in the video below, filmed in Broomfield Park to support a national fundraising campaign for The Make Space for Girls Charity. A lack of inclusive spaces can have a significant negative impact on the physical and mental health of girls, and non-binary young people, limiting their opportunities for outdoor recreation and social connection.
To ensure the facilities in Broomfield Park truly meet the needs of its intended users, a series of workshops were held in the spring of 2024 with ten local girls aged 13-18. During these sessions, the girls shared their experiences of the park and their ideas for how it could be improved. Their valuable input is now being used to develop a proposal for a vibrant new youth space where girls can feel comfortable, safe, and engaged. Detailed plans will be revealed shortly and reviewed by the project team before taking shape in the park.
Our local initiative in Broomfield Park is part of an important wider national movement. The Make Space for Girls charity is campaigning for systemic change, advocating for all public spaces in the UK to be designed with teenage girls in mind. The Friends of Broomfield Park, by supporting this local project, are not only improving our own community but also providing a working demonstration of how to create a park that truly serves everyone.
To help bring this vision to life in other spaces across the UK, a new fundraising campaign has been launched with the goal of raising £5,000 to support the National Charity. Thanks to the Big Give's Women and Girls Match Fund, every pound donated between 8th October and 15th October will be doubled, turning individual donations into a total of £10,000. This funding is crucial for researching and supporting new youth spaces in the UK and ensuring they become a reality.
Contributions to the Big Give will support equitable access to outdoor space and a fairer and more equal society for all. Your donation, no matter the size, will make a real difference.
- Find out more about Make Space for Girls in Broomfield Park
- Find out more about Make Space for Girls nationally
- Find out more about the Big Give fundraising campaign Oct 8th - 15th
