{"id":239619,"date":"2025-11-02T13:05:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T13:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/239619\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T13:05:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T13:05:15","slug":"poor-collective-revitalises-mitcham-sports-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/239619\/","title":{"rendered":"POoR Collective revitalises Mitcham sports pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Funded by Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group, the project \u2013 the colourful transformation of a concrete sports pitch \u2013 has formed part of a wider Community Ambassador Programme.<\/p>\n

The community sports space is located on the Sadler Close estate in Mitcham, a 1970s redbrick post-industrial estate where two of POoR Collectives founders grew up.<\/p>\n

The project for revitalising the outdoor multi-use games area (MUGA) was delivered in collaboration with local young people from the estate. POoR worked closely with the group to co-design it to ensure it reflected the community\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This was done via a series of create engagement activities starting with door-to-door outreach.<\/p>\n

Residents were invited to participate through a series of workshops, which included photography, walks around Mitcham and co-design sessions at Shine Youth Group in Mitcham Library and on the site.<\/p>\n

Twelve young residents and five parents, carers and family members participated, alongside two Clarion apprentices who supported the site\u2019s transformation and helped paint the MUGA.<\/p>\n

The outreach stage reached over 30 young people and parents. The final design is in colours of blue, orange and yellow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Last year, POoR Collective worked with GPAD to complete an overhaul of the rundown Copthall Pavilion<\/a> in Barnet, north London.<\/p>\n

In 2023, they guest-edited an issue of the AJ<\/a> \u2013 titiled Power Out of Restriction \u2013 with features highlighting the term co-design, looking at youth-focused buildings and spotlighting mentoring organisations.<\/p>\n

POoR Collective co-founder Larry Botchway, currently an associate for Public Practice at Richmond and Wandsworth councils, said of the MUGA co-design: \u2018Working with this sharp, energetic group of young people has been a joy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sadler Close MUGA proves that, with the right tools and trust, young people can transform a neglected space in Mitcham into a bold and vibrant hub for play, creativity and community pride.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Funded by Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group, the project \u2013 the colourful transformation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-239619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}