Support to a playground at a crisis centre

The Vissing Foundation is supporting the establishment of a nature playground at the Gro Women’s Crisis Centre Foundation, located near Næstved in Denmark.

“We know that interaction through play and physical activity outdoors improves the children’s well-being both physically, mentally and socially while they are at the crisis centre, waiting to be able to resume their everyday lives in nurseries or school. The objective with the playground is to create an active and recognisable daily routine, to help the children to thrive and develop during their stay at the crisis centre,” says Signe Berne Kruuse, leader of the GRO Foundation Women’s Crisis Centre.

The GRO Foundation Crisis Centre opened on 1 November 2020 for battered women and their children if they have any. The building is a former steward’s house, and was later used as a social psychiatric home for adults. There is not much space in the building for children and their activities.

“It has therefore been a vital priority for us to set up a nature playground that the children at the crisis centre can make use of while processing the violence they either have suffered themselves or have witnessed. The grant from the Vissing Foundation will ensure that we can achieve that aim in the autumn of 2021. We are very grateful, because we know the children at the crisis centre will greatly enjoy and benefit from it,” says Signe Berne Kruuse.