Jade Newton-Gardener brings over 25 years of experience in Play and Youth Work. After several years in a high street bank; the painful loss of friends to gun and knife crime; a life-changing trip to The Gambia inspired her to resign, take a leap of faith, and step into the unknown.

She began her journey with Islington Play and Youth Services, reconnecting with play alongside children and young people. From there, she worked across a wide range of settings: After School Clubs, Adventure Playgrounds, Pupil Referral Units (PRU’s), and Detached Youth Work. Despite dropping out of two colleges, she completed her Play and Youth Work qualifications in - house, went on to earn her train the trainer qualifications, and finished university in her 30s while pregnant with her first child.

For eight years, Jade was given creative licence to design innovative training programmes and events rooted in playfulness and Playwork Theory. Singled out by her Playwork trainer, Dr. Jackie Jeffries (founder of Play Action), she co-created unique playful learning experiences - from intergenerational play spaces and Youth Exchanges in The Gambia and South Africa, to Playwork training for young people, a NEET construction course on adventure playgrounds, and a community forest site in Kent called “Nature’s Playground.” A major highlight was returning to The Gambia to pilot her “Playful Youth Work” (PYW) approach with support from the Gambian National Youth Work Agency and Middlesex University - a meaningful way to give back to the place that changed her life.

Over the past 14 years, she has embedded IMAP’s playful approach across organisations including the Amy Winehouse Foundation and Fully Focused Productions. She has seen first hand how play supports healing, wellbeing, and the discovery of potential. Her own playful path has opened unexpected doors, such as guest presenting at UCL’s DClinPsy end - of - term conference, and even appearing on Netflix’s in PRU and the YouTube Channel MYM’s Raw God’s, plus seeing her name in credits for films.

In 2024, Jade was chosen to deliver a workshop at Pop-Up Adventure Play’s International Playwork Campference in Istanbul: “An Exploration of Recapitulative Play as a Holistic Tool for Health, Well-Being and Healing.” The session was a powerful success - organisers told her she broke their record for the most people crying in a workshop. Not intentional, of course, but a sign that participants truly felt the work. Because play, at its core, is an experience. See what she got up to here 

In the last two years, Jade has a particular LoVe for Recapitulative Play - how it appears in everyday life, consciously and unconsciously, and its role in growth, wellbeing, and healing for all ages; As play has no age limit. Hence her use of the title Trauma Informed Playwork Practitioner.  

Most recently, through her role on London’s Violence Reduction Unit Youth Practitioners Advisory Board (YPAB), she co-led a playful, interactive session with the VRU’s Young People’s Action Group (YPAG) at the Frameless Takeover Day for Youth Work Week.

Having witnessed the transformative - and sometimes restrictive - power of play, Jade often says: “Play doesn’t discriminate; people and our systems do.” Her lived experience, professional practice, and research study “To Play or Not to Play: An Investigation into Opening Dialogue Between the Play and Youth Work Professions” are what brought I aM AP to life.

Now you can come join Jade on her Play Mission as she embarks on a New Play ADVENTURE running her fully funded FREE 12 week Intergeneration Play Programme in Enfield. Sign Up to become an Agent of Play NOW.