Getting Started

Partner with a Charity

Many individuals in the community lead campaigns to get a Liberty swing for their community. It does help to have an organisation supporting you, and here I would suggest getting the support of a service club or charity such as Variety the Children’s Charity, an international children’s charity of excellent repute, which has a Variety Liberty Swing Program.

Variety has hundreds of swings throughout Australia and New Zealand and is active in the Variety Liberty Swing Program in Ireland and some states in the USA. They are more than happy to work with community fundraising campaigns because it takes some pressure off them with raising the funds, though they often match funding.

Or go it alone….

We have many years’ experience in placing Liberty Swings around the world, and there are not many questions we can’t answer. Robert Devine is only too happy to help you with your campaign and is only an email or phone call away!

Robert has provided assistance to:

• a 15-year-old Eagle Scout from Michigan to import and install a swing for his local community for his scout project;

• a 10-year-old girl from Tennessee who dreamt of providing a Liberty Swing for a boy in a wheelchair at her local school, and worked hard to make her dream a reality;

• community campaigns throughout Australia, and in New Mexico, Missouri, Virginia, to name a few;

• the Make A Wish organisation in Melbourne, to make a young girl’s life a little brighter in regional Victoria;

First Steps

One of the first things you need to do, is identify a site and do some research on likelihood of usage by the disability or aged community (both represent the main users  of the swing); is it accessible by vehicle, wheelchair, etc; close to a special school (not absolutely necessary, but helpful).

The next step is to approach the land manager – council/government/park authority etc and see what sort of support you can get from them. Hint: If you don’t get anywhere with staff of these organisations, approach elected representatives – things tend to move a lot faster when this happens and doors suddenly open. 

In other words, many organisations don’t voluntarily provide facilities for people with a disability over and above what they ‘have to’ unless there is external pressure to do so.

Installation costs vary, and our fact sheet explains there are many variables in determining the final cost. 

The actual swing assembly is not complex as most of the construction takes place in the factory. Costs for installation can vary from $10,000-$18,000 AUD but most of this is for wetpour rubber (poured in place) and fencing; the swing assembly only represents a very small proportion of this, so savings can be made by noting the suggestions on our fact sheet, ie, reducing the surface material and fencing to the minimum required.

Ongoing Support

Please don’t hesitate to contact Robert if and when questions arise, or you need supporting information for your presentations. We have DVDs available of our movie of the swing, and this is also available on YouTube (Liberty Swing in Action). We fully understand that many community campaigns can run for over a year……we are there with you all the way.