More than 200 people have been gathering outside New Walk Centre in Leicester to campaign against �2m cuts to the voluntary sector. The city council says it needs to make the cuts to cover a �10m budget shortfall.
Voluntary groups in the city have voiced their concerns after a number of groups said they would have to close if funding was axed.
Ben Kingston from the Northfields Playbarn said supervised play schemes threatened by the cuts benefit the wider community.
Safety claims
He said: "For every child playing safely in one of the projects across the city which is threatened with the cuts, that is one child who won't be playing on the railway lines or in building sites.
"That's a child who's not going to be vandalising phone boxes or causing tension between local residents.
"These are children who are being safely stimulated and informally educated in playgrounds across the city - and we cannot understand why we're being targeted for cuts."
The charities standing to lose funding are:
Ajani Women and Girls Centre �92,000 Bhagini Women's Centre �100,700 Goldhill Adventure Playground �74,800 Highfields Adventure Playground �77,700 Shree Sanatan Community Project �75,500 St Matthew's Children Action Group �64,600 Vietamese Community Association �22,500 Sikh Community Centre �50,200 Leicester Irish Centre �10,000 
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