Cities for and with Children and Youth – Ideas to Inspire Action
Author(s): Anupama Nallari
Many people and organisations have asked us: what can we, ourselves, do to make cities better for children and young people? This publication responds to this question by offering some ideas for local and low‑cost action. It starts from the premise that actions can be done by ordinary citizens, by children, youth, caregivers, community-based organisations and others to improve cities and neighbourhoods for children and young people. The actions themselves have direct benefits, but they can also be a first step to inspire or trigger wider more scalable change reaching more children, schools, streets, neighbourhoods and cities. This is what this guide is about. It is about some ideas and actions that have worked in different cities around the world that can be starting points: low-cost actions that can spark interest, promote positive change and thus have potential for wider impact. Actions that can show us what better cities for children and youth could look like.
The Research Series
The Research Series: Cities for Children and Youth is published by the Global Alliance – Cities4Children. This series includes publications reflecting on a range of issues faced by urban children and youth and shed light on promising initiatives and practices for sustained change. The series aims to inspire action, add to knowledge, improve program/project design and advocate for children’s and young people’s rights in the urban agenda. It is aimed at practitioners, policy makers, government officials, researchers and advocates for better cities for children and youth and will include a range of publications:
- Evidence to action briefs: These are short research summaries about different topics that are important to address when thinking about child rights and the well-being of children and young people in urban contexts.
- Case studies of success from different urban contexts to inspire change and action
- Country/city reports about the situation of children in urban areas
- Practical tools to work with children and young people to encourage their participation, better understand their needs and support their contributions in the urban context.
- If you would like to contribute to this series please contact us here.