Growing Up in Cities

A program to involve children, young people and governments in evaluating and improving local environments

 

 

What is Growing Up in Cities?

Growing Up in Cities is an international effort to develop a better understanding of children's and young people´s own perspectives on the places where they live, their concerns related to the urban environment and their proposals for change. It uses participatory action-research methods to involve young people in (1) evaluating and discussing their community environment and (2) developing strategies and proposals for its improvement. Through this process, young people become active participants in making their cities and towns better places in which to live.

Growing Up in Cities is based in eight countries: Argentina, Australia, India, Norway, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each national site serves as a center for disseminating information and training about the project model. The site teams include a number of the world's leading child-environment researchers and experts in urban planning and design with children and youth.

The participatory principles of the 1990s require that children and youth not only express their ideas but also become engaged in articulating and implementing recommendations. Growing Up in Cities gives special attention to urban policy development through young people's own presentation of issues for public debate.

Participation means education for action. Growing Up in Cities provides opportunities for young people to learn life skills and gain self-confidence through engagement with the public places of their neighborhood and city. These are the same places where they will need to demonstrate social and environmental responsibility and the capacity for democratic action when they become adults.

What issues does the program address?

The aim of the program is to increase understanding of how different urban environments encourage or inhibit healthy human development, by exploring questions such as:

  • How do young people use and perceive their neighborhood environment, and how does it shape their lives and sense of identity?


  • How can children and young people be involved in enhancing their local environment and addressing its problems?


  • What environmental and social supports do low-income, working class urban communities offer to children and young people?


  • What factors prepare young people to invest hope and energy in their communities and cities by committing themselves to their improvement?


  • How are rapidly changing global economic and social forces affecting the environments of urban childhood?


  • How can negative consequences of these changes be addressed through city governance?


  • How can effective partnerships be built among government officials, urban planners and designers, child advocates, researchers, community leaders and children and their families in order to promote environments for well-being?

    How can I learn more?

    The Growing Up in Cities model is being disseminated through a variety of means.

  • Beginning in November 1997, training workshops on methods and strategies are being organized by the Averroès European Training Centre in Amsterdam, and further workshop series are being planned in different regions of the world 1998-2000.


  • A manual on Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth, which presents program-based methods and approaches, is scheduled for 1998 publication.


  • Individual sites are producing program reports in various media, including video and exhibits.


  • A book summarizing initial program results, a youth-oriented book, and a documentary film are in preparation.


  • Updated program information is available on the web at http://www.unesco.org/most/growing.htm


  • An electronic discussion room on children's participation in community improvement efforts is available at http://childhouse.uio.no

    How can I become involved?

    Growing Up in Cities is being undertaken by an international network of individuals and organizations. For more information on the program, or to discuss how you might get involved in the program's ongoing efforts, please contact the site leader nearest you:


     

    Who provides program support?

    Growing Up in Cities revives the vision and methods of a UNESCO project with the same name that was directed by the influential urban planner, Kevin Lynch, in the 1970s. The current project was initiated by the Norwegian Centre for Child Research in 1994.

    General coordination is by Louise Chawla, sponsored by the MOST Programme of UNESCO (Management of Social Transformations and the Environment), with additional support from Childwatch International. Individual program sites receive support from a variety of national and international organizations and foundations.

    Growing Up in Cities draws upon the experience and advice of an Advisory Board of international experts from the fields of child research and advocacy, urban planning and development, and participatory planning and design.

    December 1997

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