Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth

As support for young people' participation in community development grows - and it has significantly in recent years - questions like "Is young people's participation really worthwile?" are heard less and less, and questions like "What methods are proven to be effective?" are heard more and more.
Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth is a direct and detailed response to the latter type of question.
The book is a practical manual on how to conceptualize, structure and facilitate the participation of young people in the community development process.
It was developed through the "Growing Up in Cities" project, an eight-country UNESCO project (MOST Programme) in Australia, Argentina, India, Norway, Poland, South Africa, United Kingdom and USA), later enlarged to include Lebanon, Papua New Guinea and Sweden. It provides concrete examples of methods that can be used to engage young people in looking at and evaluating their local environment, analyzing and prioritizing key issues and developing and implementing a plan of action.
Examples from project sites help to illustrate the methods and demonstrate how they can be customized to local needs.
The manual is intended for use by urban planners, municipal officials, community development staff, non-governmental organizations, educators, youth-serving agencies, youth advocates, and others who are involved in the community development process.

CONTENTS

Foreword
About the Growing Up in Cities Project

First Steps
Starting Points
What Makes a City a Good Place for Young People?
Is My City a Good Place for Young People?
Self-Evaluation of Your City as a Place for Young People

Young People's Participation
What is Participation?
The Benefits of Young People's Participation
The Emerging Global Policy Framework: A Call for Participation and Action
Changing Attitudes about Young People's Participation
Making Young People's Participation Real

Organizing a Project
Project Checklist
Project Coordinating Team
Goals, Opportunities and Constraints
Site Selection
Child and Youth Participants
Extending the Participatory Process to Children with Special Needs
Stakeholder Assessment
Logistics: Staffing, Scheduling and Funding

Designing the Process
The Participatory Planning Process
Designing a Process
Developing a Process Flow-Chart
Choosing and Customising Participation Methods
Developing a Project Start-up Plan

Getting Under Way
Organizing and Training Project Staff
Working with Young People
Ethical Issues
Keeping Things Organized

Participation Toolkit
Informal Observations and 'Hanging Out'
Interviews
Drawings
Daily Activity Schedules
Family and Support Networks
Role Play, Drama and Puppetry
Guided Tours
Photographs by Young People
Behaviour Mapping
Questionnaires and Surveys
Focus Groups and Small-Group Discussions
Workshops and Community Events

Making Change Happen
Analysing the Results
Planning for Change
Taking Action
Monitoring and Reflection
Moving Forward