Vancouver Working Group Discussion Paper

The Youthful City

CONCLUSION

Throughout this paper, we have seen how young people bring creativity, energy, lived experience, and practical, localized knowledge to the creation of healthier cities. Whether in creating a secure, livable, resilient or capable city, children and youth are often in a unique position to address the practical applications of policy-making and planning concerning the preservation of urban environments. They are also well positioned to educate peers on health and wellness related matters and to monitor and improve local access to natural resources and municipal infrastructures.

While local governments have a responsibility to provide adequate and equitable services to all of its citizens living in urban areas, meaningful child and youth participation stands at the cornerstone of creating healthy, secure and sustainable cities. Their input may be a lower priority for programmers and decision-makers, but it can have life-changing impact on the everyday lives of many children and young people in helping better meet their needs and dreams. The research presented in this document indicates that when communities and local governments support the full and active participation of young people in their development, it has a ripple effect that cuts across communities to benefit society as a whole.

The case studies in this report show that child and youth friendly communities reinforce young peoples' opportunities for connection, self-esteem, self-efficacy and engagement. This is in turn reflected in greater partnerships between young people and adults in taking action on diverse issues such as: the design of urban environments, opportunities for play and recreation, evaluating and responding to the impact of pollution and waste management, creating safe spaces and addressing crime, and addressing food security.

As the global percentage of children and young people living in cities continues to rise, governments are compelled to support the engagement of their young citizens. The following recommendations are drawn from the research and practice discussed in this paper.

BRIDGING PRACTICE, RESEARCH AND POLICY. Child and youth participation initiatives are becoming more widespread and increasingly effective in engaging young people and giving them meaningful opportunities to be heard. There have been many initiatives to involve children and youth in local, regional national and international governance, with some key recommendations for governments on how to meaningfully involve youth. Though these are significant accomplishments, their needs to be better and more systematic documentation of key principles supporting replication. This applies especially to assessing programmatic effectiveness in supporting institutional and governmental policy change. There is also an urgent need to expand and enhance local programs that promote meaningful child youth participation, as this is where children and youth have their basic needs met, and where they are initially affirmed as asset and citizens within their communities.

We recommend that a Local Government Plan of Action for Children and Youth be established by each local government, similar to the National Plan of Action called for at the UN Special Summit for Children. This plan of action should be tailored to the specific capacities of local governments, but should have a vision that encompasses all levels of government.
GOING "GLOCAL". We need to think and act both locally and globally. Many participatory actions of young people are bound by locality but have global implications and applications and vice versa. In reviewing promising practices, we need to explore how to replicate local actions in other localities. There are also global initiatives such as the Growing up in Cities project that has both global and local implications and that can promote the child and youth friendly cities agenda more widely.

Groups such as the Environmental Youth Alliance and Santropol Roulant, have youth taking the lead in designing and implementing innovative and effective food security programs in some of the poorest urban communities in Canada. These programs have had impact at the policy level, such as EYA's involvement in the development of the City of Vancouver Food Security Taskforce.

We recommend that local government begin to recognize the expertise that children and youth bring through concrete initiatives they undertake on a daily basis to address the needs of their communities. This recognition should be reflected both through sustainable programs supporting these initiatives, as well as through institutionalizing this expertise within policy and policy frameworks.

Special attention should be given to supporting initiatives in "going to scale" both horizontally (bridging diverse government services responsible for children), and vertically (harmonizing different levels of government policy and practice).

We recommend that local government advocate with and on behalf of children and youth regarding these local initiatives, and facilitate the uptake of these initiatives into policy and policy frameworks at all levels of government.
NEED FOR INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF PARTICIPATION: RHETORIC MATCHING REALITY. Often, child and youth structures are not provided with real power so that children and youth do not become joint partners with government or institutions. Similarly, the engagement of children and youth within adult structures is often carried out a way that marginalizes their voice. Young people need to be made aware of the political realities they face. Child and youth participation initiatives, both as stand alone structures and within government, need to be supported and the process tailored to enhance strengths and mitigate challenges of children and youth. The example given in Chapter of the City of Vancouver, Canada and the City of Malindi, Kenya demonstrate the growing understanding and methods that now are being tested in engaging children and youth.

We recommend that local government meaningfully engage with and support child and youth led organizations in governance through recognizing, supporting and involving them in policy development and delivery.

We recommend that local government create and support structures within government institutions that meaningfully involve children and youth in policy deliberations.

We recommend that the academic community conduct further research on the effective and meaningful involvement of children and youth through child and youth led organizations. Research should also explore aspects of effective and meaningful engagement of children and youth in local government and its institutions.

We recommend that local governments identify and promote the expertise and knowledge of children and youth at the regional, national and international governmental level.
OUTREACH EFFORTS NEED TO BE STRENGTHENED. Child and youth participation initiatives too often engage young people who are the most accessible (typically middle or upper income kids, or children of parents who are civically involved). Innovative outreach strategies are needed to ensure that children and youth who are marginalized have real opportunities for real participation. This also requires an analysis of which youth communities are not being heard, and a concerted effort to create methods that engage these communities.

This is also part of recognizing that there is no single 'youth voice' -- the same types of divisions and differences of opinion that exist between adults are typically replicated among young people. Participation initiatives need to recognize, accommodate and validate a plurality of opinions and perspectives.

We recommend that structures created to engage youth by government and its institutions should strive to engage a diversity of youth, especially those most marginalized.

As youth relate best to other youth, it is recommended that local government support youth led organizations to engage youth from all communities, especially those most marginalized.
CHILD AND YOUTH PARTICIPATION CALLS FOR CAPACITY-BUILDING. Child and youth participation initiatives should avoid replicating dysfunctional forms of adult interaction and decision-making. There is a tendency to view the goal of youth participation as being to involve young people in the vibrant, inclusive democratic decision making processes of the adult world. These processes often don't exist, or fail to live up to their promise. Participatory initiatives with young people provide an opportunity to engage a new generation in new forms of democratic decision making -- strengthening (and sometimes creating) democratic institutions in the process. New skills must be learned both by adults and youth, so as to make any partnership a truly equitable one.

We recommend that local government support increasing the capacity of children and youth in new forms of democratic and participatory decision-making.
VALIDATING DIVERSE FORMS OF PARTICIPATION. In addition to involving young people in formal government processes – from elections to urban planning and policy review – decision-makers need to support the full dimension of young people's interests and abilities. To address the needs of all youth, especially those most marginalized, informal processes of participation, such as local community action, must also be developed and supported. In concert with formal processes of participation, informal modes of access to governance adds value to policy and political deliberations. One successful alternative strategy is to offer children and youth opportunities for experiential engagement within their communities. This process enables them to learn while they participate, rather than involving them in a process that demands academic or professional background.

We recommend that local and other levels of government support both formal and informal methods of child and youth participation in their local communities.

We recommend that the government, NGO, and academic communities collaborate in conducting research on non-formal methods that promote child and youth input into policy development and implementation. Special emphasis should be placed on successful tools such as Participatory Action Research and Community Asset Mapping.
PROMOTING POSITIVE IMAGES OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH. Social marketing and public campaigns at the local level need to focus on the good work being done by children and youth, on their current and existing contributions as well as their potential capacity. As children identify stereotypes about them as the number one barrier to their engagement, the stories in this paper alone should provide an easy first step to collective action on removing the obstacles to the full and active participation of children in cities around the world.
CHILDREN AND YOUTH AS MANAGERS. Children and youth often start and run their own organizations or run organizations in partnership with adults. These agencies are often highly effective and efficient in delivering services to children and youth through a peer-to-peer model.

We recommend that governments allocate resources to supporting child and youth driven organizations, and recognize their abilities in delivering services and affecting positive change in communities.

Future directions in participatory approaches to urban development

As global governments mobilize to integrate the principles and practices of child and youth engagement into policy decision-making processes, they invite unprecedented opportunities to address the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing world. Young people bring new perspectives and innovative solutions to issues of crime prevention, employment, education, the alleviation of poverty and inequality, health and wellness creation, the depletion of natural resources, and the challenges of building sustainable human settlements. Young people begin from a position of localized knowledge and experience, but their energy, commitment, and vision often extends beyond local borders. Young people who are meaningfully engaged in civic and community decision-making often have a collaborative approach toward urban development and an instinctive understanding of the interrelationship between urban communities and the diverse environments in which they thrive.

Child and youth policies at the national and local level need to include young people of informal sectors - those who live on the streets, are most marginalized, or are otherwise not heard in the drive toward sustainable urbanization. These voices represent the future of inclusive participatory policy frameworks, programs and resources. Engaged young people are not only vital to creating sustainable cities, but also a powerful symbol of resilience in urban development. Children and youth embody our ability to rebound from adversity, to adapt to ever-changing urban environments, and to build capacity by ensuring the healthy development of cities.

It is hoped that this paper will nurture partnerships at all levels of government and within local communities to open avenues of collaboration, promote resource exchange, and develop decisive plans of action to creating child and youth friendly cities as a prelude to the World Urban Forum in 2006.

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