You are invited to attend this international seminar about ‘Urban Planning and Children’
Adrian Voce OBE
President, European Network for Child Friendly Cities
Welcome to the first of Child in the City’s new series of international seminars. This is the first of a rolling programme of focused international events, each bringing together experts and policymakers from different relevant fields around a specific theme of the child-friendly city agenda. The seminar is being held in City Hall Rotterdam (the Netherlands) on 19-20 June 2017. The focus for this first in series of two-day events will be:
- Urban Planning and Children
The Urban Planning and Children international seminar will bring together children’s professionals, city planners, architects, landscape architects, transport and traffic professionals, geographers and policymakers, along with researchers, academics and advocates, to explore how the planning system engages with and responds to children and young people; how it impacts on them; how it can better include them; and how it might better respond to their rights as stakeholders in the public realm.
Main theme
Child in the City is giving insight on the latest research and experiences worldwide
Johan Haarhuis
Child in the City Foundation
Chairman
The main theme of this international seminar is: Urban Planning and Children. In his keynote address to the Child in the City conference in Ghent, 2016, the sociologist and urbanist, Sven de Visscher suggested five ambitions for the child friendly city: to recognise all children as fellow urban citizens; to offer equal chances to every child in the city; to involve children as co-researchers of city and urban life; to connect children’s life-worlds and the rest of the city; and to understand the child friendly city as the result of an on-going, shared and open learning process between different urban stakeholders.
This seminar will explore the evidence behind these ambitions and consider the policy and practice initiatives that can best progress them in the planning processes that shape children’s built environments.
Within the overall theme the seminar will look at how planning can:
- create a more playable public realm for children;
- support their independent mobility;
- restore confidence in parents that their children are safe in the outside world;
- build cohesive intergenerational community spaces; and
- engender, in children, a sense of citizenship and belonging to the places where they live, play and go to school.
Speakers
We have put an interesting programme together for you!
Adrian Voce OBE
President, European Network for Child Friendly Cities
On the second day of the programme there will be two field trips to visit and gain practical insights from relevant projects in Rotterdam from 10.00 a.m. until 12.30 p.m. Afterwards a lunch will be provided followed by wrap up and discussion on the parallel sessions. The programme will be closed by the president of the ENCFC around 15.30 p.m.
The City of Rotterdam
This seminar is being held in the City Hall of Rotterdam. That is only 15 minutes from Rotterdam The Hague Airport
Kim de Vos
Project Manager
Rotterdam is working full out on an attractive city with a strong economy. In doing so, they are also concentrating on attracting more affluent families to Rotterdam. That calls for the creation of sufficient suitable homes for these families, inviting areas on the street and first class schools. Therefore, they support, as much as possible, initiatives that contribute to this. They are doing this, of course, in collaboration with residents, investors, entrepreneurs, housing corporations, and other partners in the city.
About Rotterdam
Rotterdam is a young, attractive and dynamic global city, continuously renewing itself at a rapid rate. Sparkling skyscrapers, an impressive port, trendy restaurants and food markets, renowned museums and awesome festivals are the direct result of the can-do mentality of the Rotterdammers. Rotterdam has its share of surprising neighbourhoods and districts, each with its own distinct, strong identity. It is a city with such a variety of living environments that, regardless of lifestyle, age or cultural background, everyone can find a home there. Read more…
About us
The main objective of the Child in the City Foundation is to strengthen the position of children in cities.
Adrian Voce OBE
President, European Network for Child Friendly Cities
The main objectives of the Child in the City Foundation and the European Network Child Friendly Cities (ENCFC) is to strengthen the position of children in cities, promote and protect their rights and give them space and opportunities to play and enjoy their own social and cultural lives. We do this by providing communications platforms, conferences and seminars for academics, practitioners and children’s advocates and policymakers to disseminate research, share experiences and debate the issues around child-friendly policies and practices within municipal authorities; aiming always to support and strengthen the position of children and young people in society. research and good practice. One of the most important of these is the biennial world conference where scientists, urban planners and local authorities are brought together to share the latest knowledge.
About the Child in the City international seminar
The Child in the City international seminar series aims to create opportunities for interested academics, practitioners, officials and policymakers, from around Europe and beyond, to share the latest research, innovation and good practice from the various cross-cutting disciplines and policy domains that most affect the lives of children in towns and cities. Each seminar will take a particular theme as its focus, seeking to progress the advancement of more child-friendly environments, communities and services in the public realm.
The seminar series are part of the biennial world conference which is held every two year in another European city. Have a look at the picture gallery of the latest International Child in the City Conference in Ghent (Belgium) that took place in 2016:
