Welcome from the President of European Network for Child Friendly Cities
It is my privilege and pleasure to announce that Child in the City is expanding. For 16 years, the biennial conference held by the European Network for Child Friendly Cities and the Child in the City Foundation, together with our partners in eight successive host European cities, has been setting the agenda for the hugely important global project of making appropriate and adequate space for all children – physically, socially and culturally – in our urban environments.
The movement for child-friendly cities is to hold local governance to account for its responsibilities to ensure that children’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled, according to international obligations, by the policies and practices that shape and manage our towns and cities. We promote this aim by sharing and disseminating research and practice to inform the municipal policies that impact on children. The growing interest in this movement has led to a demand for more opportunities to come together to share knowledge and experience, and to create some more focussed ways of doing so.
We are therefore announcing our new series of international seminars: a rolling programme of smaller conferences, in different locations, on specific themes of the child-friendly city agenda. The first of this new series of events will be Rotterdam, the Netherlands in June 2017, when we will look at the role of urban planning in promoting – or denying – children’s rights. A distinguished speaker programme of academics and professional practitioners from the fields of urban planning and design, children’s geographies and children’s participation, will talk about some of the latest research and consider some pertinent case studies of how the planning process can respond to children’s needs and aspirations.
How children experience their urban environment begins with planning. We hope you will join us in Rotterdam to explore how this important part of civic life can better respond to and engage with children in shaping the neighbourhoods, towns and cities where they live.
Adrian Voce OBE
President, European Network for Child Friendly Cities
The Child in the City Foundation & ENCFC
Child in the City is giving insight on the latest research and experiences worldwide
Johan Haarhuis
Child in the City Foundation
Chairman
Child in the City is a joint project of the European Network Child Friendly Cities (ENCFC) and the Child in the City Foundation. The main objectives of both the Child in the City Foundation and the 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 for academics, practitioners and campaigners for children’s rights to disseminate research and good practice. One of the most important of these is the biennial international conference where scientists, urban planners and local authorities are brought together to share the latest knowledge.
European Network Child Friendly Cities (ENCFC)
The European network observes 5 general guidelines and encourages national and local networks to translate these into specific local policies addressing local points of focus. The general guidelines are: an holistic, integral and intergenerational approach; the importance of participation for children and young people; and dynamic trade and continuous challenge.