Child in the City international seminar Child Poverty in Western Cities

Play and leisure are vital childhood activities, that are essential for the integral development of the child, as it is pointed in the 31st article of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).  Both -play and leisure- are as fundamental as any other right in the UNCRC. Assuming that and as…

Child poverty has devastating impacts for children, families, communities, and society as a whole. We hear a great deal about poverty in the media and from politicians – usually with emphasis on what families in poverty are getting wrong, and how policy can be used to effect changes in their behaviours, motivations, and ambitions. We hear much less…

Two cities – one ambition This session will describe the journey of two municipalities who have both been on a journey of becoming child-friendly. Leeds, a large city in the north of the UK and Hoogeveen, a smaller town in the Netherlands have both committed to become child-friendly. For the past four years, we have…

This session will describe the journey of two municipalities who have both been on a journey of becoming child-friendly. Leeds, a large city in the north of the UK and Hoogeveen, a smaller town in the Netherlands have both committed to become child-friendly. For the past four years, we have been working closely together to…

Two cities – one ambition This session will describe the journey of two municipalities who have both been on a journey of becoming child-friendly. Leeds, a large city in the north of the UK and Hoogeveen, a smaller town in the Netherlands have both committed to become child-friendly. For the past four years, we have…

This session will describe the journey of two municipalities who have both been on a journey of becoming child-friendly. Leeds, a large city in the north of the UK and Hoogeveen, a smaller town in the Netherlands have both committed to become child-friendly. For the past four years, we have been working closely together to…

This presentation will explore the need for a new story about the relationship between poverty, child abuse and neglect.  Using the findings from a large scale study in the UK, it will highlight the problems with the current story which locates the harms children experience within an individualised frame that focuses on the actions and…

Riccardo Dalisi, the Italian architect and designer, invested his time in the early 70s in street workshops in the segregated neighbourhood of Traiano in Naples. For 4 years, he provided poor children out of the education system with representation tools to transform public spaces. The young Neapolitans expressed and emancipated themselves artistically with mock-ups, constructions…

The Austrian education system is characterized by early selection and strong stratification. This has codified a social selection of children in public schooling, which becomes particularly effectual in urban places. The governance structures of schooling and city planning are typically hindering rather than stimulating cooperation between educational institutions. With the “Bildungsgrätzl” concept, the city of…

Cherie Morgan  is head of Strategy and Development at Play Scotland, the national organisation for play in Scotland.  Her role is to work with local authorities and partners to develop strategy and policy that will improve children’s opportunities for play in their local community. Cherie is the Project Manager coordinating the development of the two…

The meta-narratives of poverty often invisibilize child poverty. Children are commonly viewed as sub-sets of families, rather than individuals in their own rights. Child poverty becomes acute in contexts where children are vulnerable to violence and abuse. This paper is based on the primary data collected by the author during her Masters thesis on the…

Underserved urban communities experience lower levels of health, educational opportunities, climate resiliency, and civic empowerment as a result of poverty, social disinvestment, and the inequitable distribution of resources. The Trust for Public Land is a US nonprofit with a mission to connect people to nature. Our vision is for every child in underserved urban communities…

How do children in early childhood experience walking and staying for any time on the streets of their city? An impoverished environment does not come from low-income alone but from a passivity, hardness or even forbidding quality. How can it invite and engage? Children and adults walking and staying out to spend time contribute to…

Cultureghem is a social profit organisation that initiated the KETMET project. It transforms a privately owned, cultural heritage site, Abattoir in Brussels, on a weekly basis into a playground for all. Abattoir organises the biggest markets of Brussels, selling the cheapest food, in the Cureghem neighborhood, also known as an arrival city for newcomers. Every…

Local Child Poverty Action Reports in Scotland – learning from the first year. The Child Poverty (Scotland) 2017 Act  requires local authorities and NHS Boards to jointly produce a local child poverty action report (LCPAR) annually. The first round of reports were published in Summer 2019. A group of national partner organisations is working together…

Poverty in Madrid: An Analysis From Children, Youth and Families Perspective. Innovative Ideas to Solve It in the City. This presentation aims to provide a detailed overview of the current situation of poverty for children, youth and their families in Madrid.  First of all, it will be examined from a governmental/ institutional approach, and how…

Dortmund’s Social City Action Plan Dortmund is a major city with over 600.000 inhabitants. As it has been shaped by structural change, child poverty is one of its central social challenges. Dortmund is a spatially socially divided city. Almost every third child under the age of 15 is dependent on state support. In some districts…

Despite 30 years of sustained economic growth increasing numbers of citizens in the highly privatised home ownership society of Australia live in poverty. This paper seeks to illuminate and account for the increasing proportion of these who are children by relating this phenomenon to wider processes of urbanism and welfare state transition. The paper draws…

 As an organisation, we provide the resources that allow children and young people in poverty to have the same access as their peers, working with several hundred referral organisations across cities in the UK (including local authority social workers, charity support workers, NHS staff and school staff). We recently conducted a study of over 1200…

The City of Lille is part of the European project Restore, which works on restorative practices. Its objective is to make school a safe place for learning, where all the people involved are encouraged to progress and to live well (“bien vivre” also means well-being) together, and to feel they belong to a community no…

In Brno, there is about 12 to 15 thousand of inhabitants who are in the situation of social exclusion (which is 2 thousand endangered families). In 2015, 250 children were taken from parental care and there were 52 families in material need. Insufficient intensity of direct work with dysfunctional and incomplete families and considerable fragmentation…

Play Scotland in Partnership with A Place in Childhood are developing two Place Standard Tools, one for Children and one for Young People. By improving the quality of places and identifying the opportunities we have access to can help tackle spatial and social inequalities. The new Tools will be developed by November and we will…

Dortmund’s Social City Action Plan Dortmund is a major city with over 600.000 inhabitants. As it has been shaped by structural change, child poverty is one of its central social challenges. Dortmund is a spatially socially divided city. Almost every third child under the age of 15 is dependent on state support. In some districts…

Addressing child poverty in local communities in Leeds. Session outline: In Leeds, there is a desire to change the way that individuals and organisations work together to improve the lives of children who live in poverty. A large part of this was changing the ways that organisations both work together, and work with children and…

Local Child Poverty Action Reports in Scotland – learning from the first year. The Child Poverty (Scotland) 2017 Act  requires local authorities and NHS Boards to jointly produce a local child poverty action report (LCPAR) annually. The first round of reports were published in Summer 2019. A group of national partner organisations is working together…