Children, while vulnerable, are curious and observant, creative and sensitive to their environment. When we treat them as citizens, we open a world of possibility; hearing their needs, seeing what they see, understanding the city through their daily experience of it, enhancing our ability to design and manage inclusive cities for all.
About Children as Urban Citizens
Late in 2020, a consortium of organisations who work with children in Johannesburg proposed a web discussion to explore synergies and share their practices. Each was experiencing the additional stresses and demands made on children as a consequence of the pandemic. In an environment where many parents were already struggling with spiralling costs and high levels of unemployment, children were naturally exposed to the stresses of the adults around them and working with them, hearing and responding to their needs was more urgent and important than ever before. The need to move services on-line and offer virtual engagement with children brought new challenges.
South Africa is a country that carries widespread untreated inter-generational trauma (Nomfundo) and this intensifies the need for skilled intervention to help break the cycle and offer children an opportunity to live their best lives.
The partners in the Children as Urban Citizens initiative each bring different approaches and tools to make a difference in children’s experience of the city.
WHAT OUR PARTNERS HAVE IN COMMON
Academic and Practical knowledge.
Participation in processes that
empower them to have agency.
Stimulating the natural curiosity
and creativity of children.
Expressing Childrens’ needs.
SPATIAL ANALYSIS & CITY
PLANNING | WITS
PLAY AFRICA
THE TRINITY SESSION
MIMOSA SCHOOL
FIXED
Background
Children are naturally the most vulnerable group in any society and this condition was exacerbated under COVID-19. The Children as Urban Citizens web event cast a spotlight on the impact of the pandemic on children and how different stakeholders are responding to these impacts.
Our Purpose
Web Event | 12 October 2020
The event focused on four children-centred themes
Inequality & the rights of
children in the city
Inequality & the rights of
children in the city
Empowering children as a civic
Empowering children as a civic
Indicators for safety of children in the city
Indicators for safety of children in the city
Advocacy, policy & children
centres public practice
Advocacy, policy & children
centres public practice
Contact Partners
