Insights/Learning
Learnings from participatory programmes with young people
Fondation Botnar is dedicated to supporting initiatives that collaborate with young people to create a better future for them and with them.
S²Cities
Initiative
With S²Cities, young people take the lead in making cities safer and more inclusive through locally driven ideas, innovation and action.
S²Cities, the Safe & Sound Cities Programme, works with young people to make urban environments safer and more inclusive. Led by the Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation, it brings young people together with local governments and other city actors to understand local safety challenges and develop and implement their own solutions. Across six cities in four countries, youth-led initiatives range from revitalising neglected public spaces and addressing environmental challenges to mental health and safer mobility. Throughout the programme, young people take an active role in decisions affecting safety in their cities.
- Partner
- Global Infrastructure Basel (GIB) Foundation (lead), ICLEI, Swiss Philanthropy Foundation
- Working in
- Colombia (Envigado & Cartagena), Ecuador (Cuenca & Ambato), the Philippines (Baguio, Naga), Ghana (Sekondi-Takoradi, Cape Coast) and Switzerland (Basel)
- Approach
- Youth-led innovation, safety data and local capacity-building
- Focus
- Young people's safety and wellbeing in cities
- Launched
- 2021
Challenge
Young people need safe spaces to gather
What makes a city safe is not the same for everyone. Young people may experience public spaces, transport, schools and neighbourhoods differently from other residents, yet their perspectives are not always reflected in urban planning and decision-making. By involving young people directly in identifying safety challenges and developing responses, cities can draw on their knowledge and ideas to create safer and more inclusive urban environments.
S²Cities has engaged over 11,700 young people and catalysed more than 41 youth-led initiatives focused on urban safety and wellbeing.
Approach
Turning local insights into action on urban safety
S²Cities brings young people and city stakeholders together to better understand local safety challenges through data, monitoring and direct engagement. Young people receive training and mentoring, and work with cities through co-creative processes to turn their ideas into action. In Bandung, for example, a youth-led initiative revitalised a neglected public space through community engagement and has since gained recognition as an NGO. Across the programme, these experiences help strengthen youth participation in inclusive urban planning and contribute to system change around urban safety.
