Description of the Program

CFCA will develop a tool or resource that will assist in the design and development of Child-Friendly Communities. The project is unique because it aims:

a) to ensure that natural and social places essential to children’s health will be included in new development and restored in existing neighborhoods and cities; and
b) to remove the systemic barriers to children’s mobility caused by the automobile, modern planning principles and fear of strangers so that children can independently access nature and community life on a daily basis.

This will be achieved by creating and implementing a voluntary Child-Friendly Standards and Certification Program for neighborhoods. Since developers make most of the design decisions for neighborhoods, the most effective way to achieve this is to create the program with the participation of developers. Since municipal planners and officials authorize and implement improvements, the program will be created with their participation. The investment of developers and municipal planners in the process will help to ensure that these standards are implemented.

A Child-Friendly Community has the complexity and diversity of a town, in which children have easy access to nature and to a supportive social and built environment on a daily basis within a walkable radius.

The Certification program will assign points for each aspect of the physical environment that makes a neighborhood Child-Friendly. By adding these points a neighborhood can be rated on a Child-Friendly scale.

The following 4 elements will inform Principles, Standards and the Point System:

1. There are places where children can INTERACT WITH NATURE in a variety of ways:

• To develop sensory faculties and cognitive capacity by observing, naming and studying nature’s diversity (e.g. nature classroom)
• To develop a sense of aesthetics by contemplating the beauty of nature (e.g. parks, gardens)
• To engage in active play, improving physical health and reducing obesity (e.g. climbing trees, running and jumping)
• To learn stewardship and nurturing behavior (e.g. gardens, ecological projects)
• To increase attention span and cooperative interaction through play (natural playgrounds)
• To develop imagination, courage, and self-regulation through exploration and adventure (e.g. wild areas, places to build forts)
• To increase emotional well-being and experience wonder, awe (e.g. a starlit sky)

2. There are places where children can INTERACT WITH THE COMMUNITY in a variety of ways and learn essential social and conceptual skills:

• To develop a sense of belonging in a community by being greeted by familiar adults, watched over by “eyes on the street” (e.g. human scale streets with homes over shops)
• To develop vocabulary, social and conceptual skills by interacting with diverse people in the community (e.g. community squares used by diverse social and ethnic groups)
• To develop an understanding of, and skills in participating in diverse role relationships, (e.g. community places in mixed use areas with shops, services, professional offices, workshops, studios, etc)
• To learn values, caring, responsible behavior towards the vulnerable, elderly, handicapped, etc. by observing this behavior in public places
• To increase children’s self-worth by learning they are valued by the community and appreciated for their contribution to community life (e.g. community events in public, processions)
• To increase emotional well-being, sociability, and joy (e.g. community festivals)
• To support physical health through membership in supportive social networks

3. Children have FREE RANGE in their neighborhood and city, as appropriate to their age.

This allows them to develop independence and self-assurance, and get normal, everyday exercise walking and biking.

• Streets and places are physically safe and are perceived to be safe, permitting children independent free range within their neighborhood on a daily basis.
• Streets are peopled by familiar adults. Parents only feel the neighborhood is safe if they live in a community where people know each other and look out for each other. (e.g. a compact, walkable, urban fabric)
• Young children can roam freely on traffic-free routes through the neighborhood (e.g. continuous pedestrian networks, living courts)
• Children are safe on streets with traffic because traffic is calmed (e.g. wide sidewalks, necked junctions, medians)
• Children can bike safely in their neighborhood (e.g. dedicated bike networks)

4. THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT stimulates children’s cognitive and values development, health and well-being in a variety of ways:

• The neighborhood is visualizable so that children can find their way around and develop spatial skills. It is organized around community places (e.g. square, plaza) and orientation points, and has natural boundaries (e.g. a lake, a mountain view)
• The neighborhood stimulates children’s cognitive development and understanding of the world by having the complexity of a town or “urban village”. It contains a fine textured mix of uses and a connected urban fabric at its heart.
• Blocks are small, making it easier for a child to get around, increasing the number of shops & businesses and the number of people on the sidewalks, building a supportive community
• Children develop a sense that the world is meaningful and good, by living in a built environment that is beautiful, human scale, with harmony in diversity
• Children’s cognitive development, curiosity and imagination are stimulated by buildings that are varied, with detail and complexity
• The effects of nature on children’s attention span, imagination, cooperative behavior etc are echoed by buildings that evoke natural experiences (e.g. natural materials, nature-based designs)