The Streets for Kids program aims to help improve the lives of kids in cities. To do so, we inspire leaders, inform practitioners, and empower communities to understand cities through the lens of children and their caregivers and to take action on their streets to ensure a cleaner, healthier, and safer future.
Since the program’s launch in 2018, GDCI’s Streets for Kids Program has partnered with over thirty cities to support this objective, starting with the publication of the award-winning child-focused design guide Designing Streets for Kids. Since the launch of Designing Streets for Kids, the GDCI team has had the opportunity to partner more closely with cities around the world to bring these strategies and concepts to life. Our support to cities has come in various formats ranging from online training and interactive capacity building sessions to in-depth technical support to aid delivery of Streets for Kids-focused projects on the ground.
We want to see your Streets for Kids in action! Post about your work on Twitter or Instagram and tag @global.streets or use the hashtag #StreetsForKids.
GDCI applied child-focused strategies in 12 cities through streetscape transformations, workshops, and trainings. Four cities—Fortaleza, Brazil; Kigali, Rwanda; Santiago, Chile; and Tirana, Albania—were selected for in-depth technical assistance and training. Eight additional cities were awarded workshops, where we facilitated in-depth virtual training to advance child-focused street design. The selected cities were Cape Town, South Africa; Colima, Mexico; Kazan, Russia; Lima, Peru; Pasig City (Metro Manila), Philippines; Tbilisi, Georgia; Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; and Udaipur, India
The GDCI team delivered the first Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator, which built upon the successes of the program to date. The Leadership Accelerator brought together 60 changemakers from 20 cities worldwide to participate in an eight-month virtual professional leadership program. The program also included the start of several self-paced online training courses open to industry practitioners.
To carry forward the momentum generated through the Leadership Accelerator, 2023 focused on select implementation grants to help carry forward the vision of up to 10 Leadership Accelerator participant cities.
Learn more about the various projects and their impact.
GDCI marks this World Children's Day with the release of two new booklets, “How to Engage Kids in Street Design” and “How to Evaluate Street Transformations Near Schools.”
In 2023, ten cities across four continents started designing their streets for kids. Collectively, the cohort reclaimed over 40,000 SqM of public space that prioritizes children and caregivers, engaged over 4,000 children in the process, and trained 140 practitioners.
Learn how street transformations designed for children can be scaled up and made permanent.
Streets for Kids is made possible by our funders.
