News April 7, 2025

Scaling Impact: Ten Cities Join the 2025 Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator

On April 7, 2025, GDCI announced the ten cities to join the second round of the Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator. We’re excited to bring together Bello, Bogotá, and Cali from Colombia, Cuenca, Daule, and Guayaquil from Ecuador, and Fortaleza, Mogi das Cruzes, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador from Brazil.  Earlier this year, GDCI announced a new round of the Leadership Accelerator for city teams in Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. This cycle focuses on scaling up existing initiatives, building capacity and technical knowledge, expanding local partnerships, and developing projects, processes, policies, and programs to achieve an even greater impact on the lives of kids in their cities. These teams are already making big strides in promoting the safety, health, and well-being of children and their caregivers on their streets, and we’re excited to support them in developing their bold visions for the future.

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    Learn more about the ten cities to scale up their Streets for Kids in 2025:

      • Since 2020, children in Bello, Colombia have become mobility champions, through tactical street redesigns and focused educational programs. Through the accelerator, Bello is developing its “Safe Corridors” strategy to increase road safety, participation, social inclusion, and sustainable urban development.
        Since 2020, children in Bello have become mobility champions, through tactical street redesigns and focused educational programs. Through the accelerator, Bello is developing its “Safe Corridors” strategy to increase road safety, participation, social inclusion, and sustainable urban development.
      • After establishing multiple initiatives to promote children’s safe journeys to schools, such as ‘Al Colegio en Bici’ and ‘Ciempiés’, in 2024, Bogotá launched the ‘Entornos Escolares Inspiradores’ strategy to transform 92 educational environments. Through the accelerator, Bogotá aims to implement a strategy integrating sustainable mobility into school environments. Photo: District Secretariat of Mobility, Bogotá Municipality
      • In recent years, Cali has carried out several street transformations to improve road safety. One recent traffic-calming intervention near a school has benefited over 5,000 students and 2,000 community members. Through the accelerator, Cali aims to develop two new programs to create safer crossings around schools and evaluate street conditions for children’s mobility. Photo: Arturo Jaramillo/GDCI
      • Since piloting a kids-first street transformation in 2022, Cuenca has replicated the approach in eight more school areas, prioritizing clean air, green spaces, and safe, welcoming environments for children. Through the accelerator, Cuenca aims to extend its strategy to more urban contexts and enhance its behavioral and monitoring components. Photo: Sebastián Galarza/GDCI
      • In addition to its signage and education programs to promote safer school environments, Daule partnered with the Movidana Foundation in 2024 to transform the area around a school, benefiting over 700 students. Through the accelerator, Daule aims to enhance its pilot street transformation and replicate it in more school environments. Photo: Movidana Foundation
      • Fortaleza’s ‘Caminhos da Escola’ program aims to transform 50 school environments into attractive, safer, and more accessible paths by 2030. To date, 48% have already been transformed into child-first areas. Through the accelerator, Fortaleza aims to integrate legislation, participation, technical knowledge, and urban interventions to make the school-home route safer and more accessible. Photo: Beatriz Boblitz / Prefeitura de Fortaleza
      • Guayaquil implemented 47 road safety interventions around schools in the last two years to reduce traffic speeds to 20 km/h. Through the accelerator, Guayaquil aims to develop a city-wide policy to enhance and prioritize street transformations around schools.
      • With support from the Urban95 network, Mogi das Cruzes launched the ‘Sementes do Brincar’ project, which focused on listening to kids and creating more opportunities for play and nature on streets. Through the accelerator, Mogi das Cruzes aims to pilot a Priority Zone for Early Childhood. Photo: Lethicia Galo / Luísa Abib / Urban95
      • Since 2022, Rio’s ‘On the Way to School 2.0’ program has improved safety in 58 school zones, benefiting more than 25,000 students and engaging over 2,400 students in street design. Through the accelerator, Rio aims to further strengthen and expand the program’s community engagement efforts.
      • Salvador has committed to implementing the UN's global initiative, ‘Streets for Life,’ and joined the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety. In 2024, it implemented a street transformation to promote active mobility and accessibility around schools. Through the accelerator, Salvador aims to expand its ‘Caminho Legal’ program and connect a Priority Zone for Early Childhood to its BRT system.
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      The Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator is an online capacity-building program that brings together a selected cohort of city teams to learn from global experts, get inspired by international case studies and best practices, and develop their proposals to lead and implement better streets for kids in their cities. The accelerator builds upon the Streets for Kids program experience of supporting over 40 cities worldwide through technical assistance and capacity building. It follows the international, award-winning Designing Streets for Kids design guidance as well as the recently launched “How to Engage Kids in Street Design” and “How to Evaluate Street Transformations near Schools” booklets.

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