Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator Participants
GDCI welcomes the first cohort of the Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator cities
In May 2022, the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) launched the Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator, welcoming teams from 20 cities across the globe to promote change for children and youth in their cities. We’re very proud to introduce the 60 participants who have joined us for the past four months. Together they range from designers, planners, and engineers to public officials and community organizers working in education, public health, road safety and early childhood development.
Their rich experience across fields and geographies has given us a closer look at bike-to-school programs in Bogota, Colombia; safe routes to school in Lima, Peru; open play streets in Abuja, Nigeria; inclusive street design in Solo, Indonesia; and so many more inspiring programs throughout the world!
Learn more about the teams that are changing streets for kids of all ages and abilities, encouraging them to learn, play, and move about a city!
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Scaling up Streets for Kids in Brazil, Mexico and Zambia
Designing streets for kids goes beyond one-off street transformations and temporary events. It requires scaling up and making street improvements part of citywide programs and policies. In 2024, four cities, Canoas, Brazil; León, Mexico; Lusaka, Zambia; and Recife, Brazil, participated in the latest Streets for Kids program round, which included tailored technical assistance to implement projects and scale up the vision for kids-first projects, programs, and policies.
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.
